The Science Centre of Ventspils is named VIZIUM
25.01.2021 - 09:38
On Thursday, 21 January 2021, the Ventspils City Council decided to name the Science and Innovation Centre of Ventspils, located in Rūpniecības iela 2, Ventspils, the Science Centre “VIZIUM”.
The recently determined name of the future Science and Innovation Centre of Ventspils is a result of active work, which commenced in 2017. It involved several surveys among the local residents, analysis of the names of science and innovation centres for children across the Europe and worldwide, involvement of local and international specialists with different qualifications, as well as organisation of a brainstorming contest among schools.
Having gathered the information and submitted several possible names for the Science and Innovation Centre of Ventspils to the City Development Committee of Ventspils City Council in April, June and August 2020, the Ventspils Digital Centre submitted also the possible name VIZIUM, where "V" stands for Ventspils, "I" - for innovation, "ZI" - for science and "um" - for centre (centrum). The name per se represents vision, mission, value, communication, determination, efficiency and identity. This idea was submitted to the Ventspils Digital Centre by the local resident Aleksandrs Bobrovs.
This name gained also the recognition of the local residents of Ventspils. A survey among the local residents was conducted on the website www.ventspils.lv and the Facebook page of Ventspils (Facebook.com/ventspilslv), and the local residents were invited to give their opinion, calling the Public Information Centre and answering the question "Could the name VIZIUM be an appropriate name for the Science Centre of Ventspils?", where 60.6% of respondents answered "Yes", but 39.4% - "No". Furthermore, a survey among the schools of Ventspils showed that 77% of the students consider the name VIZIUM an appropriate name for the future Science Centre.
With the establishment of the Science and Innovation Centre of Ventspils, it is intended to develop new infrastructure that will promote the preservation, protection and sustainability of the natural heritage, thus contributing to the development of education in the field of natural sciences, engineering and technology, as well as entrepreneurship in the field of technology. The Science Centre will have 88 thematic expositions and classrooms, which will allow for the implementation of modern interactive teaching methods and organisation of different events ensuring exciting acquisition and development of education in different fields of natural sciences. The Innovation Centre, in turn, is expected to provide premises for business development purposes, giving preference to technology companies with regards to the office space rental, as well as other types of business support events.
The Ventspils City Council has attracted several sources of funding for the development of the infrastructure and provision of equipment and services of the Science and Innovation Centre of Ventspils:
- Implementation of the project "The New Building of the Science Centre in Rūpniecības iela 2, Ventspils" within the framework of the ERDF Operational Programme setting out the specific support objective 5.5.1 "Investments in the Development of Cultural and Natural Heritage in Municipalities with Development Centres of National Significance" for the development of the infrastructure of the Science Centre.
- Implementation of the project "Construction of the Innovation Centre and Public Infrastructure in Rūpniecības iela 2, Ventspils" within the framework of the Operational Programme setting out the specific support objective 5.6.2. "Revitalisation of territories through regeneration of degraded territories according to municipal integrated development programmes" for the development of the infrastructure of the Innovation Centre.
- Implementation of the Norwegian Financial Mechanism project "Establishment of the Innovation Centre in Ventspils" and the project "Next Generation Micro Cities of Europe" initiated by the European Commission for the creation of expositions and development of appropriate learning pathways.
The total cost of the Science and Innovation Centre of Ventspils is EUR 26.4 million, including the attracted EU funding and other foreign funding of EUR 17.8 million, funding from the State budget of EUR 0.8 million and the funding of Ventspils Municipality of EUR 7.7 million.The construction of the Science and Innovation Centre of Ventspils commenced on 11 October 2019. However, the centre is expected to be open in spring 2022.
