Our partners

Region Östergötland is a politically governed organization. This means that the region is lead by politicians elected by the residents of Östergötland in general elections every four years. It is the task of these politicians to determine the objectives of the region’s activities, to distribute available funds and to follow up on the results of the targets that have been set. The Regional Council is the region's highest decision-making body. It sets the long-term goals, taxation and financial frameworks for the region's activities. The Regional Board, together with the Health and Medical Care, the Regional Development and Transport and the Planning Board, are commissioned to execute the council's decision.

Region Östergötland most extensive mission is to provide the residents of Östergötland with good health care, which also includes dental care. The region also holds responsibility for long-term and sustainable development in the region through its responsibility for regional statistics and the task of implementing measures in areas such as town planning, skills, entrepreneurship, tourism, culture, public education and public health. The region is responsible for all public transport in the county in its role as regional public transport authority responsible for the development of an attractive and efficient public transport in the county. The region's mission is governed by the Municipal Act, the Health Care Act, Dental Care Act, the Patient Act, the Public Transport Act, and the law on regional development responsibilities in some counties as well as other legislation of relevance.

Östergötland is a region (county) with approx. 442 000 inhabitants which covers an area of 10 562 km2. The distance to the capital Stockholm is 2 h by train or car. Administratively Östergötland is made up of 13 municipalities, the largest of which are Linköping & Norrköping.

Information about the RIS3 of the partner region:

Regional level document: „Smart Specialiseringsstrategi för Östergötland” (Smart Specialisation Strategy Östergötland)
Legal owner: Östergötland County Council/Region Östergötland
Web: www.regionostergotland.se/Regional-utveckling/Naringsliv-och-arbetsmarknad/Naringslivsutveckling/Smart-specialisering/
and www.regionostergotland.se/Regional-utveckling/Naringsliv-och-arbetsmarknad/Naringslivsutveckling/Smart-specialisering/In-English---Smart-Specialisation/

Key challenges for innovation policy

The key challenges for innovation policy in the Region Östergötland are:

• A flexible education system available to all women and men in the region
  
• Matching of labour market needs and educational options
  
• More new business starts-ups and growing businesses run and owned by women as well as men
  
• Contributing to the development of the region into a common functional education and labour market region with increased day-to-day interaction
  
• Replacing lost jobs with new jobs that have higher added value and high international competitiveness, making a positive contribution to structural change.
  

Smart Specialization areas in Östergötland

The five regional enablers of Östergötland are:

• Effective logistics
  
• Business models and arenas for sustainable system solutions
  
• Smart, secure and connected products and systems
  
• Simulation and visualization
  
• Advanced materials.
  

Enabling strengths are linked with prioritized regional application areas as follows:

• AgriFood: logistics, connected products and systems
  
• Energy: connected products and systems, advanced materials, business models for sustainable system solutions
  
• Health care: logistics, connected products and systems.

Main Objectives of the RIS3

In the short term (1-3 years) achieve an increased ability of Östergötland to:

In the longer term (5-10 years), the regional work with smart specialization shall lead to greater impact of regional innovation strategies in terms of:

• More companies
  
• More jobs
  
• Increased added value in regional economy.
  

Moreover, the strategy shall lead to less fragmentation of public investments leading to higher efficiency in the use of public funds. A greater focus on areas of expertise is expected to provide synergies between public support mechanisms for R & D and innovation, marketing and learning. A clearer profile and strategy towards national and international funding agencies will also provide Östergötland with increasing resources to support innovation and entrepreneurship.

Funding

The main sources of funding the RIS3-related activities are:

• Direct public funds
  
• ERDF operational programme 2014-2020 (approx. 700 million EUR in total)
  
• National research and innovation funding programmes (competition-based funding)
  
• Interreg and H2020.