CROSS-BORDER COOPERATION ON INNOVATION

– A JOINT TASKFORCE

REPORT OF THE PREPARATORY WORK

9.4.2019

Contents

1 INTRODUCTION............................................................................................... 3

2 GLOBAL MEGATRENDS AND THEIR POSSIBLE EFFECTS ON THE

ARCTIC REGIONS. .......................................................................................... 7

3 THE DESCRIPTION OF THE MAIN CHARACTERISTICS AND THE

ACTORS OF THE INNOVATION ECOSYSTEMS .................................... 12

3.1 Region of Luleå ......................................................................................... 12

3.2 Region of Oulu .......................................................................................... 15

3.3 Region of Rovaniemi-Kemi ..................................................................... 19

3.4 Region of Tromso ..................................................................................... 22

3.5 Region of Umeå ........................................................................................ 26

4 ONGOING CROSS-BORDER COOPERATION PROJECTS ................... 30

4.1 Cross-border A5 research cooperation in a form of co-authored

research papers ........................................................................................ 30

4.2 Interreg Nord, Northern periphery and Arctic Programme, and

Horizon 2020 projects ............................................................................. 33

5 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE AREAS OF COOPERATION .. 37

5.1 Smart specialisation strategy as a tool for regional development........ 37

5.2 Proposal for the areas of cooperation..................................................... 44

6 CONCLUSIONS ............................................................................................... 51

References

Appendix

3

1 INTRODUCTION

In the Arctic Spirit Conference in Rovaniemi, November 2017, the Arctic 5 universities i.e. five

main universities of Northern Finland, Sweden and Norway; University of Oulu, University of

Lapland, University of Umeå, Luleå University of Technology, UiT -The Arctic University of

Norway, Tromso together with representatives of the respective cities (Oulu, Rovaniemi, Luleå,

Umeå, Tromso) decided to set up a joint taskforce to develop the cross-border collaboration in

a field of innovation and business ecosystems. 1

The aim of this preparatory work has been to identify the main characteristics, the competence

areas and the actors of the innovation ecosystems in the Artic 5 regions, and to provide a picture

about the ongoing cross-border cooperation projects related to the knowledge–based economy

between these regions in various levels and fields e.g. sustainable energy solutions, mining,

circular economy, health etc. Furthermore, the goal is to investigate, through the lenses of smart

specialization2, whether there are such kind of competence areas in these urban regions, which

might provide new possibilities for intensified cross-border cooperation involving

representatives of both industry and academia especially in city-regions. The idea is to find new

ways to improve networking between academia, local and regional authorities, business

development organisations and firms across city-regions in the arctic regions of Finland,

Sweden and Norway.

The overall objective of the preparatory work is to launch a larger development process. The

idea is that this report could provide well-defined and justified recommendations, on how to

reinforce both national as well as international cooperation between the Arctic 5 cities. This

creates basis for broad and systematic cross-border cooperation in various fields of business

and innovation involving representatives of both industry and academia. In the long term, the

1 The Arctic Five (Arctic5) is a forum for collaboration of the five universities in the northern Finland, Sweden

and Norway –T he University of Oulu, The University of Lapland, Luleå University of Technology, UiT -The

Arctic University of Norway, and Umeå University. More information, see e.g.

https://www.oulu.fi/thuleinstitute/node/50198 2 “Smart specialisation is an innovative approach that aims to boost growth and jobs in Europe, by enabling each

region to identify and develop its own competitive advantages. Through its partnership and bottom-up approach,

smart specialisation brings together local authorities, academia, business spheres and the civil society, working for

the implementation of long-term growth strategies supported by EU funds.”

(https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/sources/docgener/guides/smart_spec/strength_innov_regions_en.pdf ,

http://s3platform.jrc.ec.europa.eu/what-is-smart-specialisation- )

4

cross-border project will hopefully provide companies new opportunities to expand their

operations to international markets.

The second chapter of this report will briefly review some global megatrends and their possible

effects on the Arctic regions. The chapter three focuses on the existing innovation ecosystems

and the competence areas of the Arctic 5 regions. We have identified the main characteristics

and actors of the innovation ecosystems in these regions. Chapter four provides a picture about

the ongoing cross-border cooperation projects in various levels and fields e.g. biotechnology,

environmental and industrial innovations and mining industry. In chapter five we first briefly

introduce the concept of smart specialisation. After that, we investigate, through the lenses of

smart specialization, whether there are such kind of competence areas in these urban regions,

which might provide possibilities for intensified cross-border cooperation involving

representatives of both industry and academia. We also present some recommendations for

future cooperation in various forms and fields. Chapter six provides a brief discussion and some

conclusions.

Professor (acting) Jaakko Simonen from Oulu Business School has been working as a chair of

the joint taskforce. Professor Lars Westin (University of Umeå), professor Vinit Parida (Luleå

University of Technology), associate professor Mikko Moilanen, (The Arctic University of

Norway, Troms) and senior expert Harri Malinen, (University of Lapland, Rovaniemi) have

been the contact persons of the Arctic 5 universities and provided a valuable contribution to

this project. The members of the steering group of the preparatory work have been Päivi

Keisänen/Heikki Ojala (Regional Council of Ostrobothnia), Janne Uusivirta (East and North

Finland EU Office), Petri Karinen (BusinessOulu), Rauli Svento (Oulu Business School,

University of Oulu) and Harri Malinen (University of Lapland). This preliminary study has

been funded by Regional Council of Ostrobothnia, City of Oulu and Oulu Business School,

University of Oulu. We want to thank the all the people we have interviewed during this project

for their contribution to this report. The members of the joint taskforce and the people

interviewed are listed on the following pages.

5

The members of the joint taskforce

Jaakko Simonen, Chair, Professor (acting), Department of Economics, Oulu Business

School, University of Oulu

Mikko Moilanen, Associate Professor, The University of Tromso

Vinit Parida, Professor, Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Luleå University of

Technology

Lars Westin, Professor, Director University of Umeå, Centre for Regional Science

Harri Malinen, Senior Expert, University of Lapland

Anne Rännäli-Kontturi, International Affairs Manager, City of Oulu

Karinen Petri, Service Director of International Affairs, Business Oulu

Maja Terning, Coordinator, International Affairs, Business Oulu

Kristiina Jokelainen, Senior adviser, Regional Council of Lapland

Jan Unga, Community strategy EU funds, City of Luleå

Mr. Magnus Skjelmo Kristiansen, Adviser on Business Development, Municipality of

Tromsø

Bente Knudsen Helland, Head of International Relations Section, Troms County

Council

The following persons have been interviewed during the project.

Tromso:

Torbjørn Eltoft, Professor, Centre Leader, CIRFA - Centre for integrated remote sensing

and forecasting for arctic operations

Thomas Kræmer, Head Engineer, CIRFA - Centre for integrated remote sensing and

forecasting for arctic operations

Lise Nordgård, Administrative Coordinator, CIRFA - Centre for integrated remote

sensing and forecasting for arctic operations

Tom Rune Lauknes, Senior Research Scientist, NORUT-Northern Research Institute

Corine Davids, Research Scientist, NORUT-Northern Research Institute

Sølvi Brendeford Anderssen, Senior Advisor, UiT The Arctic University of Norway

Asbjørn Lilletun, Administrative Director, Norinnova Technology Transfer

Ernst Kloosterman, Cluster Manager, Biotech North

Willy Ørnebakk, Chair of Troms County Government, Troms County Council

Zølvi Pedersen, Senior Advisor, Troms County Council

Bente Knudsen Helland, Head of International Relations, Troms County Council

6

Luleå:

Par Johansson, Chief Strategy Officer, LTU Business AB

Emil Svanberg, Director, LTU Business AB

Michael Nilsson, Project Manager, Digital Services and Systems, Distance- Spanning

Technology, Luleå University of Technology LTU

David Sundström, Business Manager, Region Norrbotten

Ossi Pesämaa, Associate Professor, Luleå University of Technology LTU

Anders Hersinger, Chaired Professor, Luleå University of Technology LTU

Umeå:

Anders Kjellander, CEO, Science Park Umeå

Maria Olofsson, Operation Manager and Business Developer, Uminova innovation

Kenneth Bodin, CEO, Algoryx Simulation

Carolina Hawranek, Head of PR & Communications, Umeå Biotech Incubator (UBI)

Anna Olofsson, Head of City Marketing, Umeå municipality

Tommy Eriksson, Business Developer, Umeå Municipality Business Office

Peter Hedman, Director, North Sweden Cleantech

Peter Sköld, Professor, Arctic Research Centre, Umeå University

Rovaniemi/Kemi:

Satu Luiro, Senior Advisor in Tourism, Regional Council of Lapland

Seppo Saari, Head of R&D Industry and natural resources, Lapland University of

Applied Sciences

Raimo Pyyny, Cluster Manager, Arctic Development Environments, Lapland

University of Applied Sciences

Oulu:

Pekka Pirinen, Docent (Adjunct Professor), Centre for Wireless Communications,

Arctic Mobile Communications Architectures, University of Oulu

Pekka Tervonen, Research Professor, Centre for Environment and Energy (CEE,)

University of Oulu

Arja Rautio, Professor, UArctic Vice-president Research, Thule Institute , University of

Oulu

Kalevi Virta, Coordinator, International research and innovation networks, Centre for

Health and Technology (CHT), University of Oulu

Ilkka Kaisto, Director of PrintoCent, VTT Technical Research Center of Finland, Oulu

Bryssel:

Kari Aalto, Director, East and North Finland EU Office

Sointu Räisänen, East and North Finland EU Office

Niklas Johansson, Senior Adviser in European Affairs and Communications Manager,

North Sweden European Office

Mikael Janson, Managing Director, North Sweden European Office

7

2 GLOBAL MEGATRENDS AND THEIR POSSIBLE EFFECTS ON THE ARCTIC

REGIONS.

The Arctic regions are facing great challenges and opportunities. One of the most important

factors for regional competitiveness is regions’ ability to adapt to the changes in their economic

and technological environment. The megatrends of the modern economy such as globalisation,

digitalisation, the growing role of service sector (especially in western world), urbanisation and

agglomeration of economic activities, and the ageing of the population affect the development

of Arctic regions too. They cause challenges and threats but also opportunities for these regions.

Nowadays Arctic regions receive special attention in many arenas because of climate change

and the increasing economic interest towards natural resources. However, there are also number

of other type environmental, economic and technological issues, which will modify

development of the Arctic regions. Northern Sea Route and Arctic Connect data cables are good

examples of this.

Environment, Energy and Digitalisation

The melting of the Arctic ice or increasing amount of plastic waste in the oceans are global

challenges. Global warming will a have significant effect on the living conditions especially in

the Arctic regions where warming is greater than anywhere else is. Our nature (incl. plants and

animals) will change and extreme weather events are becoming more frequent. This will cause

heavy costs on the society and the economy. Sectors such as agriculture, forestry, energy and

tourism are particularly vulnerable for these changes. But what kind of opportunities global

warming may provide for the Arctic regions (e.g. in a form of increasing forest productivity

and a longer growing season)? Are we in the Arctic regions the winners or losers in this sense?

At least it is clear that there is a increasing need for the monitoring of the climate and

environmental changes at the local, national and global levels. 3

Global warming has increased people’s awareness of the environmental questions and

protection of the environment. People are increasingly interested in reducing their own carbon

footprint, for instance in the form of using alternative, renewable energy sources and eco-

3 See e.g. https://ec.europa.eu/clima/change/consequences_en

8

friendly food. Any kind of recycling and awareness of environmentally friendly heating systems

of houses or transportation solutions are increasing. This provides huge business opportunities

for firms, and of course for universities and other research institutions in a form of increasing

research funding (both public and private). Therefore, it is not a surprise that interest towards

circular economy and cleantech technologies has increased. Circular economy provides

solutions to maximise the use of materials. Cleantech technologies are tackling global

challenges such as clean air, food, water and number of other problems which the increasing

urbanisation will cause.

The world is becoming more and more digitalised. We are talking about the fourth industrial

revolution, which is characterized by technological breakthroughs in a number of areas, such

as robotics, artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things. Digital transformation will have a

huge impact on our work, business and society as a whole. Increasing digitalisation e.g. in a

form of Internet-of-Things (IoT), cloud computing etc. plays an important role in economic

growth and it will change our life significantly. Integration of digital technology into all areas

of a business leads to profound changes in how businesses operate and how they deliver value

to customers. 4 The digitalisation contributes for instance to a rapidly growing demand for data

processing. One consequence will be that due to the increased data transfer more data centres

will be built in the forthcoming years. At the same time when cloud computing and data transfer

will increase and new data centres will be built, their energy consumption has received growing

concern. In the future, population will increase, urbanization will progress and energy

consumption will increase.

Increasing digitalisation means that the need of green energy solutions and efficiency

improvements grows all the time on this sector too. Today data centres consume a large amount

of energy due to both computing and cooling, and it is easy to predict that their energy

consumption will be much higher in the future. It is clear that the development of energy

consumption is not sustainable without more energy-efficient methods of operation. Therefore,

it is not surprise that green energy networks and using of renewable energy sources in digital

solutions are highly studied issues. Today the data-centre industry has an important impact on

the economic development especially in Sweden, and it is clear that other digital frontrunners,

4 See e.g. https://enterprisersproject.com/what-is-digital-transformation

9

Finland and Norway among them, have similar potential in the future. A safe and stable

operating environment together with a cold climate and the availability of green energy is an

important competitive advantage for these countries. (Boston Consulting Group. 2016)

Digitalisation and labour markets

Migration and labour mobility are also closely linked to the big megatrends in the economy,

such as digitalisation and a growing role of the service sector. Partly because of the robotics in

the manufacturing and the automation in services, the polarization on the labour markets is

increasing. High-skill, high-paying jobs and low-skill, low-paying jobs are increasing and the

middle class is diminishing. Hard and arduous tasks especially in the manufacturing field have

largely disappeared in the OECD countries. However, there are many jobs were the skill

requirements have increased (robots, automation, software programming skills in many sense).

The consequence of the increasing knowledge intensity is that the need for high levels of

education is increasing.

Another megatrend is that, especially in the Western world, the role of service sector as an

employer is growing. According to the Annual report 2018 of Business Index North, the

development in Northern Finland, Sweden and Norway regions follows the global trend, i.e.

the service business is become a main driver of the economic development. Employment has

increased especially in social services and health care. Tourism has become one of the most

important sectors worldwide. Employment of tourism has increased in the Artic 5 regions as

well. For instance, nights spend at hotels have increased especially in Troms and Lapland. At

the same time, employment is decreasing in many industries on the manufacturing sector as

well as in agriculture, forestry and fishing. (BIN annual report 2018).5 Global megatrends such

as digitalisation, climate change, will have an effect on the development of tourism too.

The fear is that many jobs in the service sector may also disappear in a future due to the

increasing use of emerging information technologies. However, at the same time actors on the

private and public sectors need more and more digital solutions. The increasing digitalisation,

5 Business Index North: https://businessindexnorth.com/reports and

https://businessindexnorth.com/?id=786991329

10

the use of smart technologies and solutions of artificial intelligence (e.g. machine learning and

computing) offer new opportunities and challenges in many sectors, for instance in energy

sector, shipping/maritime, health technology, environmental technology, pedagogy/education

and as said, in tourism. The development of smart cities is a platform for developing and testing

digital solutions. In many countries, artificial intelligence is one of the key elements in their

national competitive strategy or countries have developed a specific national artificial

intelligence strategy (like Finland).6 Arctic 5 regions have, via cross-border interdisciplinary

cooperation of private and public partners and using of the arctic environment as a testbed, a

chance to be a big part of this development in Northern Scandinavia.

Ageing and urbanisation

Global trends related to urbanisation, agglomeration of economic activities and the ageing of

the population are present in the Arctic region. The share of 65+ years old people is increasing

rapidly especially in Finland, where aging is the fastest in the whole Europe. Ageing will

significantly weaken the dependency ratio of all counties. In Sweden and Norway, the

development will not be so dramatic due to the higher immigration.

Although the Arctic 5 cities are located in the sparsely populated areas (SPA), the concept of

”spiky world “(Florida 2005) holds true also in the Arctic regions what comes to the location

of population, firms and the innovation activities. The geographical concentration of people and

various economic activities, including innovation, is increasing. Factors like good matching

between jobs and workers, and thereby higher wages, lead to the conclusion that agglomerations

are attractive for both firms and highly skilled employees. Firms want to locate close to each

other, due to the agglomeration economies, and employees are moving more and more towards

and within the agglomeration centers where the role of these factors is obvious (e.g. De La Roca

and Puga, 2016). On the other hand, we may well ask “do jobs follow people or do people

follow jobs?“ (Ostbye et al 2018).

6 Leading the way into the era of artificial intelligence. Final report of Finland's Artificial Intelligence Programme.

Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment. Helsinki, Finland 2019. (The report is available in Finnish

https://tem.fi/julkaisu?pubid=URN:ISBN:978-952-327-411-2 )

11

University cities/regions are in many ways the main drivers of the economic growth in the

Arctic regions. A good evidence is that the population in the Arctic regions of Finland, Sweden

and Norway is growing especially in the university cities and their urban areas due to their good

education facilities, job opportunities, cultural amenities etc. In sparsely populated areas, high-

quality health services also attract people to urban areas. This increases the urban - rural

division. In 2016, 35% of all people (in BIN area) lived in six major cities; Tromsø, Bodø,

Luleå, Umeå, Oulu and Rovaniemi, with growth of 2 % during the period 2007-2016. However,

the total population growth (2.6 %) is much less than average in Finland, Sweden and Norway

(7%). One reason for this is the national migration to the southern parts of countries. (BIN

annual report 2018)

Next chapter will focus on the existing innovation ecosystems and the competence areas of the

Arctic 5 regions. The aim has been to identify the main characteristics and actors of the

innovation ecosystems in all Arctic 5 regions.

12

3 THE DESCRIPTION OF THE MAIN CHARACTERISTICS AND THE ACTORS

OF THE INNOVATION ECOSYSTEMS

3.1 Region of Luleå

The central feature of the innovation ecosystem of Luleå is that it is quite diversified, i.e. there

are number of specialised innovation sectors. Research of Luleå University of Technology

(LTU) covers various fields especially on the technology sectors, but there is strong expertise

also in the research fields such as learning and pedagogy, health, smart city and art and science.

LTU has strong expertise for instance in Energy and environmental technology and Mining,

Metallurgy and Material sectors. LTU is one of the world leading universities in the

development of sustainable, energy-efficient and environmentally friendly systems and

processes. For instance, LTU Green Fuels is one of the world's most advanced pilot plants for

the gasification of various bio products to syngas and green fuels. LTU is also Sweden’s centre

for research and education focusing on mining and metallurgy. Swerim, Swedish Research

Institute for Mining, Metallurgy and Materials, is a leading industrial research institute within

13

mining engineering, process metallurgy, materials, manufacturing engineering and

applications. Research in that sector covers not only mining and processing, but also issues

related to environmental, occupational health and safety, the commodity economy and the

societal aspects of extraction and processing.

Another strong field of research in LTU is Enabling ICT, which has a broad base in LTU's

research resources within the information and communication field. Research in this field is

linked e.g. to the areas of data centers and cloud services. RISE SICS, founded in 1985, is an

independent, state-owned research institute for applied information and communication

technology in Sweden. It operates SICS ICE – data center in Luleå, which is an open, full-scale

research data center and test environment. This test environment is available to the operators

outside the region too. Data center industry is one of the most rapidly growing expanding

industry sectors in Sweden.

Data center, cloud and big data issues forms one of the key areas of Distance-spanning

technology. Centre for distance-spanning technology (CDT) is one of the many centers of

excellence in LTU. Cloudberry project is an excellent example of interdisciplinary research

projects in this field. The goal of the project is to provide new knowledge about the energy and

resource-efficient solutions in data centers. The full-size testing environment, Cloudberry data

center provides excellent opportunities for cooperation of researcher and firms. Internet of

things, complex cognitive systems and communication networks are other key areas of CDT.

In addition to the engineering sectors, Enabling ICT research area has close links to the e.g.

eHealth, Internet of things, Machine learning and various issues related to Smart regions, living

lab type of research. In addition to these sectors, Space technology, intelligent industrial

processes and Attractive built environment are also an important research areas in LTU.

Botnia Living Lab is a world-leading environment for user-centric research, development and

innovation, and it provides excellent opportunities for cooperation with end-users and

stakeholders as well as researchers.

Sweden´s northernmost incubator, Arctic Business Incubator, ABI private limited company

owned by LTU Holding AB, Norrlandsfonden, Region of Norrbotten, Luleå and Skellefteå

municipality (Skellefteå industrihus AB), is one of Sweden's leading business incubators. It

helps all type of firms in their early stages. It coordinates projects from Space and Claentech

industries to Game industry. Another incubator, non-profit organisation, LTU Business AB,

14

own by the Luleå University of Technology, has over 30 years of experience in innovation

management, project management and competence development as well as strategy and

business development mainly for university spin-offs. IUC Norr in turn is a regional

development centre for small and medium-sized enterprises especially in engineering and

manufacturing industry, wood industry and electronics/IT. All these incubators have offices in

different cities of Northern Sweden.

What comes to the funding, Swedish innovation agency Vinnova, Regional council of

Norbotten and Swedish research council, in addition to the European Union are the most

important organisation. Formas is a government research council for sustainable development.

Ragnar Söderberg Foundation (Ragnar Söderberg Stiftelse) is a private research funding

organization that supports research in medicine and other scientific fields. Forte is a research

council and a government agency under the Swedish Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, and

it provides funding especially for health, working life and welfare research.

Links:

https://www.ltu.se/research/areas-of-excellence?l=en

https://www.ltu.se/centres?l=en

https://www.swerim.se/en

https://www.sics.se/

https://www.ri.se/en/infrastructure-and-cloud-datacenter-test-environment

https://www.cloudberry-datacenters.com/

https://www.ltu.se/research/subjects/information-systems/Botnia-Living-Lab?l=en

https://www.sics.se/projects/sics-ice-data-center-in-lulea

https://www.ltu.se/org/tvm/Avdelningar/LTU-Green-Fuels?l=en

https://www.ltu.se/org/LTU-Holding/LTU-Business/2.85783?l=en

https://www.abi.se/en/offer/

http://www.iucnorr.se/om-iuc-norr/ (https://vimeo.com/user16277962/about)

http://www.formas.se/en/About-Sustainability-Formas-Research-Council/

http://ragnarsoderbergsstiftelse.se/

https://forte.se/en

15

3.2 Region of Oulu

Oulu Innovation Alliance (OIA) and its key partners; City of Oulu, University of Oulu,

Oulu University of Applied Sciences, Oulu University Hospital, Natural Resources

Institute Finland, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd, The Oulu Region Joint

Authority for Education and Technopolis Plc., have an important role in the innovation

ecosystem of Oulu. The OIA, formed between these public organisation, has two main goals –

to create innovation ecosystem that will enhance creation, growth and internalisation of firms,

and to help them to utilise the opportunities of the arctic regions. Five ecosystems of OIA are;

Industry 2026, OuluHealth, Northern City with Attractive Opportunities, Agile

Commercialization, ICT & Digitalization. Research at the University of Oulu research units

provides an excellent starting point for innovation in the Oulu region. Worldwide known

research in the field Wireless technology (e.g. 5G, 6G networks) and the ICT knowledge in

general forms the basis of the innovation ecosystem. By combining expertise in wireless

expertise to health and life science technologies, Oulu has become to known as an innovative

city within Health technology. OuluHealth is one of the leading digital health innovation

ecosystems in Europe. Members of the OuluHealth ecosystem represent the whole spectrum of

16

health and social care, including specialised medical care, primary health and social care, health

and wellbeing industry and commerce, health technology research and education, and citizens.

On the EU level, OuluHealth is a member of the European Connected Health Alliance and

European Network for the Joint Evaluation of Connected Health Technologies. Oulu regions

provides an excellent testing / development environment for this sector (University hospital,

OuluHealth labs, worldwide known firms etc.).

Environmental technology, especially Cleantech is another fast growing industry in Oulu. The

areas of expertise such as diversified energy production (incl. renewable energy production),

smart energy solutions (smart and sustainable energy network), resource efficiency and

emissions control (waste and resources management, circulalation economy in general) utilise

strong ICT expertise of the area. Major investments in the industrial sector in Oulu and the

neighbouring regions provide excellent opportunities for this sector. Wireless technology

expertise is connected to the Printed intelligence sector too. Although printed intelligence is

a relatively new field of technology, it is one of the key clusters in Oulu regions nowadays. This

particular technology itself offers interesting new possibilities for many sectors such as health

technology, cleantech, automotive industry and design. Tourism could also be a sector where

this technology could be utilised. Among the creative industries, Game industry is an

interesting new business area. Research focus areas of the University of Oulu (Creating

sustainability through materials and systems, Molecular and environmental basis for lifelong

health, Digital solutions in sensing and interactions, Earth and near-space system and

environmental change, Understanding humans in change) provides excellent support for these

main sectors of innovations.

There are two other research institutes in addition to those mentioned at the beginning, which

have their own important role especially in the area of the Arctic research. Thule institute is

a strategic coordination unit within the University of Oulu. It supports and implements the

Arctic Attitude and strategy of the University of Oulu in its all activities related to the arctic

and northern issues at the University of Oulu. The Finnish Institute of Occupational Health

is cooperating in research related to maritime transport, mining and tourism.

What comes to the strategic cooperation, in addition to the Oulu Innovation Alliance, Business

Kitchen is an important university level actor in Oulu region. Business Kitchen is the

entrepreneurship hub, growth company center of the University of Oulu, the Oulu University

17

of Applied Sciences and BusinessOulu. It provides a wide range of services, helps companies

refine their business ideas and develop their business operations. In addition to this, it also helps

them to utilise the competence of students. BusinessOulu, an enterprise owned by the City of

Oulu, is responsible for implementing the city's industry policies and providing companies with

development services including promoting export, import, investments, and employment.

Through its international partner network, BusinessOulu helps companies grow especially in

the North. Demola is an international learning environment and innovation platform for

students in various fields. The idea is to form multi-disciplinary and multicultural project groups

for solving actual work life related open problems. Kielo Growth is a startup incubator

focusing on companies with hardware prototyping requirements. University of Oulu has just

opened a new University Innovation Centre (UIC), which provides services for development

of research-based innovations, university-company collaboration and business development.

In addition to the EU funding coordinated by the Council of Oulu region, The Finnish

Innovation Fund Sitra and Business Finland are the most important source of funding on the

national level. Academy of Finland provides funding for the academic research. Butterfly

Ventures is the leading seed stage focused VC in the whole Nordics. Since 2012, it has

provided funding to the early stage firms especially in Oulu region and other part of Finland,

but also in other Nordic countries and Baltics.

Links:

https://www.businessoulu.com/en/frontpage/en/company-networks-2/oulu-innovation-

alliance.html

https://oulu.com/who-is-here/

https://issuu.com/businessoulu/docs/ict_katalog_022018_digiversio

https://www.printocent.net/

http://ouluhealth.fi/

https://apaja.com/oulu-game-industry/

https://www.oulu.fi/university/node/35079

https://www.sitra.fi/en/

https://butterfly.vc/

https://www.businesskitchen.fi/en/#businesskitchen

https://www.oulu.fi/university/universityinnovationcentre

18

https://www.businessoulu.com/en/frontpage/en/businessoulu-2.html

https://www.oulu.fi/forstudents/entrepreneurship/demola and https://www.demola.net/

https://kielo.com/kielo-in-english/

https://www.oulu.fi/thuleinstitute/

https://www.businessoulu.com/en/frontpage/en/businessoulu-2/businessoulu-dictionary.html

19

3.3 Region of Rovaniemi-Kemi

Lapland smart specialisation clusters play an important role in the innovation ecosystem of

Rovaniemi-Kemi/Tornio regions and in the whole Lapland. The vision of Lapland’s smart

specialisation is to receive a leading position in a sustainable utilisation and commercialisation

of Arctic natural resources and conditions. Its five clusters are Arctic Industry and Circular

Economy cluster, Arctic Development Environments cluster, Arctic Design cluster, Arctic

Smart Rural Community cluster, Arctic Safety cluster. Arctic Industry and Circular

Economy cluster together with Arctic Development Environments cluster provides an excellent

network / development platform for the Bioeconomy and circular economy sector. Arctic

Industry and Circular Economy cluster connects process- and mining industry companies,

SMEs serving industry, universities, research institutions, funding and regional authorities to a

same cooperation network. The expertise in this field has been notified on the national, Nordic

and EU levels. In 2017, The Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra named the industrial circular

economy innovation platform led by Kemi Digipolis Oy as one of the key projects of the road

map. Bio and Circular Economy Centre, located in Kemi aims to develop a more competitive

business environment for companies involved in the bio- and circular economy. The actors of

20

the cluster, especially Lapland University of Applied Sciences has been an active partner in EU

projects already for years. Today City of Kemi calls itself as a capital of The Arctic Bio.

Mining, metallurgy and forestry industries, which have had an important role as an employer

already for decades, utilise this strong bioeconomy expertise of the area. Idea is that these

process industries (largely concentrated in the Kemi-Tornio region) can utilised cross-sectoral

and network based co-operation of the bioeconomy cluster to improve their utilisation of

industrial production and society based side streams. Tourism has an important role as an

employer especially in Rovaniemi and big tourist resorts in the Northern part of Lapland. The

vision of this sector is that Lapland is the leading destination for sustainable nature and

experience tourism in Europe by 2020. Firms are quite small but their cooperation is well

organised within the sector. Tourism brings not only welfare to all parts of Lapland, but acts as

a source of service innovations and exploits innovations of other sectors.

The Multidimensional Tourism Institute (MTI) brings together the expertise of various

organisation such as Lapland Tourism College, the University of Lapland and the Lapland

University of Applied Sciences. It cooperates closely with the business community and

international science community. Arctic design cluster brings together expertise on arctic

conditions, culture and knowledge on materials. Development fields are service design, product

design, interaction design and applied visual arts. Faculty of art at the University of Lapland

provides a good basis for the development of this cluster. R&D Lappish Innovation platform -

Lapland Centre of Excellence for research, development and innovation (Center of Arctic

Smartness Excellence) has been set up to support Arctic Smartness Clusters needs, feed

innovations and ideas, and to work as a booster for innovations. The idea is to increase

cooperation between Research and Development (R&D) actors and firms e.g. in form of testing

and service design. As in the Oulu region, The Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra and Business

Finland are important source of funding. EU funding is coordinated by the Regional Council

of Lapland.

Links:

https://arcticsmartness.eu/

https://arcticsmartness.eu/artic-industry/

http://www.teollinenkiertotalous.fi/en/home.html

https://www.sitra.fi/en/projects/competence-training-centre-industrial-symbiosis-kemi-

tornio/#what-is-it-about

21

http://arcticbiocapital.com/

http://www.lappi.fi/lapinliitto/en/development/travel

https://matkailu.luc.fi/In-English/About-us

https://arcticsmartness.eu/arctic-design/

http://luotsi.lappi.fi/c/document_library/get_file?folderId=3807809&name=DLFE-32211.pdf

https://www.lapinamk.fi/en

https://arcticsmartness.eu/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Arctic-Smartness-hankkeen-

loppuraportti_final.pdf

http://www.lappi.fi/lapinliitto/arctic-smartness-exellence-ase

22

3.4 Region of Tromso

Knowledge and expertise together with a unique nature and natural resources provide good

opportunities for creating more green growth in Tromsø. The key actor in innovation activities

in Tromsø is UiT The Arctic University of Norway. UiT is a driving force for

commercialization of research results, and has (according to UiT’s annual report 2016)

succeeded better than any other Norwegian university environment. Tromsø region has the

highest number of start-ups per invested R&D krone, the largest number of joint ventures, most

approved patent applications and most notified inventions registered at the technology transfer

agency (according to Norinnova TT). UIT’s has e.g. following research centers: TTL - Tromsø

Telemedicine Laboratory, which focus on the research in the field of Telemedicine and eHealth

systems, CIRFA - Centre for integrated remote sensing and forecasting for arctic operations,

MabCent- Centre on Marine Bioactives and Drug Discovery and iAD - Information Access

Disruptions, which focus on the research in the field fundamental structures and concepts for

large-scale information access applications.

23

Specialized fields of marine biology, Marine biodiscovery, Marine bioprocessing, Marine

biotechnology (blue biotechnology) are clearly the most innovative sectors in Tromsso region.

However, there are quite a lot small actors. Tromsø’s biotechnology community is organized

within the biotech cluster “Biotech North”, a triple helix research and innovation cluster,

focusing on research and commercialization of marine bioactive compounds from the Arctic.

Approximately 500 researchers are engaged in bio-marine sciences at the university and eight

other R&D institutions. Biotech North is a cluster of young biotech enterprises and R&D

organizations, which cooperate closely with regional funding and development factors (triple

helix). The majority of Biotech North’s enterprises are active within life- science applications

and markets. To date the cluster contains around 30 organizations from both the private and

public sector.

This field of research is closely linked to the fishing cluster (fishing, landing of fish, equipment

and supplies to the fishing fleet and fisheries research and education). Tromsø is Norway's

largest municipality when it comes to landings and shipments of wild fish. In Tromsø there are

also a large number of companies that are suppliers of the aquaculture industry, and who can

further develop their business in this field. In addition, institutions and organizations such as

Nofima food research institute, the Institute of Marine Research, Sintef, Norut and Norwegian

Seafood Council have been established in the municipality.

Another strong innovative sector is Remote sensing. The growth of this sectors is based on

increasing demand for such technology and data due to increased recovery of petroleum and

mineral resources in the north, greater use of coastal areas for business purposes and increased

shipping traffic in the Arctic. R&D activities of that area offers interesting

applications/innovations which can be utilized e.g. in mining, climate research and ocean

research (water quality, icecap, oil spilling etc.) Remote sensing research community has

cooperation with universities and other research units in Luleå and Oulu e.g. in a field of

mining. Possible new areas cooperation could be forestry, fish farming and town planning. The

use of drones in both the industrial and public sectors also implies opportunities for economic

growth not only remote sensing, but also for those sectors that use such technology. The use of

drones for monitoring salmon dredges is one such example.

Satellite data are central to understanding and monitoring the northern areas, for environmental

monitoring, weather conditions, shipping traffic and ice conditions. It’s not surprise that a

24

growing arena in which UiT Arctic has taken a leading role is that of Earth observation. There

are several nationally leading companies within the field of satellite based remote sensing. This

is the result of a conscious long-term build-up of competence within the city, county and region.

Tromsø Centre for Remote Sensing was founded by the Faculty of Science and Technology at

the University, the Northern Research Institute (NORUT), Kongsberg satellite services

(KSAT), Kongsberg Spacetec and the Norwegian Polar Institute, in January 2008. The use of

satellite data offers the huge possibilities for mapping, for example, mapping and surveillance

of farms and surveillance related to safety and preparedness. There is also potential in climate

monitoring.

Norinnova technology transfer has a dual role in the local innovation system. The first role

of Norinnova is to provide technology transfer services, commercializing the results of various

research activities. The second task of Norinnova is to offer business incubator services. Based

on the large university environment, a number of research institutes, such as NOFIMA,

NORUT, Akvaplan Niva have emerged. The University Hospital in Northern Norway

(UNN) is also a major research actor, primarily in the health sector. The FRAM, High North

Research Center for Climate and the Environment, with the Polar Institute and a number of

national research institutes, is also located in Tromsø, with a lot of research on climate and

environment in the Arctic.

Despite of these numerous research institutions, the R&D intensity in business in Troms is still

relatively low. This can indicate that the business community in Tromsø is primarily

characterized by companies that retrieve their innovation pulses from the market rather than

from R&D environments. The low R&D intensity can also be linked to the fact that the business

community is dominated by small businesses; few companies have ability or financial power

for systematic development or innovation, on their own or as "locomotive" in a cluster. Tromsø

business development is positive, but business structure, competence base and interaction

patterns are such that the research institutions are only to a small extent in interacting with the

business community. A report by Bye et al. (2010), stated that there were too few venues for

networking in Tromsø, and that the research sector was not enough involved in business

activities. One strategic tool that UiT has initiated to fight this is the Tromsø High North

Cluster (THiNC), a strategic alliance of seven research institutions in Tromsø. THiNC is a

forum or discussion, information exchange, and strategic cooperation for Arctic related

25

research. There is therefore still a need for more meeting places at different levels, and for

instruments such as competence-sharing.

Innovation Norway is without comparison the heaviest and most important public sector

player in the country for enterprise-oriented innovation and development. In many larger

projects, IN cooperates with the county municipality. Troms county council have long played

an important role as regional development actor. The Industrial Development Corporation

of Norway (SIVA) is the governmental corporation and national instrument founded in 1968.

SIVA aims to develop strong regional and local industrial clusters through ownership in

infrastructure, investment and knowledge networks as well as innovation centres. The goal is

improvement of national infrastructure for innovation.

Links:

http://www.npolar.no/en/research/fram-centre.html

https://nofima.no/en/about-us/

https://norut.no/en/about-norut

https://www.innovasjonnorge.no/en/start-page

http://www.flownorway.com/

https://www.tromso.kommune.no/grunderhjelpa.239550.no.html#

https://cirfa.uit.no/

https://www.sintef.no/en/

http://www.imr.no/en

http://www.akvaplan.niva.no/en/about_us

https://www.nibio.no/en/about-eng

https://ehealthresearch.no/en/about-us

https://www.tromso.kommune.no/grunderhjelpa.239550.no.html#

https://framsenteret.no/english/

https://sivatromso.no/

https://uit.no/utdanning/program?p_document_id=187697

http://www.norinnova.no/incubator/

https://www.forskningsradet.no/en/Home_page/1177315753906

https://www.innovasjonnorge.no/en/start-page

http://www.mabit.no/english.html

https://www.norinnovainvest.no/

26

https://www.regionaleforskningsfond.no/servlet/Satellite?c=Page&cid=1253953709201&pag

ename=nordnorge%2FHovedsidemal

https://www.tromsfylke.no/

3.5 Region of Umeå

The most central feature of the innovation ecosystem of Umeå is that there are number of

specialised innovation sectors. However, the entire innovation network / ecosystem is well

coordinated and forms the established innovation support system. Research of the Umeå

university covers wide range of arctic topics e.g. climate, environment and social questions

in the fields of humanities, medicine, natural sciences, social sciences and the science of

education. For instance, medical research in Umeå has a strong tradition within genetics,

molecular biology and neurology. The high quality research infrastructure attracts

researchers from all over the world. The Laboratory for Molecular Infection Medicine

Sweden (MIMS), Umeå has a pronounced international profile. Umeå University has the

27

main responsibility also for two strategic research areas of the Swedish Research council:

energy research and marine environment research

One of the strong innovation sectors in Umeå area is biotechnology. For instance, world-

wide known firm SpinChem develops innovative rotating bed reactors (RBR) for synthesis,

manufacturing and purification in the chemical and biotechnology industries. This firm has

delivered RBR system to Francis H. Arnold’s team, who was awarded the Nobel prize in

chemistry 2018. Uminova Innovation, a broad-spectrum business incubator, niched

towards tech and sectors such as IT, Medtech, Digital health, and Welltech, as well as Umeå

Biotech, focusing specifically on biomedicine and diagnostics, provides good support for

start-ups firms in this field and reinforces and boosts biotech and life science sector in the

region. The proximity between the multidisciplinary Umeå University and the University

Hospital of Umeå is clear advantage. SLU, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences,

which has a campus in Umeå, is specialised in the following fields of research: Ecology,

Environmental sciences and Plant sciences. The activities in SLU Umeå, located just next

to the University of Umeå, are mainly related to departments of the Faculty of Forest

Sciences. Its location in Umeå is clearly advantage for the Forest technology sector.

Interesting field of innovation is Artificial Intelligence and Interactive simulation. AI

Competence for Sweden is the working name for developing a national distributed platform

for increasing AI competence in Sweden, supported by the Swedish government. Umeå

University is one of the universities participating in this initiative. Department of computing

science of the University of Umeå, High Performance Computing Center North, Umeå

Institute of Design in Umeå University give strong support for this field of RDI. For

instance, Algoryx Simulation, spin-off from Umeå University and which has a headquarter

in Umeå, is a leading provider of software and services for visual and interactive physics

based simulation. What comes to the Industrial design, Umeå institute of Design, Umeå

University is ranked 26th in the world in the category Art & Design in the QS World

University Rankings. Multidisciplinary research group in the Umeå institute of Design

carries out studio-based design research in close collaboration with a number of leading

industry partners. The Umeå studio of RISE Interactive drives design research and

innovation for Transformative Practices.

28

In a field of Cleantech, main operators locate in Skellefteå (about 100 km north from Umeå)

and Örnsöldsvik (about 100 km south form Umeå). Natural resource sector - minerals,

wood, and hydropower have been important industrial drivers in Skellefteå. Good example

of the strong position in the energy sector is that Swedish company Northvolt received the

environmental permit for the establishment of Europe’s largest lithium-ion battery cell

factory to Skellefteå. Skellefteå is part of a raw material and mining cluster and has a long

history of process manufacturing and recycling. Örnsköldsvik in turn has a long-standing

industrial culture in the forest, cellulose and engineering industries. North Sweden

Cleantech is a regional innovation and export platform for green technology, clean energy

and sustainable solutions. All in all cleantech sector has as a strong cooperation within the

Västerbotten county and Vaasa region is Finland (Vaasa is the centre of excellence in the

of energy and environmental technology in Finland) through the Interreg-Atlantica project

Cleantech Kvarken. The strategic research area of the Swedish Research council, energy

research that coordinated by the Umeå University gives valuable support for this sector of

innovation (Circulation economy, Bioeconomy, Cleantec, etc.). Telecommunication and

Sustainable Urban Planning and Construction are also strong innovation sectors in the

Umeå region.

A striking feature of the innovation ecocystem is that the strategic cooperation network is

very scattered including various type of platforms and networks. For instance, there are lot

of incubators, which are specialised to certain technology field. Umeå Biotech Incubator

is focusing on biomedicine and diagnostics, eXpression Umeå, is specialised in artistic and

cultural businesses’. Uminova Innovation is a broad spectrum business incubator, niched

towards tech and sectors such as IT, Medtech, Digital health, and Welltech. Futhermore,

there exists BIC Factory, which is a business incubator for young entrepreneurs between

the age of 18-40 years. Since 2015 they have ran a project called “Young entrepreneurs

doing digital business”, where the focus is on digital startups. Umeå University Holdning

is home to the University’s innovations office. Innovation Office North supports

researchers, teachers and students on matters regarding utilization and commercialization

of scientific findings and other knowledge intense ideas. SLU Holding runs SLU’s

innovations office with similar setup and services. One example of the strategic

cooperation network as Arctic game lab. The focus of the Arctic Game Lab is to support,

and be a part of the creation, of a stable gaming industry platform in the north of Sweden.

Arctic game lab has some cooperation with Oulu.

29

Links:

https://www.umu.se/en/research/research-excellence/strategic-research-areas/

https://www.slu.se/en/about-slu/locations/slu-umea/

https://www.uminovainnovation.se/en/our-initiatives/biotech/

https://www.uminovainnovation.se/en/nyheter/nobelprize-winner-uses-spinchems-

rotating-bed-reactor-system/

http://umuais.cs.umu.se/ai-sweden/

https://www.umu.se/forskning/fordjupa-dig/artificiell-intelligens

https://www.uminovainnovation.se/en/about-us/the-innovation-support-system/

https://www.sluholding.se/en/about-slu-holding

https://bicfactory.se/bic-factory-in-english /

https://www.abi.se/en/about/

http://www.norrlandsfonden.se/english/

http://northswedencleantech.se/en/about-us/

http://www.cleantechkvarken.se/

https://www.algoryx.se/company/about-algoryx/

https://www.tii.se/groups/umea

https://www.hpc2n.umu.se/

http://www.dh.umu.se/en/

30

4 ONGOING CROSS-BORDER COOPERATION PROJECTS

4.1 Cross-border A5 research cooperation in a form of co-authored research papers

According to Scopus database, researchers of the Arctic 5 universities and other research

institutes published totally slightly over 120 000 (120 296) research papers in the period of

1973-2018.7. 2.2 % of them (totally 2668 articles) are such co-authored papers, where we have

authors (their main affiliation) from two or more Arctic 5 universities or research institutes.

This share is surprisingly small and clearly shows that there is a room for increasing

cooperation. However, the figure 1 on below shows that number of publications has increased

significantly after the 2000. The word clouds in the appendix provide a simplified picture of

the research profiles of the Arctic 5 regions and research topics of the cross-border cooperation.

Figure 1. Co-authored research papers of the Arctic 5 regions.

7 Elsevier's Scopus (registered trademark of Elsevier B.V.) is the largest abstract and citation database of peer-

reviewed literature (incl. scientific journals, books and conference proceedings). More information, see

www.scopus.com .

31

In 2015 – 2018, it was published 726 co-authored, “Arctic 5 research papers” in the selected 17

fields of research. Research institutes of Umeå region were mentioned in 503, Luleå in 309,

Tromso in 302, Oulu 294, and Lapland in 94 of those research papers.8 Table 1 on below shows

how they have distributed on different fields of research.

Table 1. Research papers in different fields of research

When we examine these co-authored papers more detailed, we found out that Biotechnology,

Health and Environment were the main research fields in Umeå, Luleå and in Oulu (Table 2).

Even if we know that biotechnology is one of the strong sectors in Tromso, it did not have that

much research cooperation with other A5 regions in that field. In Lapland, social science

together with environment were the most common field of A5 cooperation.

8 In case of Lapland, the number includes research papers which has been done in research units of both Rovaniemi

and Kemi (e.g. Universities of Lapland and Lapland University of Applied Sciences)

Research field Number of research papers

Acriculture 1 Biotechnology 118 Business 1 Culture 3 Education 3 Employment and Entrepreneurship 3 Environment 150 Health 346 ICT 26 Industrial Innovations 5 Mathematics 10 Mining 8 Other 13 Regional Politics 7 Social Sciences 28 Tourism 4 Total

726

32

Table 2. The main research fields of A5 cooperation by regions

Region Research fields

Umeå Biotechnology, Environment, Health

Luleå Biotechnology, Health, Environment

Tromso Health, Environment

Oulu Biotechnology, Health, Environment

Lapland Environment, Social science

What comes to the scope of the cooperation, in 96 % of the research papers there were

researchers from two different A5 regions (and of course maybe from other, non A5 regions).

In 25 papers, authors were from three A5 regions, and in 6 papers from four regions. We did

not find any papers where would have been authors from the research institutions of all five

Arctic 5 regions. Table 3 on below shows the co-authored papers between only two different

A5 regions. Of course, in all papers we may have other authors from all over the world.

Table 3. Research papers between two A5 regions

Oulu Lapland Umeå Luleå Tromssa

Oulu

48 96 56 61

Lapland 48

9 6 26

Umeå 96 9

207 170

Luleå 56 6 207

26

Tromssa 61 26 170 26

Totally 261 89 482 295 283

“Trilateral research cooperation” was most common in the fields of environmental and health

research. Table 4 shows the “combinations” and the number of research papers. As said, we

found only 6 research papers “between four A5 regions” and they all were in the field of

environmental research (Table 5).

33

Table 4. Research papers between three A5 regions

Tromssa – Luleå - Lapland 8 Tromssa – Luleå - Umeå 1 Oulu – Lapland - Umeå 1 Oulu – Luleå - Tromssa 2 Oulu – Luleå - Umeå 1 Oulu – Tromssa - Umeå 13

Table 5. Research papers between four A5 regions

Oulu - Lapland - Umeå -Tromso 6

4.2 Interreg Nord, Northern periphery and Arctic Programme, and Horizon 2020

projects

The one aim of this report is to provide a picture, as comprehensive as possible, about the

ongoing cross-border, innovation cooperation projects of Arctic 5 regions in various levels and

fields e.g. biotechnology, environmental and industrial innovations and mining industry. We

have collected information about the Interreg Nord, Northern Periphery and Arctic Programme,

and Horizon 2020 projects which have started after 2015 (table 6). We found totally 35 projects

and the total funding for these projects is approximately EUR 30 million. Most of these projects

are in the field of Environmental and industrial innovations (e.g. in Cleantech sector). However,

there are quite a lot of cooperation projects in the field of biotechnology and mining too.

Somewhat surprisingly, we found only a few projects in the field of ICT and health. One reason

for this may be that these three sources of funding (Interreg Nord, Northern Periphery and

Arctic Programme, and Horizon 2020) are not that important for those fields of research.

Interviews that we made during this project showed that there are ongoing cooperation between

Arctic 5 regions in this field. Approximately half of projects are bilateral from the point of

view of Arctic 5 cooperation. Of course, there are number of other national and international

partners in these projects. In other half of the projects, there are three A5 universities (or

University of Applied sciences) involved in them. We did not find any projects with four Arctic

5 universities.

34

Luleå has been the most active cooperation partner. It is involved in 29 indifferent projects in

various fields, most of them being in fields of environmental innovation, biotechnology and

industrial innovations. Oulu and Tromso have also been very active partners in pretty much in

same fields as Luleå. University of Lapland and Lapland University of Applied Sciences,

especially its units in Kemi, are active partners in the field of environmental innovations and

mining, especially with the region of Luleå. According to the table, Umeå has been or is partner

only in 7 projects. Interestingly, these projects are in fields where other universities are not that

active.

RESEM (Remote Sensing supporting surveillance and operation of Mines) project is a good

example of the cross-border, multidisciplinary cooperation, where technology developed in one

sector is utilized and developed in another sector. University Oulu, Northern Research Institute

Norut from Tromso, and Luleå University of Technology are the main partners. The aim of this

project is to develop new opportunities to use remote sensing data from satellites and unmanned

air vehicles (UAVs) in mining safety and environmental monitoring. The project is funded by

Interreg Nord 2014-2020 programme and the Council of Lapland, Norrbotten County

Administrative Board and Troms County. (More information, see

https://www.oulu.fi/water/resem ).

WAX research project (Natural Wax of Arctic Berries) on the biotechnology sector, is another

good example of the multidisciplinary, cross-border project. The aim is to develop

environmentally sustainable methods for extracting wild berry wax from industrial side streams

and waste. New application areas and uses for wild berry waxes is analysed through the entire

value chain from berry picking to the new high-end and high value wild berry wax-based

products. The WAX Interreg project is co-ordinated by University of Oulu, (Centre of

Microscopy and Nanotechnology) and the main partners are Luleå University of Technology,

NIBIO – Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research in Tromso, and Oulu University of

Applied Sciences. Research project is funded by Interreg Nord, Regional Council of Lapland,

Norrbotten County Administrative Board and Troms County. (More information, see

https://www.oamk.fi/fi/tutkimus-ja-kehitys/hankkeet/wax/ ).

A good example of utilisation of wireless and Internet of Things technologies outside the core

ICT sector is Wirma project (https://www.wirma-project.eu/index.php/project/ ). The target of

the project is to research, develop and test new vehicle-based sensor data solutions in the field

of winter road maintenance in the North. The aim of the AMCA (Arctic Mobile

35

Communications Architectures, https://www.oulu.fi/sites/default/files/content/Visio.pdf)

project is in turn to create and describe alternative mobile communications architectures, high-

speed network solutions for the sparsely populated arctic regions and other remote locations.

AMCA project could provide a good starting point for cross-border cooperation with the aim

of proving high quality broadband internet connections in the arctic region.

One more good pilot example of the cross-border cooperation project is Smart Construction

Cluster (http://www.smartconstruction.no/about-us/, funded by the European Regional

Development Fund (ERDF)) The cluster was established in Alta in 2016. Now we have Smart

Construction Cluster “nodes” also in Oulu, Tromsø, Narvik and Luleå. The goal of this project

is to make the local construction industry more digitalized and to develop more innovative

methods and products for buyers. This has been done in cooperation with the ICT-industry in

Oulu among others. The cluster nodes provides activities locally and cross-borderly between

the nodes. This and other above mentioned projects will provide information about the good

practices and existing partnerships and networks that can be useful in forthcoming projects.

More information about the projects of table 6 is available by opening the hyperlink.

36

Environmental innovations

Arctic Energy

BuSK

EPOS IP

H-CHP

LECo

New technology for energy-efficient particle

separation from flue gases

NOTE

Pre-CHP

RESEM

WIRMA

EEBAK

Biotechnology

ARCTIC-ecocrete

NEWPACK

RENEPRO

WAX

New Exploration Technologies

Industrial Innovations

C3TS

CMT

Flexible Transparent Conductive Films as

Electrodes

INTERACT

NorFaST-HT

Mining

MinNorth

SusMinNor

VanProd

Mining and Metallurgy Regions of EU

MineFacts

ICT

AMCA Employment

Academic North

WELD

Competitiveness

Business Model Innovation and Internalization

of Process Industry SMEs

Construction

ICNB

New possibilities for CLT

Health

INSPIRE

Entrepreneurship

ARCTISEN

Culture

Digital access to the Sámi heritage

archives

Abbreviations of co-operating institutions (number

of projects in brackets):

= University of Oulu (22)

= University of Lapland / Lapland

University of Applied Sciences (12)

= Luleå University of Technology (29)

= University of Tromsø (15)

= Umeå University (7)

Table 6. Arctic 5 cross-border cooperation projects (Interreg Nord, Northern Periphery and Arctic Programme and Horizon 2020) in a selected

field of research (starting year 2015 or later).

37

5 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE AREAS OF COOPERATION

5.1 Smart specialisation strategy as a tool for regional development

One important aspect which we can raise related to the work of the joint taskforce, especially

concerning the point “the Competence areas and fields with complimentary advantages” and

the also to the cross-border cooperation in general, is so called smart specialization concept.

European Commission has defined three priorities for the Europe 2020 strategy: smart growth,

sustainable growth and inclusive growth. Smart growth means strengthening knowledge and

innovation as the cornerstone of economic growth. According to the principles of smart

specialization, this does not only mean investing in the most successful or trendy areas, but the

strategic integration and exploitation of regional expertise. Regions should focus on strategic

integration of existing key competence areas and searching for strong and emerging, potential

new areas of specialization. Although the concept of smart specialization remains relatively

new, it has gained great popularity and has become the most important principle guiding

regional development, especially in Europe. (McCann & Ortega-Argilés 2014).9

What are the key principles of a strategy for smart specialisation? Smart specialisation is a

place-based approach. In other words, it builds on the assets and resources available to regions

and on their specific socio-economic challenges. The idea is to identify the opportunities for

development and growth in future growth areas. Smart means that regions should be able to

identify their own strengths and comparative assets. Specialisation in turn means that regions

prioritise their research and innovation investments in the competitive areas. Strategy means

that regions define a shared vision for regional innovation.10 Could this same be done cross-

border, together with Arctic 5 regions? Could we define a smart specialisation strategy for

Arctic 5 regions?

9 At European level national and regional research and innovation strategies for smart specialization are called

RIS3 strategies. More information, see

https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/sources/docgener/presenta/smart_specialisation/smart_ris3_2012.pdf 10 More information, see. http://s3platform.jrc.ec.europa.eu/what-is-smart-specialisation-

38

The Regulation (EU) 1301/2013 of the European Parliament and the Council defines smart

specialisation strategy in following way. “Smart specialisation strategy means the national or

regional innovation strategies which set priorities in order to build competitive advantage by

developing and matching research and innovation own strengths to business needs in order to

address emerging opportunities and market developments in a coherent manner, while avoiding

duplication and fragmentation of efforts.”

Knowledge spillovers, technogy flows between the sectors and industries are typically viewed

as an important source of regional growth. Studies have shown that knowledge spillovers

between the industries are especially beneficial when these industries share a common

knowledge/technology base. Academic literature talks about the industries, which are

technology related. From the perspective of regional growth, it means that knowledge flows

support regional development only if regional industry structure is diversified in a way that

industries are technologically closely related (related variety, in Finnish yhteenkietoutunut

moninaisuus) (Boschma and Frenken 2009). Regions benefit most from sectoral diversity when

the sectors are interlinked and complementary. A region specialising in a particular composition

of complementary sectors will experience higher growth than a region specializing in sectors

that do not complement each other. According to Hartog, Boschma ja Sotarauta (2012), the role

of related variety and technological spillovers are especially important in the high technology

industries. However, it is not just the diversified industrial structure, which promotes regional

growth and is the most beneficial for regional growth. It is important to find such areas of core

expertise that links these region’s competence/focus areas together. Furthermore, the focus

should be on supporting those future growth areas that are linked to regional expertise and

benefit from public guidance and support.

Smart specialisation literature talks about the Key Enabling Technologies (KET) or General

Purpose Technologies (GPT) (Foray et al 2009, Foray & Goenaga 2013).11 General Purpose

11 Following six individual KETs have been identified by the European Commision: Nanotechnology (NT), Micro-

and Nanoelectronics,(MNE), Industrial Biotechnology (IB), Photonics (PHOT), Advanced Materials (AM), and

Advanced Manufacturing Technologies (AMT). Great expectations will be attached to these technologies in the

future, both in the a sense of economic growth and job creation, and they play a key role in defining areas of smart

specialization. (See e.g. http://ec.europa.eu/growth/industry/policy/key-enabling-technologies/european-

strategy_en )

39

Technology is such a major innovation/technology that can be utilized in a number of areas and

is involved through the emergence of new products, policies and services to create economic

growth. Equally well it can be that an individual GPT innovation or application (or combination

of different GPTs) or Key Enabling Technology (KET) makes it possible to enhance and renew

the existing, traditional manufacturing sector. For instance utilizing biotechnology applications

in the food industry or nanotechnology applications in the paper industry. In any way, we should

be able to define sectors and activities in which new or current technological adaptations can

most likely to be applied and which can benefit from knowledge spillovers. It is question about

the connectedness of the activities and sectors. Some regions may prioritize the development

of one or more Key Enabling Technologies (KETs), others will focus on applications of such

technologies to specific purposes or defined fields. Figure 2 on below tries to clarify the idea.

(Bresnahan 2010, Foray ym. 2009, Bresnahan & Trajtenberg 1995.)

Figure 2. General purpose technologies as links between the focus/competence areas.

Limited resources of regions emphasises the more precise identification of focus areas and the

possibilities of smart specialization not only within the regions but also between the regions. In

40

other words, we should find out what are those technology areas where we should target R&D

and other investments in a way that most effectively foster regional growth. All regions have

certain economic, technological and knowledge-based assets and strengths that can be utilised

effectively to bring about growth and economic transformation. Probably this type of analysis

work, i.e. investigation of what are the focus areas in different regions, has been done in all

participating Arctic 5 regions or at least there is good understanding what these focus areas are.

Another aspect of regional policy, exactly as the smart specialization argument posits, is to

focus on a peripheral region’s most connected industries, so that the regional industrial base is

best able to learn from the more advanced regions (see figure 2 above). In terms of the OECD

(2011b) regional-innovation typology, in the case of lagging, less advanced regions this would

imply ways of fostering learning linkages with either industrial production zones or knowledge

regions, whereas for industrial production zones it would imply fostering linkages with either

knowledge regions or sometimes other industrial zones. The role of less advanced regions might

be to focus on development of applications and incremental innovations. In a same way, most

of the leading regions are not necessarily inventors of generic technology, but they may be

successful in developing enterprise applications. It is clear that further development and

application of GPT innovations requires research and development activities as well as

knowledge intensive activities. Less advanced region might capture knowledge spillovers from

the leaders and leading regions may receive ideas from less advanced regions that helps them

to re-invent themselves. (Foray, 2013)

Therefore, in order for a smart specialization-type policy to work in a regional context, the

analytical focus must centre on ways to maximize the knowledge spillovers and learning

linkages within the regions as well as between regions. This means that we should to define

such technologies (areas of expertise) that might connect the focus areas of the different Arctic

5 regions. Especially beneficial this could be for those regions where are not such kind of

themes or technologies, which connect their existing focus areas together. This kind of a big

picture about the possibilities of smart specialization would provide a good basis for cross-

border cooperation work.

Why is it important to keep the number of priorities low? With fewer priorities, it is easier to

generate clusters that allow greater benefits such as agglomeration and scale benefits, and

41

knowledge spillovers in knowledge production. Choosing too many priorities can lead to a

fragmented model that offers little or no competitive advantage at all.12 Another challenge is

that priority areas should be defined precisely. Rather than prioritising some specific sector(s),

regions should have more detailed descriptions of their priorities. Selected areas of smart

specializations are typically technology fields or areas of expertise that combine different

sectors. In other words, they are at the cross-section of different sectors, technologies or

knowledge domains.

The selected set of priorities should focus on existing strengths of the regional economy and

emerging opportunities within. The selection process itself must be based on versatile

qualitative and quantitative information on the different areas of expertise in the regions.

Regional stakeholders, especially companies from various industries, research groups of

universities and research centres in different fields of expertise have an important role in this

search process. The idea is that they could together identify the most promising areas of

specialization in the region, but also any weaknesses that hamper innovation now. It is

important that major players and interest groups do not alone decide on these priorities, but the

final choices really reflect the situation and needs of the region. (Foray et al 2009.)

Based on these principles of smart specialisation strategy, the aim of this report is to investigate,

through the lenses of smart specialization, whether there are such kind of competence areas in

these urban A5 regions, which might provide new possibilities for intensified cross-border

cooperation involving representatives of both industry and academia especially in Arctic 5 city-

regions. Smart specialisation strategy means that regions should define and make choices for

investments. Difficulty is that regions should focus and decide on investments. Regions should

be able to identify together those technological areas and the areas of economic activity where

they have a competitive advantage now and hopefully in the future too. What are those areas

where regions have potential to generate innovation activities to support their own knowledge-

driven growth, and maybe to tackle the major and most urgent challenges for the society at

global level too? In addition, it is important to avoid ineffective "business as usual strategies"

that spread government support thinly to a number of sectors or imitate other successful regions.

12 More information, see http://www.s3platform.eu/4-priority-setting/ .

42

Imitating other regions can lead to a situation where we have small clusters in several regions

and they focus on same things.

All Arctic 5 cities and regions have their own strong innovation sectors. Their universities and

other research institutes have worldwide known research, expertise in several fields e.g. health,

biotechnology, various fields of engineering, ICT etc. As shown in the previous chapter, there

are ongoing research cooperation in various fields of research between A5 universities.

Research projects in a field of bioeconomy, e.g. circular economy, cleantech or energy e.g. in

Oulu, Luleå and Umeå as well as in Kemi/Tornio regions are good examples of utilising of

these regions strong expertise in various fields of ICT for instance. Another good example

multidisciplinary research fields is eHealth sector of Oulu region. Oulu has become to known

as an innovative city within this field by combining its strong expertise in wireless expertise to

health and life science.

The utilisation of remote sensing technologies (especially in Tromso and Luleå region) in the

ocean research and the climate change research is also a good example of multidisciplinary

research. Remote sensing research community of Tromso has cooperation with universities and

other research units in Luleå and Oulu e.g. in a field of mining. Umeå region owns a strong and

long tradition in a field of Artificial Intelligence, Machine learning and Interactive simulation.

This knowledge has already been utilised in various sectors, e.g. maritime and mining sectors

as well in design (and even in pedagogy and finance). Centre for distance-spanning technology

(CDT) is one of the many centers of excellence in Luleå Technical University. Its Cloudberry

project is an excellent example of interdisciplinary research projects in this field. The goal of

the project is to provide new knowledge about the energy and resource-efficient solutions in

data centers. (Internet of things, complex cognitive systems and communication networks are

other key areas of CDT). Mining, metallurgy and forestry industries, which have had an

important role as an employer already for decades in the Kemi region, can now utilise the strong

bioeconomy expertise of the area.

It seems that we have many multidisciplinary projects, which are now more or less region

specific (e.g. Remote sensing research in Tromso or Printed Intellegence in Oulu). Could such

a multidisciplinary region specific cooperation projects extend beyond borders? On the other

hand, could we find new areas, where strong expertise of the Arctic 5 regions for instance in

43

remote sensing, artificial intelligence or printed intelligence could be utilised? Is it be possible

to find to find such kind of KETs and GPTs which would link some focus areas of Arctic 5

regions across borders? Figure 3 on below clarifies the idea.

Figure 3. Regional and cross-border possibilities for smart specialisation

According to Forey (2013), areas where the region(s) hopes to excel can be achieved for

instance in a following way: 13

1. Transition path from an existing set of collective capabilities of region to the

foundations of a new business. “Marriage” of existing two strong industries, e.g. textile

and chemical industries in Lyon.

2. Complementarity between a GPT / KET application and a traditional sector (upgrading

or modernisation) E.g. ICT applications in tourism and the exploration of bio-

technology potentials in the agrofood industry.

3. Diversification, where potential synergies/economies of scope can be achieved between

an existing activity and a new one. Application of current knowledge and innovations

in a new field.

4. Radical foundation where the new domain is founded with no direct link with existing

structures.

44

Next, we will introduce some ideas how the strong expertise of different Arctic 5 regions could

be utilised more or less in a similar way. Most of them can be viewed as cases where we try to

find complementary between a GPT / KET application and a traditional sector (case 2).

5.2 Proposal for the areas of cooperation

As we have seen, there is a lot of ongoing cross-border cooperation between A5 universities

and regions in numbers of fields such as health, circular economy, and mining. In this report,

the approach has been slightly different. We have tried to find suitable new areas of cooperation

based on the following principles.

- Cooperation areas are based on regions´ strengths and comparative, knowledge based

assets both on academic and industry level.

- Expanding cooperation in areas that offer new ideas for ongoing collaboration (i.e. not

a business as usual, e.g. broadly defined thematic network cooperation).

- Expanding cooperation to a limited number of priority areas.

- Selected priority areas link regions' competence/focus areas broadly together.

- The selected areas are in line with global technological megatrends and address/tackle

different global challenges.

Our proposition for new possible areas of cross-border cooperation are.

A. Remote sensing technology. Remote sensing (the acquisition of information from a

distance, https://learn.arcgis.com/en/arcgis-imagery-book/chapter2/ ) methods are a fast

evolving technique enabling more precise, reliable and cost-efficient data collection.

Now this technology is mainly used (as far as we know) in the field of environmental

and maritime research, e.g. in climate change research. New areas of utilization (or at

least areas where it could be utilised more) could be fish farming, forestry (optimisation

of logging), farming (use of fertilizers and its effect of growth), town planning, traffic

solution (unmanned vehicles), water quality research, oil industry. The processing of

remote sensing data is demanding and for efficient use and development of these

methods needs experts from several fields. RESEM project (Remote Sensing supporting

45

surveillance and operation of Mines), where the aim is to develop new opportunities to

use remote sensing data from satellites and unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) in mining

safety and environmental monitoring, would provide a good starting point for extended

cross-border cooperation. The main partners in that project are University of Oulu,

Norut (Northern Research Institute) from Tromsø and Technical university of Luleå.

Centre for integrated remote sensing and forecasting for arctic operations (CIRFA) in

Tromso is a knowledge hub for research and development on Arctic surveillance

technologies, with leading expertise in disciplines such as remote sensing. Arctic Drone

Labs, a drone application ecosystem coordinated by the Oulu University of Applied

Science (https://www.arcticdronelabs.com/), and which is a member of European wide

Digital Innovation Hub (DIH) network, could well be a partner in this field of

research/innovation.14 University of Oulu and VTT Technical Research Centre of

Finland are research partners (among many others) in that ecosystem.

Most potential regions of cooperation: Tromso, Oulu, Luleå

B. Printed intelligence. Printed intelligence is a fast-developing area of technology that

has become increasingly popular in the previous years. It requires knowledge both in

natural sciences such as chemistry and physics, and engineering. At the moment

application focus areas range from rapid disposable diagnostics (eHealth/Wellness),

smart flexible lighting and wearables to Internet-of-Things with sensors and energy

harvesting. Printed intelligence solution offers interesting new possibilities for many

sectors such as automotive industry, construction and design. Tourism, e.g. ski resorts

in Northern Finland could well provide a test environment for different kind of

solutions. PrintoCent, located in Oulu has wide global network of international

companies and partners. In Oulu region more than 300 experts are working in this

industry. Wireless technology expertise of Oulu region is already connected to the

Printed intelligence sector. Design research in Umeå and Rovaniemi, and AI research

14 Arctic Drone Labs is a part of the Allied ICT Finland network (https://alliedict.fi/ ).

46

in Umeå could well be interested in cooperation in this field. At the moment cooperation

of this sector between the Arctic 5 regions is limited.

Most potential regions of cooperation: Oulu, Umeå, Luleå, Rovaniemi

C. Artificial intelligence. The increasing digitalisation, the use of smart technologies and

solutions of artificial intelligence (e.g. machine learning and computing) offers new

opportunities and challenges in many sectors, for instance in energy sector, health

technology and environmental technology. How to handle and utilise big data/analyse

growing volumes of all forms of data (big data analytics,

https://searchbusinessanalytics.techtarget.com/definition/big-data-analytics ) is a big

question in both research and business world. This knowledge has already been utilised

in various sectors, e.g. logistics (road traffic), maritime, healthcare and mining sectors

as well. Fields such as design, education (Learning & Pedagogy), tourism (e.g. utilising

of big data how to provide right services at the right time for users, i.e. how to provide

smart tourism experiences), could benefit this type of multidisciplinary cooperation.

Umeå region owns a strong and long tradition in a field of Artificial Intelligence,

Machine learning and Interactive simulation. One international project where Umeå is

involved is The Humane AI (http://www.humane-ai.eu/). Targets of that project are

highly similar what Gen Z (https://www.oulu.fi/genz/), strategic profiling theme of the

University of Oulu, funded by the Academy of Finland has. Oulu in turn has a strong

expertise in Robotics (Biomimetics and Intelligent Systems Group,

https://www.oulu.fi/bisg/ ) and Machine vision too (Center for Machine Vision and

Signal Analysis, https://www.oulu.fi/cmvs/ ). Furthermore, OuluHealth ecosystem

offers excellent development and testing environment to explore and exploit emerging

technologies (AI, deep learning, big data analytics, etc.) in the next-generation digital

solutions. The research of the Bothia Living lab in Luleå deals to some extent similar

kind of things, although their approach is more related to design and development of

digital service innovations with users and other stakeholders in their real life context,

47

i.e. smart city type of research. (https://www.ltu.se/research/subjects/information-

systems/Botnia-Living-Lab?l=en).

Most potential regions of cooperation: Umeå, Oulu, Luleå, Rovaniemi

D. Circular economy / Cleantech: Global warming has increased people’s awareness of

the environmental questions and protection of the environment. People are increasingly

interested in reducing their own carbon footprint, for instance in a form of using of

alternative, renewable energy sources and eco-friendly food. Firms are interested in

solutions, which maximise the use of materials. This provides huge business

opportunities for firms, and of course for universities and other research institutions in

a form of increasing research funding. Circular economy and cleantech sectors are good

examples of multidisciplinary research fields, which combines and utilise expertise of

various fields, e.g. ICT, engineering and biotechnology. Luleå University of

Technology is one of the world leading universities in the development of sustainable,

energy-efficient and environmentally friendly systems and processes. Furthermore,

Arctic Industry and Circular Economy cluster is one of the Lapland smart specialisation

clusters (activities are concentrated into Kemi-Tornio region). These

research/innovation environments together together with the strong expertise of the

universities of Umeå and Oulu, e.g. in bioeconomy sector would provide an excellent

network / development platform for the circular economy sector. The actors of the

Arctic Industry and Circular Economy cluster, especially Lapland University of Applied

Sciences have been an active partner in EU projects already for years, and it has ongoing

research cooperation with arctic5 regions, especially with Luleå and Oulu.

Most potential regions of cooperation: Luleå, Rovaniemi/Kemi, Umeå, Oulu

Furthermore, we can name at least one area, where potential synergies can be achieved between

an existing activity and a new one. In other words to apply current knowledge and innovations

in a new field (case 3).

48

A. Biotechnology. Biotechnology is broad and one of the growing field in the

developing world and it is closely tied to for instance to food production, health and

other dimensions of human well-being as well as renewable biofuels. Tromso region

has strong expertise in specialized sectors of Blue/Marine biotechnology (Marine

biodiscovery, Marine bioprocessing, Marine biotechnology (blue biotechnology refers

to aquaculture and marine). Biotechnology is one of the strong innovation sectors in

Umeå too. Their research (as far as we know) is focused on plant and forest

biotechnology, i.e. Green biotechnology (colour green refers to the agriculture or food,

plant and environment). In Oulu research is diversified including Red (health and

medical sector including diseases & diagnostics) and Grey/White biotechnology (the

industrial sector) research.15 Biotechnology is one of the strongest innovation sectors

in Umeå too. World-wide known expertise of University of Umeå in a selected fields of

biotechnology might offer interesting opportunities for other biotechnology sectors. So

there might be potential areas of cross-border cooperation at least between the blue and

green biotechnology sectors in the field of food industry related e.g. fish farming,

reindeer meat processing, utilisation of berries, cultivation and exploitation/usage of

seaweed, growing of potatoes etc. Tromsø’s biotechnology community, organized

within the biotech cluster “Biotech North”, with approximately 500 researchers and

around 30 organizations from both the private and public sector could provide a starting

point for cross-border cooperation. For instance, UiT has a cooperation with the

ferrosilicon producer Finnfjord AS where CO2 in factory smoke is transformed into

marine biomass by microalgae-based photosynthesis. The algae can provide a plethora

of valuable products (food, feed, biofuel). In this sector, we could also find cross-border

synergies between test laboratories. WAX research project (Natural Wax of Arctic

Berries) is a good example of the multidisciplinary, cross-border projects on this field

and could be utilised as a pilot project.

Most potential regions of cooperation: Tromso, Umeå, Oulu,

15 https://www.cenetrionline.org/blog/color-code-biotechnology/

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Other type of cooperation – The use of test laboratories, the cooperation between

incubator organizations, the organization of thematic seminars

Interviews that we made revealed the need and willingness to increase cooperation in other

areas too. Utilization of test laboratories across borders is one of these areas. All regions have

unique test laboratories in their strong areas of expertise. Oulu region has over 30 different

types of laboratories for researchers and firms in a field of 5G mobile/wireless networks, and

eHealth and wellness, for instance. Tromso and Umeå has various type of laboratories e.g. on

the biotechnology sector that are available not only local firms and researchers but for external

actors too. In Luleå, the full-size testing environment, Cloudberry data center provides excellent

opportunities for cooperation of researcher and firms. What comes to the testing environment

in general, ski resorts in Northern Finland and other centers of tourism could well be a testing

ground of the application and development of numerous technological advances in a field of

printed intelligence and wireless communication solution for instance. 16

Business incubators in all regions are also interested in sharing their knowledge across borders.

Oulu region has an expertise in patenting and Luleå has knowledge about the commercialization

of research results. Incubators in Umeå and Tromso are also interested in this type of

cooperation. It would be easy to organize workshops or seminars to share the ideas and

experiences between these organizations.

There are not that many thematic networks between the Arctic 5 universities in a similar way

as UArctic network has. UArctic has almost 50 different thematic networks, which foster

issues-based cooperation within networks (https://www.uarctic.org/organization/thematic-

networks/ ). Nowadays Arctic 5 cooperation takes place in the following thematic areas: energy,

mining and health, regional development, learning and issues related to Sami/indigenous

peoples. It would be easy to extend this type of cooperation for instance to fields presented

previously in this report. That kind of cooperation would strengthen the position of Arctic 5

16 See e.g. Special Issue on Tourism Competitiveness in the Digital Economy. Investigaciones Regionales –

Journal of Regional Research, 42, 2018. https://investigacionesregionales.org/en/article/special-issue-on-tourism-

competitiveness-in-the-digital-economy/

50

universities and the whole Arctic 5 organization in the UArctic network. Now interregional

cooperation is very project-based. All in all, it is clear (on the basis of many comments) that we

need more systematic cooperation, not that people meet by chance.

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6 CONCLUSIONS

In this report, we have focused on the cities of the Arctic 5 regions. They are in many ways the

engine of growth in these regions. The growth of these cities has a positive impact on the

surrounding regions. Multidisciplinary universities in these regions play a leading role in the

innovation activity. Their role is emphasised in the world where most of the innovations take

place at different interfaces of science. However, there is space for intensified cooperation

among the actors of regional innovation ecosystems across the borders. The aim of this report

is to provide academic insights for further discussion on whether it is possible to identify such

areas of competence areas/expertise, which could provide opportunities to enhance cross-border

cooperation involving representatives of both industry and academia of these five regions.

Nowadays Smart specialisation strategy forms the core idea of the EU regional innovation

policy. Another key theme of regional policy is the concept of regional resilience. Academic

literature defines regional resilience as the capability of regions to anticipate, prepare for,

respond to, and recover from the environmental, economic and technological shocks. Capability

of regions to adapt to shocks is closely linked to the forms of regional innovation networks,

regional industrial structures, structures of ecosystems, entrepreneurial culture, mobility of

labour and the policy measures of the regional authorities. Well-defined cross-border smart

specialisation would increase the resilience of the innovation ecosystems of these regions, and

promote their regional, sustainable growth. This policy would be in the line with policy

recommendation of OECD, which encourages northern sparsely populated areas (NSPA) to

collaborate on joint opportunities related to their smart specialisation strategies.17

Smart specialisation is a challenging concept and by no means a trivial question or policy to

implement. However, it is interesting to think about what kind of synergy cross-border smart

specialisation strategy, implemented in one way or another, could provide for Arctic 5 regions.

Furthermore, what kind of a message and learning results could the Arctic 5 smart specialisation

17 See e.g. http://www.nspa-network.eu/news/oecd-report-launched-in-brussels.aspx The report “OECD

Territorial Reviews: Northern Sparsely populated Areas”, published in 2017 is available at: https://read.oecd-

ilibrary.org/urban-rural-and-regional-development/oecd-territorial-reviews-the-northern-sparsely-populated-

areas_9789264268234-en#page1 .

52

strategy could provide for other countries in Europe? It has become clear that the organisations

of EU in various levels are interested in the cross-border innovation opportunities of these

particular regions.

53

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Appendix: Research profiles of Arctic 5 regions and research topics of the cross-border Arctic

5 research cooperation

Luleå:

Oulu:

56

Lapland:

Tromso:

57

Umeå:

Cross-border research cooperation of A5 regions in a form of co-authored research

papers (2000 latest articles from all fields of research, 100 keywords, authors from 2- 5 Arctic

5 universities. Source: Scopus):