Research

This project has been halted based on the Nordic Council of Ministers’ decision to discontinue collaboration with Russia and Belarus, announced on the 4th of May. The project aims at supporting sustainable and innovative production and use of wood-based building materials across Northwest Russia and the Nordics. Using wood in construction provides multiple benefits to nature and economies. It is by far the most effective way to cut emissions and capture carbon. It also promotes a transition towards green economies, boosts business exchange opportunities and adds value locally. This project focuses on influencing skills development, facilitating business relations and catalysing processes through the exchange of knowledge, technology and practices across universities, businesses and authorities. Activities will be held in Arkhangelsk, Karelia, Murmansk, St Petersburg and the Nordics from December 2021 until December 2022. The project is funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers.

This cooperation aims at establishing sustainable Nordic-Russian business-to-business and business – academic partnerships in the wood and construction sector. The objective is to support innovative production and use of wood-based building materials capitalising on the untapped potential for a biobased economy in NW-Russia.

The REVIVAL project aims at exploring new approaches to study local and regional development in mountainous and sparsely populated areas. Using case study analysis, the project looks at two main concepts, namely Transitional Labour Market and Residential Economy. This investigation would contribute to better understand development potentials in the selected case studies in Georgia and Russia and possible ways to overcome territorial development challenges. Transitional Labour Market (TLM) is a dynamic approach of the labour markets which is based on transitions between various statuses (employed, non-employed, inactive, etc.) rather than on stocks as support of supply and demand interaction. The TLM approach adds insightful perspectives since it includes individual transitions in the analysis of labour market that the traditional approaches of labour market are unable to capture. It is particularly relevant today due to growing mobility of workers, new forms of jobs emerging based on flexible contracts, etc. Residential Economy (RE), is one of the four components of the local economy, focusing on the importance of redistribution mechanisms of wealth between territories. It corresponds to income entering the local area by population groups who do not have their economic activity in this area (e.g. out-commuters, pensioners and tourists). Nordregio will lead this project and be responsible to transfer some of the knowledge from ESPON Bridges, where the two concepts of TLM and RE are currently under investigation, to the REVIVAL project partners by the ways of workshops. Nordregio will assist them in the analysis of the case studies and disseminate the findings.

SiEUGreen aspires to enhance the EU-China cooperation in promoting urban agriculture for food security, resource efficiency and smart, resilient cities. Nordregio is leader of the work package: “Support to Institutional and Social Structures for creating resilient cities with urban agriculture” and contributes to other working papers as well. Building on the model of zero-waste and circular economy, it will demonstrate how technological and societal innovation in urban agriculture can have a positive impact on society and economy, by applying novel resource-efficient agricultural techniques in urban and peri-urban areas, developing innovative approaches for social engagement and empowerment and investigating the economic, environmental and social benefits of urban agriculture. In order to achieve its objectives, SiEuGreen gathers a multi-disciplinary Consortium of European and Chinese researchers, technology providers, SMEs, financiers, local and regional authorities and citizen communities. See the project website for more information. The project will analyse 5 cases in selected European and Chinese urban and peri-urban areas: a previous hospital site in Fredrikstad, Norway, community gardens in Århus, Denmark, previously unused municipal areas with the dense refugee population in Turkey and big urban community farms in Beijing and Central China. Find out more about the Århus case here. Throughout SiEUGreen’s implementation, the EU and China will share both technologies and experiences from social engagement, thus contributing to the future developments of urban agriculture and urban resilience in both continents. The impact measurement during and especially beyond the project period is a key component in the project’s design. Information and results obtained from the project will be disseminated through diverse communication and dissemination tools including, social media, an innovative app enhancing urban co-design, stakeholder conferences, hands-on training workshops, showcase demonstration forums, municipality events. A sustainable business model allowing SiEUGreen to live beyond the project period is planned by joining the forces of private investors,…