Western Norway Research Institute and West Norway University College have done research on the innovation system of the rural and mountainous county Sogn og Fjordane in Norway. A short version of the research is now launched as a tool-box and translated into English.
The tool-box is ordered by Sogn og Fjordane County Municipality. “It will be used with the purpose of professionalizing our work together with partners within rural innovation -networks”, Lars Hustveit in the county administration explained. “This tool-box will also be presented to our partners in the Interreg Europe project P-IRIS” (a project where 5 of the 6 partners are members of Euromontana).
It is vital to understand the nature of rural innovation systems and invest in these systems, facilitating effective sharing of knowledge. This toolbox will reinforce skills in managing co-operation between businesses, researchers and public authorities (so-called triple-helix networks) that are crucial; e.g.:
- To better progress and focus on commercial goals.
- To overcome differences between professional cultures and thereby co-operate on equal terms.
- To be able to manage initiation, development and restructuring phases of a network.
- To be able to benefit from the advantages rural areas have; e.g. short distance between actors and multi-links between actors.
This toolbox gives seven pieces of advice for good network management and four exercises to establish and revitalize rural innovation networks.
You might access the whole Toolbox here.
The toolbox is theoretically based, but should be easily accessible and relevant to both business stakeholders and public policy funding schemes.
For more information or comments, please contact:
Sogn og Fjordane County Municipality: Lars Hustveit (lars.hustveit@sfj.no) or
Ingvild Andersen (P-IRIS project manager – ingvild.andersen@sfj.no)
or
Øyvind Heimset Larsen (ohl@vestforsk.no) from the research institute Vestlandsforsking (an R&D-institute that will soon become a member of Euromontana
1 March 2017
