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Welcome to plan and productize tours around the cultural heritage of the hydropower plants and their communities in the Oulujoki river basin. Before the workshops there will be interesting introductions to the topic. Registration by 25 February 2022 at 4 pm from this link to the event on 1 March 2022 Registration by 11 March 2022 at 4 pm from this link to the event on 15 March 2022 Registration link to the event on 1 March 2022. Registration link for the event on 15 March 2022

North Ostrobothnia Climate Roadmap 2021-2030 - Towards a carbon-neutral North Ostrobothnia was adopted by the Provincial Government exactly one year ago. The road map provides guidelines for the county's climate goals and their implementation. The work is based on researched knowledge and extensive cooperation with actors. The result reflects the region's special characteristics, comprehensive review, solution-oriented approach, and the will and commitment of the actors. The work is progressing and there are resources for implementation. Now the latest, but certainly not least - the provincial cooperation group (MYR) proposes to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment: The regional selection criterion for scoring applications received by the Regional Council of Northern Ostrobothnia under priority axis 2 is the Regional Programme for Northern Ostrobothnia 2022-2025 and the Climate Road Map for Northern Ostrobothnia 2021-2030. Do you still remember the top themes? There are almost 130 measures in total and everything matters! You can find the core messages here. Further information:…

The new Barents Financial Mechanism (BFM) supports the promotion of contacts and sustainable development in the Barents region. The supported projects are expected to support the objectives of the ongoing Finnish BEAC and Nenetsian Barents Regional Council (BRC) Presidencies. Maximum grant for one project: EUR 40 000. The co-financing rate must be at least 10% and the duration of the project must not exceed two years. For justified reasons, the project period may be extended to three years.  BEAC member countries have been planning to create their own funding programme to support Barents cooperation for years. Finland will invest a total of EUR 550 000 in the fund. The total funding for the first call is EUR 730,000. Several information sessions related to the financial instrument will be organised for potential applicants during the spring of 2022. Read more about the instrument here.

The first actual application period for the new Northern Periphery and Arctic programme is planned to take place from 17 March to 20 June 2022. The Interreg NPA cooperation programme for 2021-2017 has been built on the good experiences of previous programmes. The programme area has now been slightly reduced so that Northern Ireland and Scotland are no longer part of the actual programme area. The programme area in Norway also changed to include the two northernmost provinces, Nordland and Troms-Finnmark. Ireland, on the other hand, introduced new regions into the programme. In order to quickly launch the new NPA programme, the Monitoring Committee now encourages those planning cooperation projects to develop their ideas, find suitable project partners and identify available counterpart funding sources in different countries. The final criteria (Terms of Reference) will be established by the Monitoring Committee just before the official opening of the call, but … will:

Search information for companies and stakeholders in Northern Finland: Business development grant in the new programming period - what will change? The Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment for Northern Ostrobothnia organises application information for small and medium-sized enterprises on business development grants (EU co-funded) as part of the Renewable and Skilled Finland 2021-2027 Finnish Structural Funds programme. Two information sessions with the same content are available for companies on 28 February and 17 March 2022. Read more: https://structuralfunds.fi/-/enterprise-development grant-new-programme period-whatever-changes-Investments and prospects for livelihoods in the Barents region According to a study published by the Lapland Chamber of Commerce, the investment potential of the Barents region reaches EUR 178 billion. Of this total, EUR 86 billion will be allocated to industrial projects, EUR 50 billion to energy projects, EUR 32 billion to infrastructure projects, EUR 4 billion to tourism and EUR 6 billion to other projects. The report took into account the investments in implementation, confirmed and planned, mainly until 2030. Results…

The Ministry of the Environment's wood construction programme has commissioned a statistical analysis of the significance of the wood product industry in Finland and different regions with Pellervo's economic study. The data now updated mainly concern the year 2020 and are based on Statistics Finland's data. The gross value of production in the wood products and furniture industry was EUR 7.7 billion in 2020, of which Northern Ostrobothnia accounted for 12.5 per cent. The gross value of production in the wood products and furniture industry in North Ostrobothnia was 11 per cent of the gross value of production in the region's total industry in 2020 (the whole country 7 per cent). The wood products and furniture industry in Northern Ostrobothnia generated approximately EUR 199 million in value added (sales revenue - costs) in 2020. In Northern Ostrobothnia, the wood products and furniture industry accounted for 15 per cent of all employed persons in manufacturing. % in 2020. The wood products and furniture industry paid approximately EUR 125 million in wages and salaries in Northern Ostrobothnia in …

Supporting the sustainable growth and vitality of the regions, i.e. the application period for AKKE funding, has ended. By the deadline, 15 applications were received and a total of €946,381.94 was applied for funding from the Regional Council of Northern Ostrobothnia. Applications will be processed immediately.

The main themes highlighted in the final report of the Act 8 Smart Route project were the use of new technologies to improve transport efficiency, social and environmental issues related to smart roads and infrastructure related to special transports. The final report of the Vt 8 Älyväylä project managed by the Kasitie network has been completed. The project served as a preliminary study on the needs of the business community and the possibilities of the intelligence of the route to serve the needs of Western Finland's export industry. The project started in 2021 and was designed and implemented by WSP Finland Oy. In total, three workshops were carried out in which representatives of the business community, together with regional authorities, were able to map the challenges of highway 8 from the perspective of the export industry. The first workshop took place on 7 October 2021. The topics discussed in the workshop were the needs of business supply chains, as well as intelligent transport services connected to infrastructure and their utilization. Participants in the workshop wrote…

The call for partners for the Finnish-Russian Cultural Forum is currently underway and Finnish actors can use it to search for project partners in Russia. The call for partners is open until 1 March, so now is the right time to submit project proposals. The search for a partner in Russia can be started by filling in the project proposal form on the renewed website of the Cultural Forum at www.kultforum.org. Russian partner candidates will respond to Finnish proposals during the spring. Remote consultations will be held during the summer. The XXIII Finnish-Russian Cultural Forum is scheduled to take place in Lahti on 7-8 October 2022. If you are interested in the Cultural Forum and partner search, you can participate in the information event organised on 8 February at 2 p.m. via Zoom. You can register for the event here.

Supporting the sustainable growth and vitality of the regions, i.e. the application period for AKKE project funding, is still open for one week, applications can be submitted until 31 January 2022 at 4 p.m.