Emina Kovacevic , Skellefteå Science City
Why did you join the Osiris activities?
I was interested to visit the region of Trento that, being a remote but industrial region, faces some of the same challenges as our region Västerbotten.
Further, I was also interested in visiting the industrial centres and in seeing how this region works with facilitation of use of open data. A challenge that is also present in our own municipality.
What did you learn from participating?
I learned a lot about the challenges of facilitating the use of open data to enterprises. Apart from that I saw some excellent examples of industry-academia collaboration and got a new perspective on our own the challenges that lie ahead.
How can you transfer this knowledge to your own work?
Seeing the same challenges as we are experiencing in Västerbotten being handled in totally different ways was very inspiring.
Having a whole team that represents our region visiting the same sites gave us also a possibility to further discuss our insights and translate them to our own context. This was something that I find to be a big benefit of this trip.
Did you get new useful contacts for your own work?
Absolutely, I have gained some new contacts that not only will benefit me in the future but that I already have shared with some of my colleagues who are working on similar issues.
Given the lessons learned – how do you see that the innovation system in your own region can be improved? If possible, give a few concrete examples.
I was very impressed by the collaboration between academia and the private sector at the full range Industry 4.0 R&D facility that was set up in Trentino region with public and private funds.
In Västerbotten we have few such collaborations although both academia and the private sector have a very strong presence. I think that that model could be applied to more issues that we face and I look forward to being inspired by this solution when setting up future projects.
