The purpose of the project is to evaluate the effects and results of the work undertaken by the border committee Hedmark-Dalarna in the period 2012-2019.
The project will also look at the mega-regional effects and impacts based on the developments since the border committee’s establishment in 2012. The committee was established through and Interreg Sweden-Norway project in April 2012 and has since experienced significant changes; both in terms of project models and change of staff and collaboration partners.
The added value of the cross-border collaboration is often under discussion. The regional reform in Dalarna merging the county and the county administrative board in 2019 (now Region Dalarna) and the forthcoming establishment of Innlandet County 2019-2020 shows to pertinent changes that may affect cross-border collaborations. Thus, the evaluation of the border committees role in the new enlarged regions is important. Additionally, this would help place the border committee in relative terms of the new regions whilst help indicate what effects regional reforms have for border committees as organisations in general.
Another aspect of this project is to evaluate the border committee’s innovative function. This is based on the OECD report from 2013 (Nauwelaers et al., 2013) on the development of innovation policies in the border regions, particularly considering governance structures.
