Smart City Sweden – node in Dalarna for sustainable export solutions
Borlänge will be one of six regional nodes for Smart City Sweden. An opportunity to showcase the best of the region’s knowledge of environmental technology, mobility, digitization, urban planning, and social sustainability. From Borlänge, Dalarna Science Park will be the responsible organization, the work will be coordinated for the Region Center node. The node includes Dalarna, Gävleborg, Värmland, Västmanland, and Örebro. The contact person will be Sara Skärhem.
The ambition of Smart City Sweden is to showcase the best of Sweden and great emphasis will be placed on the story of the country’s development linked to sustainable solutions where companies that can contribute to a sustainable city are made visible and involved.
Swedish knowledge for the international market
Smart City Sweden is a national export and investment platform that highlights Swedish knowledge of smart and sustainable cities for an international market. This platform has been central for a couple of years but is now being widened with regional representation to highlight Swedish know-how across the country. Interest in conducting on-site visits to Sweden from abroad is great and now the opportunities to go from foreign interest to business for Swedish companies are increasing. For example, Dalarna has received many groups from China.
Spread smart solutions and increase exports
Globally, Sweden is far ahead in the area of smart and sustainable cities. The goal is to increase the number of relevant visits to Sweden, which in turn will help to increase the dissemination of Swedish solutions, increase exports for Swedish companies, and also contribute to meeting the UN’s global goals by 2030.
The most important part of the effort is the follow-up of international visits. A joint process is now being developed to facilitate Swedish companies to get their business ideas out and thereby also contribute to solving urban challenges locally around the world.
Regional nodes
The six regional nodes participating in the project have collaborated within the framework of
ASSET – Swedish environmental technology association, for many years. It is this collaboration in combination with the experience of visitor activities that form the basis for these particular organizations participating in Smart City Sweden.
Region North: Norrbotten, Västerbotten, Västernorrland and Jämtland County. Responsible organization: North Sweden Cleantech (Competence dissemination in Umeå AB)
Region Center: Dalarna, Gävleborg, Värmland, Västmanland, Örebro. Responsible organization and contact person: Dalarna Science Park.
East Region: Stockholm, Gotland, Uppsala, Södermanland. Responsible organization and contact person: IVL Swedish Environmental Institute. Region West: The Gothenburg region, and Västra Götaland, Halland.
Responsible organization: Business Region Göteborg AB. Note that BRG’s responsibility is the Gothenburg region’s 13 municipalities. However, BRG cooperates with the regional export center and EEN, which works throughout Västra Götaland and Halland.
Southeast Region: Östergötland, Jönköping, Kalmar, Kronoberg. Responsible organization: Cleantech Östergötland.
Region South: Blekinge, Skåne. Responsible organization: Sustainable Business Hub together with the City of Malmö and IVL.
The Swedish Energy Agency finances and coordinates the government assignment. In addition to the export and investment platform itself, the Smart City Sweden assignment also includes increased collaboration between seven authorities, continued support for Swedish Cleantech, and an overall evaluation assignment.
IVL Swedish Environmental Institute has been commissioned to continue the export and investment platform Smart City Sweden. Since spring 2017, IVL has highlighted good examples in the Environment, Climate & Energy and Sustainable Transport. This is now being extended to include examples in the areas of Digitization, Urban Planning and Social Sustainability. Since the inauguration in May 2017, more than 3000 visitors from 43 different countries have been welcomed at the headquarters in Stockholm.
