1. food and drink
2. cuisines
3. regional cuisine

Cross-border actions for integrated
smart specialisation
Olav Jern
County Chief Executive
”Cross-border Integrated Areas in Science
and Practice”
AEBR Annual Conference, Liège 07/11/2013
Österbottens förbund • Pohjanmaan liitto • Regional Council of Ostrobothnia
www.obotnia.fi
Kvarken Region - Common history
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Cohesion
Trade
Communications
Family connections
Commuting
Studies
Culture
Tourism
Österbottens förbund • Pohjanmaan liitto • Regional Council of Ostrobothnia
www.obotnia.fi
Ostrobothnia
Österbotten
Pohjanmaa
Österbottens förbund • Pohjanmaan liitto • Regional Council of Ostrobothnia
www.obotnia.fi
LAND UPLIFT CREATED OUR REGION
Stones everywhere
Narrow passages – not easy to navigate
A lot of needlework to
make a net – first
steps towards
industrial
manufacturing
Österbottens förbund • Pohjanmaan liitto • Regional Council of Ostrobothnia
www.obotnia.fi
The Kvarken Archipelago
•
Ostrobothnia is literally rising from
the sea
•
Land uplift is a unique natural
phenomenon, which continuously
alters the coastline of Ostrobothnia.
•
Land is rising from the sea at a speed
of eight millimetres a year.
•
The Kvarken Archipelago was listed on
the UNESCO World Heritage list in the
summer 2006
•
The Kvarken Archipelago together with
the High Coast in Sweden form a unique
geological entity and a transboundary
World Natural Heritage Site.
•
The Kvarken Archipelago is Finland's
first World Natural Heritage
Österbottens förbund • Pohjanmaan liitto • Regional Council of Ostrobothnia
www.obotnia.fi
The Kvarken Region
The narrowest part of the Gulf of Bothnia between
Sweden and Finland is called Kvarken.
• Distance from coast to coast: Ca. 80 km
• Distance between the outmost
islands: Ca. 25 km
Kvarken is the strait separating the Bothnian
Bay in the north and the Bothnian Sea in
the south, and it forms a shallow underwater
threshold between Finland and Sweden.
The largest water depth in Kvarken is
only 25 metres.
Gulf of Bothnia
Österbottens förbund • Pohjanmaan liitto • Regional Council of Ostrobothnia
www.obotnia.fi
Regional facts
The Kvarken Region in Finland:
• The County of Ostrobothnia
• The County of South Ostrobothnia
• The County of Central Ostrobothnia
• 35 municipalities
• Area: 28 248 km2
• Ca. 22 % of the population Swedish
speaking
The Kvarken Region in Sweden:
• The County of Västerbotten
• The Municipality of Örnsköldsvik
• 16 municipalities
• Area: 61 822 km2
•
•
•
•
10 universities
8 hospitals
10 airports
8 major harbours
Österbottens förbund • Pohjanmaan liitto • Regional Council of Ostrobothnia
www.obotnia.fi
Business
•
•
•
•
•
•
Energy and technology
Mechanical industry
Wood and process industry
Mining industry
Food industry
Tourism
The business sector in the Kvarken is
dynamic and versatile.
The population has a high degree of education
thanks to a well-developed university network.
On the Swedish side mechanical industry,
wood- and process industry, IT and
communication, and mining are the
cornerstones of the business sector.
On the Finnish side, manufacturing industry is well
represented. The largest energy technology cluster in the
Nordic countries is located in Vaasa, over 100 companies
with 10 000 employees. Also the food industry, boat
building industry and wood and process industry are
important.
Österbottens förbund • Pohjanmaan liitto • Regional Council of Ostrobothnia
www.obotnia.fi
... business
Österbottens förbund • Pohjanmaan liitto • Regional Council of Ostrobothnia
www.obotnia.fi
The Kvarken
Council
www.kvarken.org
The Kvarken Council is a cross border
cooperation association for the
Ostrobothnian counties in Finland as well
as Västerbotten and Örnsköldsvik in
Sweden.
The Kvarken Council is one of eleven
Nordic cross border bodies which are
funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers.
Österbottens förbund • Pohjanmaan liitto • Regional Council of Ostrobothnia
www.obotnia.fi
Gränsöverskridande samarbete över fjäll och hav
Meret, vuoret ja rajat ylittävä yhteistyö
Grenseoverskridende samarbeid over fjell og hav
Cross-border cooperation over mountain and sea
Nordland
Mo i Rana
Atl
an
te
n·
Atl
an
tt
i·
Atl
an
tic
Oc
ea
n
Bodø
Västerbotten
Kokkola
Karleby
·G
ulf
Umeå
of
B
otn
ia
Skellefteå
Po
hja
n
lah
ti
Keski-Pohjanmaa
Mellersta Österbotten
Örnsköldsvik
Vaasa
Vasa
vik
en
·
Sollefteå
Bo
ttn
isk
a
Härnösand
Österbotten
Pohjanmaa
Västernorrland
Sundsvall
Nordanstig
Norge
Norja
Norway
Oslo
Gävleborg
Bollnäs
Sverige
Ruotsi
Sweden
Hudiksvall
Pori
Björneborg
Rauma
Raumo
Seinäjoki
Etelä-Pohjanmaa
Södra Österbotten
Suomi
Finland
Satakunta
Ulvila
Eura
Helsinki
Helsingfors
Söderhamn
Sandviken
Gävle
Stockholm
EUROPEAN UNION
European Development Fund
European Territorial Cooperation
Cross-border Cooperation
Österbottens förbund • Pohjanmaan liitto • Regional Council of Ostrobothnia
Programme Area – EU
Programme Area – Norway
Adjacent Area
Town >100 000 inh.
Town > 50 000 inh.
Town > 20 000 inh.
Town > 10 000 inh.
TEN/E Road
TEN Railroad
Ferry Line
www.obotnia.fi
Population Density
Österbottens förbund • Pohjanmaan liitto • Regional Council of Ostrobothnia
www.botnia-atlantica.eu
www.obotnia.fi
Europeiska unionen
Euroopan unioni
The European Union
Cross-border learning strategies
• Systems of innovation that are conducted within national
borders can preserve inefficient solutions and prevent
development. This has led to a feeling that cross-border
and transnational learning strategies are more and more
desirable.
• In practice, the field of transnational learning has been
dominated by various policy-making institutions, such as
the OECD and European Union, working through different
types of policy instruments and programs such as structural
funds, open methods of coordination, as well as
international research institutions and networks set up by
cooperating national governments working on comparative
analysis, benchmarking and indicators.
Österbottens förbund • Pohjanmaan liitto • Regional Council of Ostrobothnia
www.obotnia.fi
Double loop
• The field has been dominated by “single loop learning”, direct
attempts to identify and transfer what appear to be successful
experiences, with relatively little attention paid to the “double
loop” question, or learning how to learn. Results are mixed.
• Attempts to transfer “good” or “best” practice solutions often do
not give proper attention to the unique historical, structural and
spatial factors making up the “good practices” as compared to the
context of the receiving areas. When generalized development
strategies, such as “cluster” policies, tried to adapt to this difficulty
by becoming more general, they were seen as “fuzzy”, imprecise
and unfit as policy development tools.
• In looking at transfer projects, such as those organized by Interreg
more in detail, learning more often than not is isolated to the
transnational project itself, and not absorbed and applied in
practice by the domestic partner organizations.
Österbottens förbund • Pohjanmaan liitto • Regional Council of Ostrobothnia
www.obotnia.fi
Knowledge management
• The core of a successful method is
exploration, identification, analysis,
evaluation and transfer of good practices
between regions in different countries.
Österbottens förbund • Pohjanmaan liitto • Regional Council of Ostrobothnia
www.obotnia.fi
Smart specialisation
• The smart specialization strategy is focusing on the need to
develop a variety of strategies, taking the unique
characteristics of each region into consideration.
• On this basis, it focuses on the development of innovation
systems. It is an integrated, place-based economic
transformation strategy.
• In order to avoid lock-ins, transnational learning should be
an integrated part of the entrepreneurial discovery process
of the regions, supporting economic change. One way to
gather the crucial critical mass and arenas for related
variety is deeper transnational co-operation between
institutions in peripheral regions in different countries.
Österbottens förbund • Pohjanmaan liitto • Regional Council of Ostrobothnia
www.obotnia.fi
What is the issue?
• Europe industrial sector(clusters) are not large world class clusters.
• European research system is mostly nationally based, resources do not
cross borders.
• The lack of imagination when regions set their development targets.
Österbottens förbund • Pohjanmaan liitto • Regional Council of Ostrobothnia
www.obotnia.fi
Why now?
• Setting innovation as priority for all regions (Europe 2020)
and improving innovation (strategy) process.
• Cohesion policy 2014-2020 indicates the existence of RIS3 as
precondition/ ex-ante conditionality for using ERDF for effective
research and innovation investments.
• Better use of scarce public resources, aiming for synergies
between EU, national/regional and private funds (PPPs).
Österbottens förbund • Pohjanmaan liitto • Regional Council of Ostrobothnia
www.obotnia.fi
What is smart specialization?
“Involves business, research centers and universities working
together to identify a region’s most promising areas of
specialization, but also the weaknesses that hamper
innovation. It takes account of the different capacities of
regional economies to innovate.”
EC COM(2010)553 Regional policy contributing to
smart growth in Europe 2020
Österbottens förbund • Pohjanmaan liitto • Regional Council of Ostrobothnia
www.obotnia.fi
What should be done in S3?
“It is an entrepreneurial process of self-discovery,
that can reveal what a region /country does best
in terms of science and technology.”
D. Foray, P.A. David&B.H. Hall: Smart Specialization
- the concept (2009)
Österbottens förbund • Pohjanmaan liitto • Regional Council of Ostrobothnia
www.obotnia.fi
... business
Österbottens förbund • Pohjanmaan liitto • Regional Council of Ostrobothnia
www.obotnia.fi
Österbottens förbund • Pohjanmaan liitto • Regional Council of Ostrobothnia
www.obotnia.fi
Good
practices
are easy to
discover,
but hard to
transfer
The
project
learning
paradox
Österbottens förbund • Pohjanmaan liitto • Regional Council of Ostrobothnia
www.obotnia.fi
Discoveries through mutual learning
Österbottens förbund • Pohjanmaan liitto • Regional Council of Ostrobothnia
www.obotnia.fi
Main points
1. EU 2020 and S3 provides a framework for R&D-cooperation
2. Patterns of innovation differens between the centre-pheripery (STI-DUI)
cross-border regions have a role to play in the formulation and execution
of policies
3. Research on innovation should not be limited to technical fields only e.g.
Ostrobothnian companies innovates with customers and networking
4. Learning within the triple-helix is vital but also learning in a transnational
environment
Österbottens förbund • Pohjanmaan liitto • Regional Council of Ostrobothnia
www.obotnia.fi
Relations inside the triple-helix
ABB Motors – Piccolo Packing
Firms - Firms
Main branches / clusters
Merinova, Vasek
FirmsR/D
Wärtsilä - Hanken
Start-Up – ELY Center
Public
-R/DFirms
Firms Public
R/D Public
R/D – R/D
Vaasa Uni - VAMK
Public - Public
Vaasa – Regional
Council of
Ostrobothnia
Vaasa – Central hospital
Österbottens förbund • Pohjanmaan liitto • Regional Council of Ostrobothnia
www.obotnia.fi
Policy S3 process
Österbottens förbund • Pohjanmaan liitto • Regional Council of Ostrobothnia
www.obotnia.fi
Thank you for the attention…
Österbottens förbund • Pohjanmaan liitto • Regional Council of Ostrobothnia
28
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