Last update date 10 February 2022
The Finnish regions of North East Finland provide an example on how to use cluster policy to support both the competitiveness of the regional companies in the international value chain and the green transition. The platform Arctic Smartness to support SMEs in Lapland has been established in 2018. The platform has started and concluded projects on Arctic Smart Growth (ASG), Arctic Smartness RDI-Excellence (ASR), Arctic Investment Platform – Feasibility Study and Roadmap and Lapland – Arctic and International Highflier. The aim of all projects is to use both the potential of natural resources and the potential of natural beauty to build stronger value chains with a higher proportion of value added in North East Finland. This is very much interlinked with the aim of making better use of the resources and building circular economy value chains. The projects rely on networking, business support and information approaches for this purpose.