TENAX PANEL: innovation voucher helped prepare for market developments

TENAX PANEL is a TENAX group company manufacturing mineral wool and polyisocyanurate (PIR) sandwich panels for industrial construction. Most of its production is exported, and the company’s main markets are Lithuania, Estonia, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Iceland. The company has grown steadily in recent years, reaching a turnover of EUR 33.5 million in 2025, of which 25.3 million came from exports. Alongside expanding production, the company is also consistently investing in product development and material improvement. 

It was precisely this need to prepare in advance for market and technological changes that formed the basis for the innovation voucher project, which the company implemented last year in collaboration with the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (LIAA). During the project, solutions were tested to refine the formulation of the core filling for polyisocyanurate (PIR) sandwich panels, seeking alternatives to chemicals that will be restricted in the future. 

The company views its collaboration with LIAA positively, particularly highlighting clear communication after the application was submitted and an understandable project administration process. “Once the application was submitted, everything proceeded very smoothly and straightforward—it was clear what documents were needed and how the process would move forward,” says Miķelis Kirpļuks, Ph.D., senior researcher at TENAX PANEL. 

At the same time, the company also points out practical challenges during the project preparation phase. One of them is the procurement procedure, which requires the submission of three comparable bids, even though in the case of such specialised research, there are often only one or two institutions in Latvia with the necessary expertise in the specific field. In search of alternatives, the company also requested proposals from foreign research institutions. “One of the proposals we received was from a foreign university, as the selection in this field is very limited in Latvia. However, this raised the question of whether such an institution even meets the programme’s requirements. As a result, in practice, there is a requirement for three applicants, but there may not even be that many in Latvia, and we cannot accept offers from abroad,” says Mr Kirpļuks. 

Nevertheless, the company’s overall experience shows that the innovation voucher is an effective tool for addressing specific technological challenges. “The most important thing for companies is to understand very clearly from the outset exactly what they want to achieve with the innovation voucher. You shouldn’t be too ambitious—you need to assess what can realistically be done and researched with the available funding,” emphasises Mr Kirpļuks. “Sometimes there is a perception that EUR 30 000 can accomplish work that would require a much larger budget. It is very important here to understand the scope of the work and the expected results,” he says. 

In TENAX PANEL’s opinion, innovation vouchers are a good mechanism for collaboration between companies and research institutions, as they allow for relatively quick testing of specific ideas and preparation for the next steps in development. 

Information material prepared with the support of the European Regional Development Fund