Governance | Nordregio

Issues of governance and policy cut across all aspects of research that Nordregio is involved in. But on this page, you can learn about our latest projects related specifically to issues of governance.

Publications on Governance

The purpose of this project is to provide policy makers at the national, regional, and municipal levels an idea of what the size, composition, and geographic distribution of the rural populations in the Nordic countries might look like in 2040.

Find the report here.

This report attempts to create a foundation for understanding the added value of smart specialisation in the Nordic context. It focuses on the cohesiveness and complementarity between the different tiers of government, paying particular attention to the dialogue between the national and regional levels to identify factors that enable or impede the implementation of smart specialisation.

Read the report here.

How capable are local and regional economies of recovering from global and local shocks and threats and ensure resilient long-term development paths? This empirical research includes a close examination of a variety of threats as well as factors driving resilience in regions in all five Nordic Countries.

Read the report here.

The aim of this report is to provide local authorities with ideas on how to implement the 2030 Agenda and to inform experts and policy makers at national and regional levels on how to support the municipalities in their work.

Find the report here.

Regeneration of brownfield sites into attractive urban areas is often considered both an opportunity and a challenge by cities: providing chances for resource-effective use of hard-made surface, while being challenging in terms of costs, technical issues, fragmented landownership and contamination issues.

Find the report here.

The Sustainable Hub to Engage in Rural Policies with Actors (SHERPA)

The project aims at engaging citizens, stakeholders, scientists, and decision-makers in formulating recommendations with the ambition to redefine European development policies and research agenda for rural areas. Find out more about SHERPA.

National Claims in Spatial planning

The objective of this project is to provide a Nordic outlook of three Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland and Norway) with regards to the planning systems’ national planning instruments or other important national policy documents which guide or steer the spatial development. The project limits itself to the planning systems’ main national planning instruments and aims to identify potential other “national claims” of importance with effects on the spatial development. Find out more about the project.

ESPON DIGIPLAN

The project aims at analysing and comparing the digitalisation of planning data in Denmark, Norway and Switzerland. Find out more about the project.

Unlocking the potential of silver economy in the Nordic Region

Population ageing is one of the main demographic trends in the Nordic countries and it is widely considered important to plan and prepare for ageing and its possible implications. Ageing is often regarded as a challenge that will result in increased economic and societal demands and there are concerns about the possible effects of a decreasing work force and the costs of supporting and caring for a growing number of older people. Nevertheless, while population ageing is often viewed negatively from an economic standpoint, older people can also provide substantial economic and societal opportunities, especially when healthy and active. Find out more about the project.

MAMBA (Maximised Mobility and Accessibility of Services in Regions Affected by Demographic Change)

The MAMBA project aims to promote sustainable “people-to-service” and “service-to-people” mobility solutions in rural areas, and involve users in the innovation process. MAMBA is funded by the Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme. Find out more about MAMBA.

RELOCAL (Resituating the local in cohesion and territorial development)

Location matters. Where one is born and raised (still) determines to a considerable extent one’s opportunities and constrictions and it also impacts on one’s personality. After a long period of catching-up for most of the disadvantaged regions, inequalities among regions within Member States are now growing again. Find out more about RELOCAL.

ESPON ESCAPE – European Shrinking Rural Areas Challenges, Actions and Perspectives for Territorial Governance

This project will investigate the future of Europe’s shrinking rural regions: trends, perspectives & new agendas for territorial governance. Find out more about the project.

Health care and care with distance-spanning technologies, e-health and digitalisation

The Nordic countries face similar challenges regarding an ageing population and depopulation of the rural areas. This poses challenges to the traditional health care and care systems. One way of dealing with these challenges is to take advantage of digitalization and distance spanning technologies. Find out more about the project.

Regional disparities and the geography of service within the Nordic countries

Territorial cohesion and balanced development are key goals within regional development policy in the Nordic countries. In order to better understand progress towards the goal of a more balanced regional development, this project analyses regional disparities in the Nordics from the perspective of accessibility to services. The point of departure in this study is to use a GIS based approach to map, analyze and visualize the degree of disparities in this regard. Find out more about the project.

Adapting European Cities to Population ageing: Policy challenges and best practices

The population in the European Union (EU) is undergoing a process of population ageing with implications for public spending, services, the labour market and many other areas of public and societal life. The project analysis challenges and adaptation to ageing population in eight European cities. Find more about the project.

Financial sustainability in the Nordic countries

This project analyses long-term sustainability of public finances in the Nordic countries, their different fiscal frameworks and the flexible solutions adopted for short term. Find out more about the initiative.

Agenda 2030

The project analyzes the implementation of the Agenda 2030 at the local level in the Nordic countries. In September 2017, the Nordic Council of Ministers (NCM) adopted the Generation 2030 programme that will facilitate co-operation on the challenges faced jointly by the Nordic countries in achieving the United Nation’s Agenda 2030 and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Find out more about Agenda 2030.

Evaluation of Åland “Entrepreneurship and Competence” Programme 2014-2020

The aim is to improve the quality of the Åland’s “Entrepreneurship and Competence” programme implementation and to assess its effectiveness and impact. The assignment is done in close cooperation with the programme’s administrative authority (The Government of Åland). Find out more about the project.

EUSBSR SUPPORT

The EUSBSR SUPPORT project aims to provide an individual, organisational and structural support to the Policy Area Coordinators / Horizontal Action Coordinators. Find out more about EURSBSR SUPPORT.

Nordic Economic Policy Review

Nordic Economic Policy Review (NEPR) was launched by the Ministers of Finance in 2009. The Review aims to make the latest research more accessible to decision makers and encourage wider discussion of economic policy in the region by highlighting Nordic issues and challenges. Find out more about Nordic Economic Policy Review.

BT 2050

“BT 2050” stands for Territorial Scenarios for the Baltic Sea Region and with the aim of informing policy making at different levels, this project develops territorial scenarios for the BSR. Find out more about BT 2050.

Advancing the bioeconomy transition in the Nordic Region (BioWiseTrans)

In the long run the aim is to maintain and develop a unique transdisciplinary (interdisciplinary and inclusive of stakeholders) network to study and propel the transition towards a new primarily land and biomass-based bioeconomy. Find out more about BioWiseTrans.

HIGHER – Better Policy Instruments for High Innovation Projects in the European Regions

Nine European institutions collaborate in the framework of the Interreg Europe Program for the implementation of HIGHER. The project has the objective to improve the innovation framework and the smart specialization strategy of different EU regions. Find out more about HIGHER.

Rural housing dilemmas: De-population and empty houses, as well as lack of housing

This project addresses the housing challenges in the rural areas by mapping the scope of the housing issue in the Nordic region and studying examples of how these problems are being dealt with at national and local levels. Find out more about the project.

EUSBSR SUPPORT

The EUSBSR SUPPORT project aims to provide an individual, organisational and structural support to the Policy Area Coordinators / Horizontal Action Coordinators. Find out more about the project.