Foreword
The regional development strategy (RUS) is an overall strategy document for building a sustainable future in Norrbotten. The strategy shall contribute to increased coordination between plans, programmes and strategies on different administrative levels and
sectorial areas. RUS makes choices for future, sustainable growth.
RUS includes, among the prioritised actions, below the Innovation and renewal headline, a mission to develop a Regional Innovation strategy. The strategy is to contribute to the further development of research and innovation systems, promote cutting edge
competence, smart specialisation and strengthen collaboration between universities, research, companies, society and the voluntary sector.
Norrbotten has, together with Västerbotten, in March 2012, handed in their point of view to the Ministry of Enterprise, Energy and Communications, for their work with a National Innovation strategy. This point of view formed a foundation and a start of the work with the Regional Innovation strategy for the county of Norrbotten. The continued work has led to this document.
During the development of the strategy, a working group with participants from various organisations have been working actively. The work has been anchored, and views have been gathered in dialogue meetings with a large number of parties.
The strategy is to be seen as part of the implementation of the Regional development strategy, and will contribute to the programmes that are to be developed for the coming structure fund period.
The Regional partnership has confirmed the Innovation strategy for the county of Norrbotten on the 25th of January 2013.
Contents
Page no
1 Introduction 3
2 The term innovation 3
3 Description of the current situation 6
4 How the county is to reach the vision and the targets 9 5 Development efforts to reach the vision and the targets 10
5.1 Development efforts for growth 12
5.2 Horizontal criteria – All actions are to be socially, ecologically
and financially sustainable 15
5.3 Focus areas 16
6 Effect measuring 19
7 Follow-up, learning and retrial 20
Appendix 1 The strategy’s connection to other programmes 21 Appendix 2 Current situation in the county of Norrbotten 25 Appendix 3 The composition of the working group 28
1 Introduction
Vision
A good innovation climate forms the foundation for more jobs and a more sustainable society with better quality of life and growth.
Norrbotten is characterized by groundbreaking ideas and new ways of thinking and doing for shaping the future in a global world.
The challenges facing the county, and indeed the whole country, are great and complex.
This means that no one party or area of society has the knowledge and resources to single-handedly come up with the required solutions. Therefore, it is important to continue to develop coordination between different parties to create the best possible conditions for innovation.
Purpose
The purpose of this strategy is to contribute to an innovation climate with the best possible conditions for innovation in Norrbotten. It shall become possible for more people, organisations and industries to develop and contribute to new or better solutions that respond to need and demand.
The regional innovation strategy also aims to find its way better among the parties, and collaborate better between parties and financiers. The idea is to get an efficient use of public funds and stimulate private investments. The contents of the strategy will be mirrored in future programmes in the structure funds.
Additionally, the strategy is to help to put focus on what Norrbotten is good at in the innovation area, and be used as a tool when priorities are made among ideas and projects.
Targets
Keep developing new and existing companies, innovative environments,
commercialisation, entrepreneurship and a more entrepreneurial environment to position Norrbotten as a strong, innovative region of Europe.
The strategy’s connections to other programmes are described in Appendix 1. An overview of how strategies, programmes and financing are connected from an EU level to a municipal level can also be found there.
2 The term innovation
The term innovation has been widened from previously including technical products and processes to now also including services, experiences, ways of organisation, marketing and how to take on social challenges together. Innovation occurs where
different parties collaborate and interact. Both women and men develop innovations, both in public and private operations. Innovations can, but do not have to be based on research. It can, for instance, be social innovations and societal entrepreneurship that are initiatives to improve what isn’t working or is missing in society building.
Innovations are often run in the intersection between the private, public and voluntary sectors. The term often includes the commercialisation of products and services.
Innovation is about new ways of adding value for society, companies and individuals.
The value comes from the implementation, use and spreading of an innovation. The created value can be financial, social and/or environmental. An innovation can be:
A new product or service
A new process or method for producing a product or service
A new way of organising work, business operations or relationships with external parties
A new market or new ways of reaching and communicating with customers and users on the markets
New competencies, resources or materials 1
In the work with the regional innovation strategy, the choice was made to limit the strategy to certain focus areas and focus on the core term when it comes to innovation.
An innovation is a new idea regarding e.g. a product, solution or service, but they are not labelled as innovations until they have been accepted (used) on a commercial market or implemented in actual operations, e.g. health care.
The work takes place within an innovation system, which consists of a collection of parties, networks and institutions that are mutually dependent on each other. The parties can be large and small businesses, knowledge organisations such as universities and research institutes2, authorities and organisations, and they are involved in a complex web of formal and informal networks. When it comes to innovation systems, it is not always a question of formalised, functional relationships, but rather of various party constellations to work in harmony with each other and thereby be mutually strengthening.
1See also http://www.regeringen.se/sb/d/14440/a/201291
2 The university of the county is Luleå University of Technology (LTU), which from now on will be called the university. The research institutes of the county are Interactive Institute Swedish ICT in Piteå, Energy Technical Centre in Piteå, Swerea Sicomp in Piteå, Swerea Mefos in Luleå, Winternet in Boden, Esrange in Kiruna and IRF (The Swedish Institute for Space Physics) in Kiruna. They will be called research institutes from now on.
Fig. 1: Innovative systems3
The above diagram summarises how Norrbotten views innovations and collaboration in innovation systems. The regional innovation system of clusters of innovative companies working together to develop new, innovative solutions for a market is described here.
The companies are, however, supported by research and education organisations, and various forms of technology supply organisations and incubators that all work as
support resources for the companies. These also receive support from the policy system in the shape of supranational, national and regional authorities and organisations that supply different forms of support, e.g. in terms of financing.
Innovations can also be developed by individual entrepreneurs and innovators who, in collaboration with knowledge based resources and with access to capital at all stages, can contribute to the development of the region. These types of innovations and innovative collaborations also need to be recognised as a tool for the region’s future development. It is also important to support smaller entrepreneurs and encourage entrepreneurial attitudes. New ways and methods of working should be promoted, which in itself leads to the development of innovation tools. Ways and methods of working that promote openness between the different areas enables the finding of
3 The Fig. is a development of ”Innovations and regional innovation systems” according to Cooke et al. 2007
Offentliga forsknings- organisationer
Partners
Leverantörer Kunder
Regionala utvecklings- organisationer Policyskapande
organisationer
Utbildningsorganisation er Teknikspridnings- organisationer, inkubatorer
Konkurrenter
Andra RIS EU-baserad policy Internationella organisationer
Andra regionala IS Policy för nationella IS Nationella IS
Kunskapsutveckling och spridning
Kunskapsbaserade applikationer och system för exploatering
Regionalt policysystem
Brokers/
mäklare FoU-
kompetens
Högkvalitativ arbetskraft
Finansiering, subsidier, innovations- och klusterpolitik
innovations in the intersection points between different focuses and technology areas.
New approaches, new ways of working and new incentive systems are needed.
What has been loosely described above is a playing field for the regional innovation strategy, where actions can relate to initiatives directed at various parts of Fig. 1, page 5.
Through and through or step by step innovations
Developing ideas for new products, services, processes/technology and markets is an important driving force for company and regional development and competitiveness.
Innovations can however, involve various degrees of uniqueness and newsworthiness, where some are ”new to the world” (through and through or radical innovations based on a level of technolgy and completely new solutions), while others are ”new to the region/company”, but don’t have the same level of technology/newsworthiness (step by step or so called incremental innovations).
Traditionally, the former type of innovation is valued in Sweden, while innovations built on clever copying of other people’s solutions are often looked down upon. From a
development perspective however, both these types of innovations create value, both for companies and society, and form a basis for developing competitiveness, profitability and new jobs in companies and regions alike. The two forms of innovation are however, built on different forms of developmental logic, and require different types of resources and support structures. Hence, radical innovations benefit from being developed in more dense and knowledge intensive environments with good access to venture capital – environments that can often be found close to universities and research institutes.
Innovations of lower knowledge content, based on clever copying, can, on the other hand, benefit from being developed in less dense environments.
3 Description of the current situation
The regional development strategy (RUS) describes a number of parameters of great significance to regional development, and thereby also to the development of a regional innovation strategy. These are described in more detail in appendix 2, page 25.
For the development of the regional innovation strategy, there are different types of innovations; they can be the through and through/radical or the step by
step/incremental type of innovation, and they can be commercialised by established or new companies.
Fig. 2: A playing field to analyse the regional innovation system
In Norrbotten as well as in other regions, most innovations are improvements on and developments of existing products and services, and they are normally produced by companies that are already established in the region (sector A in the Fig.). This is where the ongoing product development that takes place both in basic industry and in other enterprising, and that includes both new products, services and production and operational organisation, can be found.4 Sometimes, this development work does however, lead to innovations of high news value (sector C). New companies developing products and services that are completely new to the world (sector D) do exist in the region, but they are the exception rather than the rule. The majority of new businesses involve starting new companies to offer the market already established products and services with a low degree of actual news value (sector B).
If focus is instead put on support parties that are active in this playing field, it will be found here as well that these have partly different target groups and ambitions.
Research and development organisations such as universities and research institutes have, together with many technology supply organisations, the ambition to develop completely new and radical innovative solutions, but they work with task based R&D involving innovative development in smaller steps just as often. The venture capital industry includes parties that very much like to see innovative investments, but that at the same time are dependent on reaching a balanced result, and therefore like to invest in remunerative projects with a calculable risk. Some new enterprising organisations focus on providing services for individuals with ambitions for new enterprises,
regardless of the level of innovation of the business idea, while other organisations have as their explicit business idea to only work with innovative ideas with great export
4 There is currently a clear trend in industry to develop offers including both products and services.
potential. Put together, all these parties, alongside companies and
entrepreneurs/innovators form a multifaceted, regional innovation system.
Fig. 3 below shows how these parties either support ideas in the earliest or last phases of the development of the product or service. For the first three steps inspiration, idea development and prototype there are supportive parties and opportunities for
financing. This means that many ideas get stuck in what is widely known as ”the valley of death”, i.e. the product and service development steps that apply to more expensive prototypes, first market trials or initial market establishment, as these areas don’t have as good opportunities for financing etc.
Fig. 3: The innovation process and how it is to lead towards more products and services for a market.
To see what development routes/strategies are possible and should be most valid for the region, using the playing field in Fig.2, page 7 as a starting point. The conclusion is thus:
Future regional innovations are sure to maintain their emphasis on
incremental/step by step innovations, developed by existing companies (sector A of Fig. 2). It is important that support parties that are active in the regional
innovation system contribute to this by delivering the competence that is needed (training, competent new staff members, advisory efforts, committee members etc.), venture capital, networks and meeting points to enable cross-fertilisation etc.
It is just as important to support opportunities for the development of more radical innovations in the shape of new technologies, new functional products (combinations of products and services packaged as a long-term and sustainable way of satisfying market/customer needs), new experiences in the visitor
industry etc. These types of innovations benefit from collaboration within the so- called knowledge triangle where research and education in close collaboration with the resources of established companies contribute to brand new solutions.
Even though a majority of new enterprising is aimed at offering markets products and services with a low degree of innovative content (i.e. operate in sector B of Fig. 2), new companies generally make up an important component of the
regional innovation system and contribute with valuable employment opportunities and, through their supply of products and services, contribute towards a more attractive region. The regional innovation strategy should therefore include support to this part of the regional innovation system as well.
This support should, in the future as well, be able to generate occasional new companies in sector D of Fig. 2 as a form of ”spill-over” or bonus.
Finally, efforts also need to be made to give more parties the opportunity to actively support innovations in the ”valley of death” as well, with specific efforts, activities and programmes.
4 How the county is to reach the vision and the targets
The person
To create an innovation, one or more people must dare, want, be able and allowed to think in a new way. Innovation is to combine old thoughts and components in new ways, often as an idea sprung from the meeting between those that are, or that which is
different. Thus, for innovations to appear, the surroundings have to be permissive. The surroundings have to accept that people sometimes make mistakes, but it also has to allow people to succeed – regardless of gender, transgressive gender identity or expression, ethnic origin, religion or other belief, functional impairment, sexual
orientation or age. ”It doesn’t matter how good an innovation system we have if we don’t also have individuals who refuse to realise that something is impossible” 5
Key people prepared to show the way and take responsibility
An innovative region and successful innovation work is among other things
characterised by clear leadership, a permissive climate, dynamics and a great variety of ideas, companies and so on. Leadership can be exercised by one or several people or organisations that is/are passionate about promoting the development of the region. For the innovation work to take effect, it is important to make all the leaders stand up for the region and work together for the development of the region. This does not mean that one has to agree on one way of working, but rather that a variety of parallel ways, all striving towards the common target can be in operation. It is important to regional development that everyone leads with clarity in their arena, and supports the joint regional innovation process, and that everyone has a joint target that promotes the development of the region.
See and learn from what is going on in other places
To build knowledge and understanding, an exchange of experience between industries and with other areas both in the region, with other regions and internationally, is
required. Norrbotten is peripherally located in Europe, and the region has to dare to see and learn from what is going on in other areas and places.
5 Vinnovanytt no 4 October 2011, page 13
You can’t plan the future
You can’t plan the future; the future is not predictable. 6 Therefore, it is important to continuously retry a strategy’s focus areas and ways of working. How this is to happen is described in chapter 7: ”Follow-up, learning and retrial”.
Innovations lead to growth – growth is welfare
The ability to deliver and make use of innovations affects welfare development more and more. This ability is currently globally exposed to competition. Mobility and change, positive and negative, happens quickly. Innovations lead to growth, which leads to welfare – a development that is happening at the expense of the regions or counties that are unable to drive innovations forward in the long term. One of the requirements for developing innovation environments is to strengthen research, which increases the opportunities for the development of strategically vital areas for businesses, and to turn research results into products and services, which in turn are commercialised. To achieve this, targets and strategies have to be developed from a cross-sectorial and cross-industry collaboration and smart growth.
Smart growth means that knowledge and innovation is strengthened as a driving force for future growth. One way of doing this is to improve the quality of education,
strengthen research efforts, promote innovation and knowledge transfer, utilise
information and communication technology fully, and ensure that innovative ideas can be turned into new products, services and employment opportunities.
Being focused, but also open to new ideas and people
On a European and national level, there are demands for clarity, focus and context.
Innovation is a product of free thought, creativity and creative joy, where one also has to find a market to pay for the products or services. At the same time, it is important for a region’s efforts to be focused on some areas and to be put into context to not be divided.
Regional growth requires focus on certain areas and openness towards new ideas and people.
5 Development efforts to reach the vision and the targets
Fig. 4, page 11, shows how the county is to work to achieve the target of the regional innovation strategy. Efforts in the regional innovation strategy are to have as their purpose to create products and services for a good market through focusing on one or more focus areas, and within these work to develop one or some of the success
factors/development efforts that have been pointed out.
To increase clarity, focus and context and achieve increased growth, Fig. 4 describes methods and success factors for innovations, i.e. how Norrbotten is to work to strengthen the innovative process in the region.
6 Göran Lindqvist, Örjan & Sölvell: Organising clusters for innovation: lessons from city regions in Europe, page 50.
The outer ring of Fig. 4 shows the four success factors that have been identified as important to this strategy. These are:
Utilise the innovative power of both established and new companies
Work with open innovation and innovation systems that are unaffected by distance
Innovative environments and meeting places
Coordination between public efforts.
Accompanying these success factors or development efforts are actions/activities to develop them further long-term. The second ring shows that all of the actions in the regional innovation strategy are to be permeated by the horizontal criteria to create sustainable growth.
The strategy prioritises six focus areas:
Intersection points between focus areas
Technology and service development in industry
Test and practice operations
Energy and environmental technology/cleantech
Digital service industries
Cultural and creative industries
These can be found in the third ring. A more detailed description of the focus areas can be found on page 16.
The inner ring shows that one of the aims of the efforts in the regional innovation strategy is to create products and services for a market. These are created by
entrepreneurs, customers, suppliers, partners and competitors in collaboration, and are supported by policymaking organisations and regional development organisations, as well as public research organisations, education organisations, technology spreading organisations and incubators that are described in Fig. 1, page 5.
Specialisering på ett fåtal fokusområden där regionen
har konkurrensfördelar
Arbeta med öppen innovation och distribuerade innovationssystem
Tillvarata den innovativa kraften i både etablerade och nya företag Innovativa
miljöer och mötesplatser
Samordning mellan offentliga insatser
Horisontella kriterier – allt som görs ska vara socialt, ekologiskt
och ekonomiskt hållbart
Produkter &
tjänster för en marknad
Fig. 4: Development efforts for the work with innovations and growth
5.1 Development efforts for growth
1 Utilising the innovative power of both established and new companies
It is important for the region to support activities and projects that actively increase the likelihood of ideas reaching the market – i.e. that the ideas reach market ability. Another way of talking about innovation systems is to say that it is about building knowledge that leads to added value. This applies regardless of whether the knowledge can be found in the public, private or voluntary sector.
One area that can be developed further, in relation to its potential, is ideas that originate in companies where a market channel or customer contact has already been established.
Since these types of ideas have a statistically better market ability than first-time ideas, it would, from a regional perspective, be important to support this type of innovation as well.
The support systems available today are of great help up until the most important step of the innovation process, i.e. when the service or product is to step on to the market.
The difficulties in taking the step from prototype to market is an internationally
recognised problem. For established companies, the channels, contacts and knowledge for this often already exist. It is important that design is involved early on in the
innovation processes.
Interaction between companies and their customers, between authorities and citizens, between organisations, universities and research institutes is crucial to innovation ability, and thus to the long-term ability to survive. It is crucial that we can teach and support our companies, authorities, organisations and people with methods to continuously ensure an inflow of knowledge that they can then reform into new products or services.
The strategy should also work for private and public workplaces to stimulate and promote an innovative attitude and way of thinking, and to increase investment in innovation in the public sector. Innovation purchasing is one of several strategically important tools for developing innovative public operations.
Actions from RUS:
Work strategically to ensure LTU’s research areas with great opportunities for development: energy, raw materials, infrastructure, IT e-health, tourism,
experience production, material and service development/service, design and product development.
Stimulate small and medium sized companies (SMEs) to commercialise their development ideas, build up innovation systems based on their needs, include students and develop further their collaboration with LTU and research institutes.
Develop business models further for the commercialisation of research results.
Stimulate the development of new service industries.
Suggested actions/activities:
Take inventory of innovative areas in the region’s existing companies. Connect these ideas with continued development, for instance through students in higher education, researchers, and through interaction between universities/research institutes and companies.
Working to gain access to more private capital and initiate new forms of capital supply, compare the need shown in Fig. 3, page 8, ”the valley of death”.
Creating an innovation bank where ideas are gathered from companies, universities/research institutes and the public sector.
Working with matching business leaders with innovators
Focusing part of the new enterprising efforts on the students and researchers at the university.
Ensuring an increased utilisation of the results, ideas and knowledge of research in existing and new companies.
2 Working with open innovation and innovation systems unaffected by distance Current innovations can be characterised by a high knowledge content built on complementary competencies where many parties collaborate, e.g. large and small companies, researchers, voluntary and public sector parties in close dialogue with users, customers, citizens and members. Such a collaboration to develop new products and services is called ”open innovation”. The process to develop innovations thus becomes less and less closed off, and is increasingly characterised by utilisation of competence outside of the own organisation, business and region/nation. For companies, authorities, organisations and universities/research institutes operating in our region, and for the development of the region at large, it is important to keep up with, and preferably lead this development, especially considering the sparse population structure and distance to markets that is prevalent in Norrbotten.
This strategy has the ambition to contribute to the region and its businesses, in the future being even more characterised by open innovation processes, professional analyses of the surrounding world and a global perspective, i.e. working in a global environment based on local/regional starting points and areas of strength. Open innovation is to contribute to more parties of differing resources, genders and ethnic origins being included, and to a stimulating cross-fertilisation between ideas from
different businesses, regions and nations. Norrbotten shall be a pioneer when it comes to open innovation efforts at early stages, which requires an open mind for new
collaborations across business and sector boundaries.
Suggested actions/activities:
Working for the region to develop into a leader in northern Europe when it comes to working in innovation systems that are unaffected by distance.
Try new opportunities for partner search and analysis of the surrounding world, support for transborder innovative work etc. with the purpose of stimulating open innovation and innovation systems that are unaffected by distance.
3 Innovative environments and meeting places
Innovative environments close to universities and research institutes are a basic factor for creating new innovations that in turn lead to new companies or growth of the region’s existing companies. The region should focus resources on stimulating the creation of such attractive, innovative environments where people and organisations from different businesses gather to work with early phases of product and service development with the purpose of creating new innovations and companies. This can contribute to a sustainable development, both from a local and a global perspective.
These innovative environments are not just to be a meeting place where innovators, entrepreneurs, students, researchers, engineers, business developers etc. can meet, but also an environment where competence development and inspiration is to be provided in the innovation area. Ultimately, these environments are to work as creative
laboratory environments permeated by collaboration between the university/research institutes, businesses, authorities and the surrounding society, with the aim of getting more products and services on to the market quicker.
Increased internationalisation gives increased opportunities for export and company collaboration across borders. For Norrbotten, openness towards the surrounding world means increasing collaboration and cooperation with other regions and counties.
Innovative environments and increased openness requires active and changed leadership, which is an increasingly important competitive tool to deepen innovative usage of the county’s resources.
Suggestions of actions/activities:
Creating more innovative environments that work as physical and virtual
meeting places, as well as creative laboratory environments for innovative work.
These shall be multifaceted, permissive and innovative environments for everyone
Creating more innovative environments for inspiration and competence development in the innovation area, and experience exchange and mentorship between industries
Working to develop the future leaders of innovative work. It is important to support different forms of leadership education, networking and mentorship
Making efforts to increase the county’s participation in international networks
Working to include research and companies from the county in the international arena
4 Coordination between public efforts
The region focuses on a number of focus areas, which is termed smart specialisation.
These focus areas are growth areas that are unique to the region and give room for long- sightedness. Important parties, like for instance universities and research institutes, are stimulated to go for fewer research areas, which improves the possibilities of creating unique competencies. It will also make it easier to create adaptation and collaboration with concerned parts of businesses/companies and to focus the resources to the development of the focus areas. At the same time, the world is changeable, and the support systems must therefore be flexible to encourage the innovations of tomorrow.
Focusing requires openness and coordination between different support structures.
Within and between the focus areas, there are a number of financing tools, operative plans, programmes and strategies on an EU, national, regional and local level. The region should coordinate these financing tools and programmes so that means are used,
channelled and create synergies in the best way. In the regional innovation system, see Fig. 1, page 5, there are also many local, regional, national and international parties.
Efficient ways of working for financing tools, programmes and parties are needed to achieve success, as well as a continuous follow-up and evaluation of different ways of working in a learning process.
Conversation with parties in the innovation system, such as universities, research institutes and organisations should form the foundation for the best possible way of adapting the financing tools for the greatest effect. An example of coordination is joint, focused efforts in prioritised areas with a strong growth potential, which have
historically given good results. This becomes most clear in the projects that involve several areas of effort and actions, e.g. research, education, infrastructure and direct business support.
Suggested actions/activities:
Working for the companies’ own co-financing to be included in the calculations of innovative projects in the same way as public co-financing
Working for coordinated rules around support entitled costs between financing tools and the parties who use them
Stimulating joint and coordinated focused efforts in the focus areas with a strong growth potential
Stimulating focused efforts for an expanded knowledge triangle (collaboration between education, research and innovation) in the focus areas
5.2 Horizontal criteria – All actions are to be socially, ecologically and financially sustainable
Sustainable growth is an overall strategic objective. On the side of the county, progress is to be made to meet the needs of today without compromising future generations’
possibilities of meeting the needs of their time. Utilising the innovation power that can be found in the population of the entire region is key to success. Norrbotten is therefore to develop into one of the country’s most attractive regions, regardless of gender, age and ethnic origin.
Efforts that are made shall contribute to a positive development concerning the horizontal criteria equality, integration and diversity, environment and young people.
The horizontal criteria form the foundation for the development efforts. Everything we do shall be sustainable in the long run.
1 Equality
Equality can increase growth, attractiveness and innovation ability as well as deepen democracy and increase social capital. A region’s attractiveness is strengthened by individuals, regardless of gender, seeing opportunities for developing and contributing to the development of the region.
Equality also contributes to financial growth through the preservation and promotion of all people’s competence and creativity. Equality means that the resources that are
allocated in innovation politics benefit women as well as men.
2 Integration and diversity
Norrbotten is to utilise the opportunities offered by growing diversity. Diversity is about people with origins in different ethnic and cultural environments enriching the
surrounding society – not least if their experiences and abilities are affirmed rather than marginalised. Integration and diversity is a growth issue for Norrbotten.
3 Environment, climate and energy
Climate change is one of our time’s greatest challenges. At the same time, the
environment, climate and energy challenge form a driving force for technology, product and service development in all industries. Businesses must be better able to utilise the growth potential of the growing, global demand for green and resource efficient
solutions. Renewable energy, environment technology, energy streamlining, community planning and construction, sustainable transports and vehicles, tourism and agriculture are some examples of areas where a change is needed.
4 Young people
Young women and men are the future. Therefore, everyone has a responsibility to give them alternatives and knowledge regarding the unique opportunities that exist in the county. Young people have to have more opportunities for showing what they want, think and can do. It is important to give young people opportunities to contribute to regional growth work, to practice enterprising, develop innovations, offer alternative career paths, participate in higher education and contribute to the development of tomorrow’s labour market.
Actions from RUS:
Especially support the entrepreneurship, innovations and enterprising of women
Especially support the entrepreneurship, innovations and enterprising of people born abroad
Especially support the entrepreneurship, innovations and enterprising of the Sami population
Work for entrepreneurship to be a natural part of all education Suggested actions/activities:
Investing in innovation processes and innovation networks among women
Creating efforts giving Ung Företagsamhet (Young Enterprising) opportunities to develop its operations
Creating efforts to work for the continuous development of entrepreneurial thinking among young people
Investing in and utilising the experiences that people born abroad have to create regeneration and dynamics in the county’s businesses
Annually analysing the outcome of development means and other resources that have been allocated in the development and innovation area from an equality perspective, with the aim of women benefitting from the investments as well as men.
5.3 Focus areas
The region’s resources for supporting and stimulating innovation are limited. It is therefore necessary to focus, i.e. use smart specialisation. Focus areas for Norrbotten, which can also be found in the regional development strategy, and there are called growth areas are:
1 Intersection points between focus areas
The below described areas of points 2 through 6 are suggestions for the county’s focus areas and support points, and describe how Norrbotten can contribute to growth in the EU.
Research can confirm that when an area of competence or an industry meets another area of competence, new innovations appear in the intersection between the two areas or industries. This strategy has previously touched upon the importance of digital communication for the development of an attractive municipality or region. Other intersection points will also be able to deliver innovations in the future. For example, it is made clear that the technology and service developments in industry will continue to have use for applications and ICT solutions created in the creative industries. The
development towards equality is strengthened in society when, for instance, the forestry and ore industries need access to both men and women as labour and when the
manufacturing industry increases its investment in service development, where more women are employed than within the industry’s traditional operations.
An important part of the regional innovation strategy is a better way of utilising the
innovative potential represented by entrepreneurial innovation systems (ERIS). 7 This by offering support to development arenas that exploit the border areas between already established areas of strength (such as the below identified focus areas), that develop new, untested ways of working, that utilise the creativity of parties that are not normally to be found in already established innovation systems, and that with short time horizons and in a trial and error process want to develop new solutions for known or future needs.
With a variety of people, companies and industries, an important factor for innovation is created, especially when many companies are formed around several complementary areas of competence. In these new intersection points between areas of competence, the opportunities for new innovative companies are improved. Such connections put
demands on there being competent labour for innovation, and the workers having the right type of knowledge. Competence supply for private, voluntary and public
operations have an important part to play for the innovation development. The work with the competence platform in the region is important to describe the type of
competence that is being sought after, especially if the platform creates a cross-industry dialogue.
Leadership that facilitates the ability of employees to contribute to innovation is primary in companies as well as in public operations and voluntary organisations. A creative working environment is not just a result of, but also largely a requirement for, the ability and willingness of leaders and employees to contribute to development and regeneration. Good relationships between people in the workplace stimulate more positive behaviours and strengthen productivity and innovation ability. Physical or digital meeting places and good incentives and processes for learning both in and between individuals and organisations are a requirement for innovation.
2 Technology and service development in industry
The large, high-technological industries are in themselves not a primary target group for efforts in the regional innovation strategy, but collaborations between basic
industry/processing industry and other companies, mainly the region’s engineering industry and ICT (Information and Communication Technology) companies are.
Sustainable use of natural resources in combination with leading information and
communication technology development where cutting edge research goes hand in hand with industry makes northern Sweden a world leader in high-technological processing industry in both mining, mineral and forestry industries.
Development areas are forestry and wood technology and mining and mineral technology, but also other areas with connections to industry, e.g. digital technology, industrial design, forest maintenance, plant and forest biotechnology, process
technology, marketing, contracting, maintenance and service. The region does, through its raw material supply, industry and research and development competence, have
7 ERIS refers to innovative systems based more on individuals than institutions, more on learning by doing and short planning horizons than on long-term plans, and that have a varying collection of parties contributing to the innovation development (compare Cooke & Leydesdorff 2004).
unique growth conditions. Within the region, a position on the international market for future wood construction technology and recycling adapted construction systems is strived for.
3 Test and practice operations
Test and practice operations is an area of great growth potential, where the region’s natural conditions, in combination with competence and level of technology, are competitive advantages. The region has unique opportunities for running test and practice operations with access to large, sparsely populated areas, stable winter climate with snow, dark and dry cold, clean air, midnight sun, ”free” airspace, infrastructure etc.
The industry, which includes car and component testing operations has, over the past few years, developed fast.
There are good opportunities for expanding test operations to other industries, such as the flight and space industry, trains, mobile communication and military practice and testing operations. Such testing operations may include both civil and military testing of materials, systems and staff, and practice and training. Another important area
connected to testing activities is space operations. The region is the only one in the EU that includes all of the following areas: rocket launching, satellite technology, space science, space application and user services.
4 Energy and environment technology/cleantech
The transformation to renewable energy sources gives the agriculture and forestry industries’ investments in the production of bioenergy entirely new opportunities for growth. Increased regional competitiveness requires efforts to promote a safe, cost effective and sustainable energy usage and an energy supply based on renewable energy sources. It is important to develop necessary knowledge and technology to use
renewable energy sources and streamline industrial processes and energy usage.
Cleantech is strong in the region, not least due to the great access to hydropower and forest. The investments made in hydropower in the region mean that knowledge within safety and streamlining is strengthened and that the potential for industry widening through the development of new technology, new companies and new employment opportunities is utilised.
5 Digital service industries
Digital services are about development and implementation of new products and applications, as well as systems for wider ICT usage with the purposes of developing accessibility to care and education in sparsely populated areas, and stimulating enterprising, innovation development and collaboration between private and public parties. Investments in new technology and innovation systems enable the development of qualified services. There is, for instance, a great potential in developing e-health, an area where the region is already far ahead internationally. This forms a basis for good and equal health care, as well as a foundation for companies to develop competitive products and services. Innovative solutions in this area can also provide solutions for the demographic challenges.
6 Cultural and creative industries
Toursim, experiences and the creative industries are growth areas with great
opportunities for development and contribution to increased regional competitiveness and employment. The development of these industries also increases equality in the region, as it is within them that many of the region’s women work as employees or business leaders. The nature, culture and history of the region, in combination with good communications, safety and stability provides good opportunities to create products and experiences of high quality. Increased growth enables entrepreneurship and new enterprising, for example for small businesses in rural areas and in Sami culture and business.
Efforts are needed to develop a multifaceted supply of culture and leisure activities and other operations with strong connections to tourism and experiences. Creative
operations and cultural experiences strengthen people’s identity and contribute to attracting both residents and visitors. Cultural services and creative industries, e.g.
design, architecture, music, film and dance have a growing demand and a positive role for regional development, both due to its own growth potential and its connection to operations like the visitor industry with transports, hotels, restaurants, trade and so on.
Conditions for further development of the creative industries are very good, helped by the resources and driving forces that exist in the region, not least among the region’s young people.
Development of the Sami tourism industry, which uses the Sami population’s
possibilities and needs as its starting point, could stimulate increased entrepreneurship in the region.
The combination of new technology, research and innovation power promotes the development of new business ideas, which provides good opportunities for tourism, experiences and creative industries to be competitive in an international perspective.
6 Effect measuring
Continuous follow-up of how innovations and regional dynamics are developing in Norrbotten is an important task, among other things in order to judge the effects of a regional innovation strategy. Several different systems for measuring regional innovativeness have been identified:
SCB’s regional innovation statistics
REGLAB’s regional innovation index
The EU’s Innovation Scoreboard with European regional data
It is important to, at least at the start, follow up the region’s development within this area, using these three measuring tools, in order to, at a later stage, be able to decide which one(s) of the follow-up systems the region is to use.
Regardless of which of the above follow-up systems that is/are used, it is reasonable to anticipate a backlog of data currency of about two years. The numbers presented by
various established measuring systems based on listed data are, in other words, not current. To be able to efficiently initiate and tackle different innovation promoting efforts at the right time, the region therefore also needs access to more current indicators of which direction the development is going, see also the section about
”Coordination between public efforts”.
Suggested actions/activities:
With the purpose of continuously following up the development in the region and making comparative analyses with other regions regarding innovation related factors (and thus enabling e.g. more precise policy initiatives) a number of different forms of measuring systems will be used initially (SCB’s regional innnovation statistics, REGLAB’s regional innovation index and the EU’s
Innovation Scoreboard with European regional data). When experiences of the different measuring systems have been evaluated, the number of measuring systems should be reduced.
To ensure access to more current and dynamic data showing development directions and development speeds, a regional indication system based on both hard data (e.g. numbers data regarding patents) and soft data (e.g. interview data based on conversations with key people in the region) will be developed.
7 Follow-up, learning and retrial
You can’t plan the future, since the future is not predictable. Therefore, it is important to constantly measure, evaluate and retry smart specialisation (focusing on areas) as well as ways of working in a strategy for it to make up a needed support in future work.
The idea is that knowledge and experience is to be turned into updates and regeneration of strategies, action plans, operations and projects. The work happens partly
systematically and recurringly, in accordance with a joint plan for the parties of the Regional partnership. A significant part of the learning takes place in the daily work situation when parties exchange thoughts, ideas and experiences around development and growth issues. The targets are to be followed up on continuously so that changes can be noticed quickly. Follow-up and analysis are important parts of learning.
The strategy’s connection to other programmes
Europe 2020
The European Union (the EU) has presented a future strategy – Smart and sustainable growth for all – the Europe 2020 strategy – that is to prepare the EU’s economy for the next decade. It is a strategy for high employment figures, a carbon dioxide efficient economy, productivity and social unity.
Europe 2020 is based on three prioritisations that are all to strengthen each other:
Smart growth – Developing an economy based on knowledge and innovation
Sustainable growth – Promoting a more resource efficient, greener and more competitive economy
Growth for all – Stimulating an economy with high employment figures and with social and territorial unity
There are seven main initiatives connected to the prioritised areas. See image below:
Horizon 2020
Horizon 2020 is the EU commission’s suggestion for a new framework for research and innovation. The programme focuses on three parts after the main priorities for research and innovation that the EU commission has developed for 2020:
Part I: Excellent Science – this part is to strengthen the EU’s global position in research and innovation.
Part II: Industrial leadership – is to make Europe more attractive for investments in research and innovation, provide answers for the financial crisis, i.e. create jobs and growth and attract more private and strategic investments to research and innovation.
Part III: Societal challenges – this part focuses on the big societal challenges facing the EU and the rest of the world. 8
The national innovation strategy
The purpose of the national innovation strategy is to contribute to an innovation climate with the best possible conditions for innovation in Sweden, aiming at 2020. It shall become possible for more people and organisations in business, public operations and civil society to develop and more efficiently contribute to new or improved solutions responding to needs and demand.
Sweden’s innovation ability is crucial to our ability to meet the challenges and
opportunities brought by the global economy. The national innovation strategy is based on three main principles:
1 Best possible basic conditions for innovation
Innovative people
Research and higher education of high quality for innovation
Frame conditions and infrastructures for innovation
2 People, businesses and organisations working systematically with innovation
Innovative companies and organisations
Innovative public operations
Innovative regions and environments
3 Implementing the strategy to develop the conditions and meeting places holistically
In further developed coordination between policy areas and levels
In dialogue with parties from businesses, public operations and civil society
In a process of continuous learning
8The national innovation strategy, Article number: N2012.27 page 5. ”Horizon 2020 – the framework for research and innovation (2014–2020), has raised the following societal challenges as particularly pressing: Health, demographic changes and wellbeing. Challenges for European bioeconomy: Food safety, sustainable agriculture and forestry, sea, shipping and inland water research. Safe, clean and efficient energy. Smart, green and integrated transports. Climate actions, resource efficiency and raw materials. Europe in a changeable world: Inclusive, innovative and reflective communities. Safe communities: Protecting Europe’s freedom, safety and citizens.
Innovation in the public sector is to be given a lot of room in the strategy. The public sector is pointed out as an important arena for the development of new products and services, both internally and externally. Internally by encouraging own staff to develop new products and services that streamline or improve care. Externally by using their significant demand for products and services to promote the development of new innovations with other parties, e.g. through innovation purchasing.
The Regional development strategy (RUS)
The regional development strategy (RUS) is an overall strategy document to build a sustainable future in Norrbotten. The strategy shall contribute to increased
harmonisation of and the coordination between different plans, programmes and strategies at different administrative levels and sector areas. RUS makes choices for future, sustainable growth.
RUS includes, among the prioritised actions, below the Innovation and renewal headline, a mission to develop a Regional Innovation strategy. The strategy is to contribute to the further development of research and innovation systems, promote cutting edge
competence, smart specialisation and to strengthened collaboration between universities, research, companies, society and the voluntary sector.
The challenges, opportunities, strengths and threats of the county are described in more detail in the county’s RUS. RUS describes measurable targets that shall be reached by 2020. In turn, these targets relate to the targets defined by the EU in the Europe 2020 strategy, and to the government’s corresponding targets.
The below table is a schematic image and example of how strategies, programmes and financing interact from an EU level to a municipal level.
Current situation in the county of Norrbotten
Norrbotten has experience of transforming cold, darkness, distance and sparsity to advantages. Sparsity has provided opportunities and strength. The county makes up around 25 per cent of the country’s surface, but only 2,6 per cent (2011) of its population. This has created unique opportunities for testing operations and the experience industry, and has also contributed to opportunities for innovative solutions in industries where the county’s conditions are utilised.
The county has an increasingly old population, which increases the burden of support.
The aging population in combination with the sparsity of the county has driven the development of new solutions in remote health care for example, but there are also demands on other innovative solutions in areas where service is worse.
Youth unemployment is high, and many young people, especially women, move away from the county. Increasing the appeal, mainly for young women, is an important growth factor for the county, but it is also important to utilise the opportunities afforded to us by the structure of the population.
The education levels of the county are lower than the national average, and there are great differences between women and men in terms of post upper secondary school education. In the county, around 38 per cent of the women and 19 per cent of the men have a post upper secondary school education of at least three years; the corresponding ratio for the country is around 41 per cent for women and 26 per cent for men. The county has a varied business structure with a strong basic industry, considerable public sector and a growing service sector. The basic industry needs to develop continuously to be competitive in foreign markets, while a generational shift, creating a lack of labour and competence in several areas is ongoing. There are considerable research and innovation systems in the county that are working with developing new solutions towards basic industry etc.
The public sector is also risking a lack of staff and competence due to retirement and increasing competition for labour from the mining industry for example, while the demographic developments with an aging population demands further development of efficiency and quality of public services. Luleå University of Technology (LTU) fulfils an important function in the county by offering education to fill the lack of competence that occurs, but also by creating new, innovative solutions that correspond to the needs of businesses, authorities and other organisations. It is also important to keep competence in the county, which can be made possible by working with more attractive towns and cities.
The geographical conditions of the county make particular demands of a sustainable transport system. Norrbotten has a well constructed broadband network. This creates opportunities for digital service supplies in business and the public sector, in for example e-health. Digital services can be used for different parts of life. To meet these various needs, a large and varied supply of services that are developed both by private and public parties is needed. The development of new and better services stimulates the
use of digital channels and contributes to the streamlining of established businesses and operations, while new creative ideas, innovations and business models appear. New technology and new solutions enabled by digitalisation can make every-day life and participation in society easier. The digital development creates new opportunities for involving users and customers in innovation and creating completely new services, for instance from so-called open data. This applies to everything, from transport solutions to culture and public services.
The industries that are appearing in the cultural and creative sectors are important for the county, and contribute to development and growth. The county has a labour market that from many perspectives is divided, where cultural and creative industries fulfil an important function by creating a varied labour market and business structure, and contribute to development, regeneration and diversification of the county’s traditional industries.
The county is doing well in terms of research and development competition at LTU and other research facilities. LTU has a close collaboration with businesses, where the ratio of applied research with connection to regional business is high. A large part of the research being carried out at LTU is developed further in existing companies. Around 20% of external research financing comes directly from businesses. An innovation office will be established at LTU.
The researchers of the region participate actively in the construction of growth areas in Norrbotten, and there are also research environments connected to the great societal changes that are described in Horizon 2020. LTU and the research institutes of the counties are part of the region’s development. Research environments create a foundation for innovations that can be commercialised and thereby lead to increased growth in new and existing companies alike.
Internationalisation and boundary crossing collaboration are success factors for Norrbotten, with its geographical position. Partly because it gives an increased critical mass, and partly because it gives companies a large market. It is also an increasingly important means of competition to widen perspectives and deepen innovative usage of the county’s resources.
Openness towards the surrounding world and increased transborder movement of people, products, competence, capital and technology are key factors for a positive development of the region. The region’s opportunities for strengthened, innovative environments are built on good conditions for knowledge transfer between regions.
Regional innovation ability does not just depend on how well research institutions and regional parties do. The ability to collaborate with the surrounding world creates access to a greater critical mass of parties and competence, and thereby strengthened
innovation ability.
The more permeating globalisation affects both companies and citizens, and has resulted in an increased mobility for people, knowledge, ideas, capital, enterprising, products and services. The demands on monitoring the surrounding world and
collaboration ability increase, and new forms of collaboration and knowledge exchange appear. For the companies, globalisation means changed business and production
patterns.
Collaboration with international partners increases the opportunities for small as well as large companies, and for researchers in all parts of the region to benefit from
globalisation. It could, for instance, concern customer and supplier relationships and strategy networks for research and innovation. Increased degrees of specialisation and shorter product cycles requires companies and organisations to utilise the opportunities for establishment and marketing in strategic markets and collaborations with
international customers. New production methods like open innovation are also growing stronger. By broadening their market horizons and coming into contact with international competitors and customers, the individual company’s driving force for increasing knowledge content and regeneration of their products and services increases.
The composition of the working group
Pär Johansson, Centek
Lars Stehn, Luleå University of Technology Håkan Ylinenpää, Luleå University of Technology Katarina Delsing, Interactive Institute Swedish ICT
Robert Bergman, representative for the Association of Municipalities Johan Sjökvist, County Council of Norrbotten
Gunilla Havnesköld, County Administrative Board of Norrbotten Per-Erik Andersson, County Administrative Board of Norrbotten Carola Medelid, County Administrative Board of Norrbotten
