Photo: Helsinki, Tapio Haaja, Unsplash
Nordic Innovation has awarded NOK 3 million to the "Nordic Transition partnership" project, which aims to accelerate the transition to climate neutrality by 2030 in small and medium-sized municipalities.
The project brings together Viable Cities in Sweden, Tampere Municipality / 6Aika in Finland, Reykjavik Municipality in Iceland and Smart Innovation Norway in Norway, which also leads the project.
- "We are very pleased that the project has been granted funding," says Olga Kordas, Viable Cities Program Manager. "It will be exciting to share experiences across national borders and develop our ability to support the development of climate-neutral cities internationally.
The funding will allow Viable Cities and the other partners to establish a Nordic network. The project will map out experiences from circular economy and smart city programs to help more small and medium-sized municipalities in the Nordic region gain access to the best examples and tools to become climate neutral by 2030.
In addition to sharing best practices, the partners will offer a Nordic toolbox of methods and develop a roadmap to guide climate-smart investments.
Nordic cooperation will also work to expand the partnership with an application in the upcoming Horizon Europe program.
- The roadmap will encourage alignment of local initiatives with national and EU initiatives, with a particular focus on the new mission-oriented approach established by the European Commission for the upcoming Horizon Europe program," says Marcus Lind, senior advisor at Smart Innovation Norway.
The project starts in June 2020 and runs until January 2022. During the project period, key actors in the four countries (as well as Denmark) will be invited to workshops to share end-user perspectives on relevant challenges and opportunities. At the same time, they will contribute with experience on methods and processes that have led to increased cooperation between the countries.
- The Nordic Transition Partnership will strengthen our work in sustainable social and business development and contribute to the growth of our Nordic network," says Thor Moen, Head of Smart Cities & Society at Smart Innovation Norway.
About the project
Start: August 2020
Timeframe: 20 months (from June 2020 to January 2022)
Total budget: NOK 6 million, of which 3 million comes from Nordic Innovation and the "Nordic Sustainable Business Transformation" program.
About Nordic Innovation
Nordic Innovation aims to make the Nordic region a pioneering region for sustainable growth and works to promote entrepreneurship, innovation and competitiveness in the Nordic region business. The organization supports programmes and projects that contribute to the objectives of the "Co-operation Programme for Innovation and Enterprise 2018-2021", which has been adopted by the Nordic ministers for business and innovation. (Source: nordicinnovation.org).
