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Text: Anders Bergström and Merle Andraschko, Policy Area Education Coordinators
Looking back at the year 2023, we would like to highlight a few outcomes of our work within Policy Area Education.
Co-creation across borders brings the Policy Area and the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region to life. There are four platforms for co-creation, often referred to as flagships, in PA EDUCATION and three more are under construction. One on Economy of Wellbeing of People together with PA HEALTH addressing challenges related to a longer and healthier life promoting a sustainable working life.
This development process is funded by the Swedish Institute. Another emerging flagship is BSR Integrate Now addressing the challenges related to integration of migrants and support to refugees. The third is BSR Social Innovation where the Interreg Baltic Sea Region funded project, “Resist” now is being implemented.
Strengthening research cooperation in the region
Baltic Science Network is a platform for co-creation aiming at strengthening research cooperation and the Baltic Sea Region as a joint research area. In April 2023, the Interreg Öresund-Kattegat-Skagerrak funded project "HALRIC” (Hanseatic Life Science Research Infrastructure Consortium for triple-helix Innovation) kicked off under the leadership of Lund University in Sweden. HALRIC builds upon former activities under the roof of the Baltic Science Network and aims to further strengthen innovation capacities in the Southern Scandinavia-Hamburg area. The Baltic Science Network is furthermore exploring enhanced cooperation in the field of peace and conflict research in the Baltic Sea region and will hold a networking event in Berlin in early 2024 to kick this off.
Text: Sandra Zetterman, Policy Area Education
International cooperation is a prerequisite for sustainable regional development. That was the title of a workshop in connection with the West Sweden EU conference in the Swedish city of Skövde at the end of September.
Anders Bergström from PA Education shared the opportunities available within the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea region.
– Complex societal challenges require more cooperation across national borders. We need to gather resources and expertise and work cross-sectoral, locally, regionally, nationally, and transnationally. We need to cooperate in order to get the needed targeted solutions to our societal challenges of today, says Anders Bergström when he describes the core of the EU's macro-regional strategies.
The goal of macro-regional strategies is to engage stakeholders from different sectors and countries in long-term collaborations. The workshop at the ASSAR Industrial Innovation Arena in Skövde attracted officials from municipalities and regions together with some local and regional politicians from West Sweden. Fifteen people get a one-hour crash course in transnational cooperation before they get to try tackling a current problem together using methods used within the Baltic Sea Strategy.
Read more: Policy Area Education: Workshop on transnational cooperation in Sweden