On the 13-14th of February SHREC had stakeholder meetings in Sundsvall and Östersund. Within total around 70 people attending .The two meetings were similar to each other. In Östersund on the 13th of February, Professor Dekan Hans-Erik Nilsson from Mid Sweden university, SHREC partner and John Wallon, Tillväxtverket, the managing authority for ERDF funds welcomed everyone. They gave some good advice that there are many good opportunities in the region for sustainable growth and transformation to CO2 neutral society if we understand the different actors in the region their driving force and competence. Cooperation and coaction are essential
Maria Kumpula presented the work the region Jämtland / Härjedalens are doing with their smart specialisation strategy and gave examples of the priorities the region is doing. Maja Blomqvist from the Region jämtland/ Härjedalen presented a project called SMICE a Sweden – Norwegian transborder cooperation to find smart solution for a circular society. www.smice.nu
All participants realized the importance of ERDF funds for regional development in Middle Norrland after Peter Larsson from the Innovation and Growth agency, Tillväxtverket had presented how the use of ERDF funds in the region looks like. There is a call open until the 10th of march which was very interesting for many of the participants. Two of ERDF financed project were presented, Mikael Bäckström, professor at Mid Sweden University showed what use research in sport technology can do for the surrounding society companies, athletes and others. Kevin Denham from Jamtli Living University presented the ongoing project where they are the building an eco-village for the future and what challenges they are facing. How to build a sustainable society and how to utilize testbeds like this were lively discussed. After lunch Mr. Lars Ling from Cleantech region presented what is going on around the world on sustainability and energy efficiency work. He especially lifted the work going on in Helsinki, viable cities as good examples of societal cooperation solving grand challenges. In the afternoon the stakeholder 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. Good examples were presented
On the 26 – 28th of may the SHREC partnership will visit Sweden and the Middle Norrland region and we hope to show them some interesting good practice cases.
