Mission-oriented innovation towards digital and green transitions in the NPA communities

Programme 2021 - 2027 Interreg VI-B Northern Periphery and Arctic

Date of latest update: 2025-09-24

Description

Description (EN):

Mission-Oriented Innovation (MOI) is an emerging field giving a better strategic and holistic orientation of Science, Technology and Innovation to respond to grand societal challenges. In the NPA, MOI initiatives only exist at national level and its impact at regional/local levels is very limited. The absence of bottom-up approaches is impeding the possibility to define and shape MOI to address societal challenges at local/regional level. MINDSET’s overall objective is to provide policy makers and other stakeholders from 3 NPA regions with the innovation capacity (or same conditions) to deal with societal challenges that are otherwise non-existing or only developed at a national and/or EU level. This is done by introducing suitable Regional Mission-Oriented Innovation (RegMOI) approaches adapting and developing methods and tools to address interrelated challenges, such as skills development, climate change, and regional housing and public real estate, affecting NPA territories.

Expected Achievements (EN):

Prepare regional stakeholders from 3 NPA territories to introduce the novel concept of RegMOI as a new way of driving innovation suitable to address societal challenges affecting them as there are skills development, climate change and regional housing and public real estate in their territories by converting existing structures for problem solving (often silo-structures) to more cross-sectoral collaboration and system thinking. Test the effectiveness of RegMOI by applying it in the implementation of concrete missions addressing skills development, climate change and regional housing and public real estate challenges in 3 NPA territories. Create the conditions to integrate RegMOI as a new innovation method to address major societal challenges, where local/regional stakeholders are empowered and play a significant role aligned with supra-level missions. This will be done by working in interplay between top-down and bottom-up activities, inviting cross-sectoral regional and local stakeholders working with appropriate methods and tools to achieve amplified positive long-term effects in relation to those major challenges addressed.

Project outputs: Transnational cooperation(EN)
RegMOI driven missions addressing societal challenges(EN)
RegMOI missions developed(EN)

Thematic information

ICT and digital society Governance, partnership Education and training

Priority: (VI-B_NPaA_1) Strengthening the innovation capacity for resilient and attractive NPA communities

Priority specific objective: RSO1.1. Developing and enhancing research and innovation capacities and the uptake of advanced technologies

Priority policy objective (Interreg specific objective): PO1 A more competitive and smarter Europe by promoting innovative and smart economic transformation and regional ICT connectivity

Type of intervention: 028 Technology transfer and cooperation between enterprises, research centres and higher education sector

Partners (5)

Lead Partner: European Regions Network for the Application of Communications Technology

Partner’s ID if not PIC: 6544273A

Department: N/A

Address: Unit 271, CoLab, ATU Donegal, Port Road, F92 HTW7 Letterkenny, Ireland

Legal status: public

Organisation type: International organisation, EEIG

Website: http://www.ernact.eu

Total budget: EUR 350 882.00

Partner’s programme co-financing: EUR 228 073.30

Partner’s programme co-financing rate: 65.00%

Partner contribution: EUR 122 808.70

Örnsköldsviks kommun

Name: Örnsköldsviks kommun

Department: N/A

Partner’s ID if not PIC: 2120002445

Address: Järnvägsgatan, 89188 Örnsköldsvik, Sweden

Legal status: public

Organisation type: Local public authority

Website: https://www.ornskoldsvik.se/

Total budget: EUR 245 800.00

Partner’s programme co-financing: EUR 159 770.00

Partner’s programme co-financing rate: 65.00%

Partner contribution: EUR 86 030.00

Donegal County Council

Name: Donegal County Council

Department: Climate Action Unit

Partner’s ID if not PIC: 8F28103W

Address: County House, F93 Y622 Lifford, Ireland

Legal status: public

Organisation type: Local public authority

Website: https://www.donegalcoco.ie/

Total budget: EUR 234 340.00

Partner’s programme co-financing: EUR 152 321.00

Partner’s programme co-financing rate: 65.00%

Partner contribution: EUR 82 019.00

Helsingin yliopisto

Name: Helsingin yliopisto

Department: Ruralia Institute

Partner’s ID if not PIC: FI03134717

Address: Yliopistonkatu, 00100 Helsinki, Finland

Department address: Lönnrotinkatu, 50100 Mikkeli, Finland

Legal status: public

Organisation type: Higher education and research organisations

Website: https://www2.helsinki.fi/en/ruralia-institute

Total budget: EUR 288 612.00

Partner’s programme co-financing: EUR 187 597.80

Partner’s programme co-financing rate: 65.00%

Partner contribution: EUR 101 014.20

Umeå Universitet

Name: Umeå Universitet

Department: Department of Informatics

Partner’s ID if not PIC: SE202100287401

Address: Umeå universitet, 901 87 Umeå, Sweden

Legal status: public

Organisation type: Higher education and research organisations

Website: https://www.umu.se

Total budget: EUR 251 015.20

Partner’s programme co-financing: EUR 163 159.88

Partner’s programme co-financing rate: 65.00%

Partner contribution: EUR 87 855.32

GBER schemes / de minimis: GBER Article 20a

Partners map

Partners and Projects info

Örnsköldsvik Municipality

Mission-oriented innovation towards digital and green transitions in the NPA communities

Partners and Projects info

Donegal County Council

Mission-oriented innovation towards digital and green transitions in the NPA communities

Partners and Projects info

University of Helsinki

Mission-oriented innovation towards digital and green transitions in the NPA communities

Partners and Projects info

Umea University

Mission-oriented innovation towards digital and green transitions in the NPA communities

Partners and Projects info

European Regions Network for the Application of Communications Technology

Mission-oriented innovation towards digital and green transitions in the NPA communities

Lead partner

Project partner

Summary

Project name (EN): Mission-oriented innovation towards digital and green transitions in the NPA communities

Project acronym: MINDSET

Project ID: NPA0800200

Project start date: 2025-03-01

Project end date: 2028-02-29

Project status: ongoing

Relevant linked projects:

MINDSET (preparatory) (EN) | This project makes use of the work carried out in the MINDSET preparatory project that served to better understand the MOI concept and its different approaches, assess its current status and impact in the NPA regions. The work has led into the identification of gaps and the potential of exploring a RegMOI concept suitable to address concrete major challenges as there are the skills development and climate change in the NPA regions. (EN), INNOCAP (Interreg NPA) (EN) | Some outcomes resulting from INNOCAP will be used in the MINDSET project. More concretely, the digital innovation platform and the process to capture and put innovative ideas into practice developed in Västernorrland (Sweden) will be incorporated as a resource in the toolkit to implement RegMOI. (EN), KUMU 2030 (ERDF) (EN) | Strategic positioning of municipalities during administrative restructuring and sustainability transition - A case study of South Savo: the collected information from local decision-makers on the strategic positioning of municipalities during the major strategic and sustainability transitions will be used as input material in MINDSET. Also, “the regional change forum of municipality decision-makers” developed and launched in the project will be used in dissemination activities. (EN), Digital Impact North - EDIH (EN) | The network of European digital innovation hubs is a key driver to fulfil the objective in Digital Europe and the Digital Decade. To accomplish the digital and green transition. The EDIHs have established different networks of important stakeholders in the region. Digital Impact North, works in the four northern counties in Sweden with twin transition and can be an important actor to adopt RegMOI and also become a future recipient of the results from MINDSET. (EN)

Total budget/expenditure: EUR 1 370 649.20

Total EU funding (amount): EUR 890 921.98

Total EU funding (co-financing rate): 65.00%

Co-financing sources:

ERDF: Amount, EUR 890 921.98. Co-financing rate, 65.00%.

Investments, deliverables, policy contributions

(bullets are inserted automatically and may be incorrectly placed)

Deliverables:

RegMOI Presentation Toolkit
RegMOI capacity building sessions
Regional context mission system maps
Missions' factsheets
Communication strategy
Impact pathways
Missions' portfolios
System demonstrators
Monitoring report
Communication reports
RegMOI assessment report
RegMOI expansion plan
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)
Communication reports

Contribution to wider strategies and policies:

EUStrategyBalticSeaRegion MINDSET directly contributes to the sub-objective Connecting people in the region of this strategy since it will facilitate the coordination of different regional stakeholders, involving them and utilising their knowledge and skills in addressing common missions.
It will input in the Policy Area Innovation (PA INNO) and its promotion of a strong platform for an enhanced macroregional collaborative ecosystem for innovation.
AtlanticStrategy MINDSET contributes to Priority 1: Promote entrepreneurship and innovation. The project will input into the encouragement of transferring knowledge and insights, as well as skills between higher education, business and research, including through regional, national and cross-border stakeholders.
EuropeanGreenDeal MINDSET contributes into some of the intervention areas as it is the research and innovation where citizens are engaged to participate into social innovation towards a greener Europe. The project will equip regions with knowledge and tools to tackle societal challenges in their territories as it is the case of climate change.
TerritorialAgenda2030 MINDSET contributes to the Territorial Agenda 2030, in particular in its task of encouraging neighbourhoods, communities, municipalities, counties, regions and Member States to cooperate on responses to global societal challenges.
MOI implementation pursues the objective of providing the tools, coordination and governance to address these societal challenges.
Other Irish Government’s Climate Action Plan- MINDSET directly inputs into the Action 165 of the plan where Local Authorities were required to ‘identify and develop plans for one Decarbonising Zone. In the case of Donegal County Council, 2 decarbonization zones were selected (Falcarragh and Carndonagh). These 2 zones will be the scenarios where the RegMOI concept will be applied involving different stakeholders in several missions contributing to a common challenge as it is Climate Action.
Other EU rural Action plan (the aim is to put forward sustainable, cohesive and integrated rural development, especially connected to the flagship " Creating a stronger innovation ecosystem for rural areas"
MINDSET can complement other EU-initiatives and deliver tools and methods mission-driven innovation where public and private collaboration with the aim to develop place-based development among rural communities.
Other Strategy for new industrialization and societal transformation in Norrbotten and Västerbotten counties, Sweden. A state government strategy that contains seven strands that will support societal transition in northern Sweden.
MINDSET will give the stakeholders in the region systemic approaches and methods to elaborate large societal challenges connected to twin transition.
Other Regional development plan 2020-2030 for Vasterbotten and Vasternorrland contains objectives connected to innovation strategies for smart specialisation and smart regional collaboration.
MINDSET can provide guidelines by RegMOI on how to implement systematic changes in accordance with the objectives put forward in the regional development plans.

Programme Common Output Indicator:

RCO 116 - Jointly developed solutions, Measurement unit:
RCO 084 - Pilot actions developed jointly and implemented in projects, Measurement unit:
RCO 087 - Organisations cooperating across borders, Measurement unit:

Programme Common Result Indicator:

RCR 104 - Solutions taken up or up-scaled by organisations, Measurement unit:

Project part of European Union Macro-Regional or Sea Basin Strategy: EUSBSR

EUSBSR Priority (Policy) area / Horizontal action:

EUSBSR Degree of compliance:

Information regarding the data in keep.eu on the programme financing this project

Financing programme

2021 - 2027 Interreg VI-B Northern Periphery and Arctic

Last month that data in keep.eu was retrieved from the Programme's website or received from the Programme

2025-09-24

No. of projects in keep.eu / Total no. of projects (% of projects in keep.eu)

65 / 65 (100%)

No. of project partnerships in keep.eu / Total no. of project partnerships (% of project partnerships in keep.eu)

310 / 310 (100%)

Notes on the data

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Mission-oriented innovation towards digital and green transitions in the NPA communities

Description

Thematic information

Partners (5)

Partners map

Summary

Investments, deliverables, policy contributions

Information regarding the data in keep.eu on the programme financing this project

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