The Regional Partnership on Sustainable Innovation in Less Urban Areas in The North invites to an Event for EWRC in Brussels,
11th October 2017

"Boosting smart innovation in remote regions for all of Europe"
The event will be followed by a reception

The European Week of Regions and Cities will take place in Brussels between 9th and 12th October 2017. The theme this year is Regions and cities working for a better future.  TheRegional Partnership on Sustainable Innovation in Less Urban Areas in the North,consisting of northern Sweden, Finland and Norway in the Northern Sparsely Populated Areas (NSPA), and the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, hereby invites to the workshop on Boosting smart innovation in remote regions for all of Europe, hosted by Scotland Europa at Scotland House.

The debate will demonstrate the common ground for how to set up innovation and regional development in remote, less urban areas, considering the unique potentials and assets of the European Arctic and north Atlantic regions as global front-runners; while still facing challenges and being in many ways at the start of a systematic coordinated approach, in which the EU's role is vital.

The framework is to open a debate with different regional perspectives, rising from the key-notes on strategic aspects of smart specialisation and innovation strategies in remote, less urban areas.

The foundation of the discussion will be the OECD report on the NSPA and the Regional Outlook on growth in less urban areas, pin-pointing that growth happens outside the larger cities and that smart specialisation strategies are especially suitable for less densely populated areas; recent Nordregio studies on smart specialisation in the European Arctic will also deliver a basis for the debate. A fresh study from Luleå University of Technology in northern Sweden on innovation strategies in less densely populated areas will also be put forward, together with comments from the European Commission on smart regional specialisation as a tool for the future. Regional examples from Scotland and the NSPA will furthermore add to the outcomes of the event.

Invited speakers to deliver key-note interventions for this debate include:
- Chris McDonald, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD
- Jukka Teräs and Nelli Mikkola, Nordic Council of Ministers research centre Nordregio
- Katja Reppel, Competence Centre, Smart and Sustainable Growth at the European Commission

The event code for this workshop is: 11B100.