Publications

Is it feasible for offshore renewable energy and marine food production to coexist sustainably in Nordic Seas? What drives and hinders actors in these sectors from collaborating? How are public processes supporting or hindering collaboration between these domains? Dive into this interactive storymap to explore the intricate complexities of coexistence through case studies across Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland and Scotland. As offshore renewable energy expands, it increasingly overlaps with marine food production, raising critical questions about trade-offs, governance and collaboration. This publication presents six case studies illustrating challenges and opportunities for collaborative management within marine and maritime spatial planning frameworks. Through in-depth stakeholder interviews, it explores how conflicts are managed, synergies identified, and cooperation fostered. This storymap highlights the importance of inclusive and consistent stakeholder engagement in planning and shore wind development process, from area designation to operation. It shows that sustainable coexistence relies on effective cooperation rather than mere sharing of marine space, emphasising the crucial role of national governments and key authorities in fostering proactive, collaborative, and inclusive governance. Produced as part of the “Green energy meets blue food – Sustainable coexistence in Nordic Seas” project, this interactive storymap seeks to equip policymakers, practitioners, and stakeholders with improved knowledge to foster governance mechanisms that support sustainable coexistence and a resilient ocean economy in the Nordic region and beyond.

Each issue of the Nordregio Magazine provides perspectives on a specific theme related to regional development and planning in the Nordic countries. With Nordregio Magazine you are kept up to date with the interesting research results produced by Nordregio in a European and global perspective.

The Nordregio Strategy 2021-2024 outlines our main mission and core research focus areas, which have been carefully aligned to address the key objectives and needs of policymakers and practitioners outlined within Nordic cooperation steering documents. In recent years, there has been a convergence of several global megatrends which are having a major impact on all aspects of the Nordic economy, society and environment. Climate change, migration, rapid demographic developments, digitalization and automation, increasing urban-rural divides, and growing socio-economic inequalities are some of the main threats facing the Nordic Region. Nordregio is focused on identifying practical Nordic policy solutions to help overcome these challenges and promote socio-economic growth and environmental sustainability across the Nordic Region. The Nordregio Strategy 2021-2024 has been written as a collaborative effort by our staff members in close cooperation with Nordregio’s Board of Directors, which represents the Nordic countries, Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland. The overarching goals that guide Nordregio’s research are outlined in the Nordic Council of Ministers’ Action Plan for Vision 2030, which is approved by the Ministers for Nordic Co-operation. The Action Plan defines the work to achieve the objectives of the Vision through a series of initiatives linked to the Vision’s three strategic priorities: a green Nordic Region, a competitive Nordic Region, and a socially sustainable Nordic Region. During the 2021-2024 period, Nordregio is committed to delivering high quality scientific, evidence-based research designed to provide policymakers and practitioners with sustainable policies to help overcome the main challenges faced by Nordic regions and municipalities. Our research will contribute substantially towards Nordic cooperation and synergies, while also showcasing Nordic policies, experience and competences internationally. The Board approved the Nordregio Strategy on the 15th of April 2021.

With this document, Nordregio provides a final status of the professional work for the activities across and within the Thematic Groups after four years and three months of the Nordic Cooperation Programme for Regional Development and Planning (NCP-RDP). In this final report, one will find an overview of the projects carried out by each TG, including a brief abstract of achieved results. Links to further details are provided for each of the projects.

Marine Spatial Planning (MSP), as with any other type of planning, is not just about the plans and their content, but the process of making those plans. Incorporating expert knowledge and the perspectives of different sea users and interest groups through stakeholder involvement (SI) processes is a central element in the design and implementation of marine spatial plans (MSPs). This handbook explores some of the key issues relating to SI in MSP, including: How to think about involving stakeholders? How to understand their needs? Who to involve? When is the appropriate time to involve them? What methods and tools are needed? What are the drawbacks? And how can a process leader carry out an effective, transparent and fair process? This handbook provides practitioners with some practical answers to these questions by offering a framework for systematically thinking about SI in the MSP process. The ideas and approaches to SI outlined are based on first-hand experiences from planners in the Baltic Sea Region and cover the whole of the MSP policy cycle. Executive summaries The executive summaries outlining the conceptual framework, general principles, methodologies and future directions of the stakeholder engagement in MSP are available in six languages: Danish English Finnish German Latvian Swedish BONUS BASMATI project has received funding from BONUS (Art 185), funded jointly by the EU and Innovation Fund Denmark, Swedish Research Council Formas, Academy of Finland, Latvian Ministry of Education and Science, and Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH (Germany).

This short report is aimed at informing policy makers, planners, regional stakeholders and researchers on how the project’s outcomes can be used in practice. The Baltic Sea Region covers a vast geographical area with the Baltic Sea being its focal point. Traditionally the sea has been connecting the region, being the main means of transportation and trade. The region has a long cooperation tradition, bringing together regional players to address common challenges. Shaping the future has been a long time concern for the Baltic Sea Region. VASAB, Visions and Strategies around the Baltic Sea States, intergovernmental cooperation of ten Baltic Sea states, supports territorial development and also has, already from 2009 developed a Long-Term Perspective for the region identifying regional assets, development trends and challenges that may affect the development of the Baltic Sea Region. Scenarios and in particular territorial scenarios can be a useful tool to further inform and support policymakers in preparing for and shaping the future. To better support and update its work, VASAB initiated the ESPON targeted analysis project ‘Territorial Scenarios for the Baltic Sea Region 2050’. 

Projektet Marint Gränsforum Skagerrak syftar till att skapa förutsättning för marin näringslivsutveckling i Skagerrak. Projektet startade i januari 2019, vilket innebär att det varit igång i ett år när denna första delutvärdering genomfördes. Projektet som finansieras av Interreg löper 2019-2021. Projektägare är Svinesundskommittén, Viken Fylkeskommune, Göteborgs universitet/ Tjärnö marinbiologiska laboratorium och Länsstyrelsen Västra Götaland. Projektet Marint Gränsforum Skagerrak bygger vidare på en rad tidigare projekt i området, inklusive Interreg-projektet ”Framtiden är blå 1+2”. Det syftar till att främja utveckling av nya näringar som baseras på havets resurser och för att uppnå detta ändamål, bygga samverkan mellan näringsliv, förvaltningsorganisationer och forskning i gränsregionen. Projektet har under det första året kommit igång väl med olika aktiviteter, men har också viktiga utmaningar som bör hanteras för att projektet ska nå de långsiktiga målen och skapa ett friskt och produktivt Skagerrak.

The study explores what role digitalisation plays in the context of business development and growth in the marine sector in the Svinesund area; the different challenges and opportunities that surface in this context; and what role the Svinesund mega-region may play for the future of blue growth. Digitalisation is impacting various facets of society and holds great potential in radically changing the ways businesses are operating. Despite these radical changes, little has been said about the impact of digitalisation on micro-, small and medium sized businesses within the marine sector. To close this gap, this complimentary report, Is the coast clear? The role of digitalisation for enabling blue growth in the cross-border region of Svinesund is a follow-up study of Randal and Berlina’s report Governing the digital transition in Nordic regions: The human element (2019). The latter report was written on behalf of the Nordic thematic group for innovative and resilient regions 2017–2020, under the Nordic Council of Ministers’ Committee of Civil Servants for Regional Affairs. The present, complimentary study on digitalisation and blue growth has been developed on behalf of the Nordic thematic working group’s member Svinesundskommittén (The Svinesund committee).  

The Baltic Sea Region is one of Nordregio’s four main geographical focal areas. Our background has previously been on terrestrial spatial planning primarily, but Nordregio is now also increasingly involved in research and projects on maritime spatial planning. In this Nordregio News issue, you will learn more about the outcome of the Baltic SCOPE project, dealing with transboundary Maritime Spatial Planning. Also, you will find case examples on how maritime spatial planning is implemented in different parts of Europe, as well as the information about two upcoming projects – BONUS BASMATI focusing on Baltic Sea maritime spatial planning for sustainable ecosystem services and PanBaltic SCOPE. Finally, we include a youth perspective, asking how we can make the Baltic Sea a better environment for future generations?

This issue of Nordregio News focuses on innovation and governance. What are the key issues in innovation policies and how should they be considered in governance? We view this from different perspectives, with a common focus on the interests of people, their institutions and the knowledge they bring to the table. Different modes of innovation have different normative implications regarding whose interests and knowledge count as significant. National economic welfare is the predominant normative value driving innovation policies; which are often operationalised using success criteria such as competitiveness, economic growth and production of know-how protected by intellectual property rights. However, e.g. innovation in the bioeconomy raises questions over environmental sustainability, social justice and human rights relating to land, forests, the marine environment and water. All of these are vital to human subsistence, are limited in supply and are usually difficult or impossible to reproduce solely by technological means and capital.