The Swedish InnoHEIs team had two stakeholder meetings in the region Middle Norrland, in the city of Sundsvall on the 12th of February and in Östersund on the 13th of February. 

During the meeting in Sundsvall the regional representative Malin Vedin informed about the smart specialization strategy that is under development for the region of VästerNorrland, which is one of the regions in Middle Norrland.

Yvonne Söderström of the Swedish research institue Rise Processum introduced the audience to their project. She showed how they utilize their research infrastructure of biomass and biofuel to help accelerating business based on their research. Stakeholders also heard about the challenges in building business, knowledge and competence around government high IT technology solution which BRON Innovation in Sundsvall are doing.

InnoHEIs project leader Rima Dijkstra and the stakeholder from Northern Netherlands (SNN) Albert Haan presented via Skype. They told about the good opportunity the Interreg Europe project gives to regions to learn from each other, which do not exist in any other EU program. They also gave some input from Northern Netherlands of how the university and the managing authority interact to create favorable conditions for actors in the region.

In the afternoon the stakeholders had a workshop where the challenges of how research infrastructure in the north middle region is utilized and what are the opportunities for the future in the region. Also good examples were presented.

In Sundsvall approximately 40 people attended and in Östersund around 30 people. It was a joint event between InnoHEIs partner Mid Sweden university and the managing authority Tillväxtverket.