09 Dec 2020

The Project Future Cleantech Solutions Wins Arctic Awards 2020

Every year the Arctic Awards are presented to highlight good practice projects and this year, the project Future Cleantech Solutions was presented as the winner of the Arctic Award “Overcoming Critical Mass”.

The Arctic Awards is a project competition award which showcase good practice projects in the Arctic area. The award aims to highlight innovative projects with a clear Arctic dimension, which are viewed as inspirational in their regions as well as being seen as creating real, measurable impacts on the ground and being of direct benefit to Arctic communities. The award has been designed to highlight exceptional projects focusing on topics of particular relevance to the Arctic area. The competition was open to projects funded by the Northern Periphery & Arctic Programme, Interreg Botnia-Atlantica, Interreg Nord and Kolarctic CBC programmes, and Karelia CBC programme. The competition is part of the Arctic Cooperation, a collaboration between the five EU cooperation programmes, coordinated by the Northern Periphery and Arctic Programme.

- We are happy and proud to see Future Cleantech Solutions win this year’s Arctic Awards in fierce competition with projects from all over the European Arctic. It shows that the project’s model to increase and develop collaborations between cleantech companies in the region is interesting and sustainable also in a wider perspective, which is a proof to us that we have made the right priority in financing the project, says Sara Sundbaum at Interreg Botnia-Atlantica.

Jury's Motivation

Each year two categories are open for submissions and a jury of five representatives from the Arctic Cooperation programmes selects one winner per category. This year, the categories were “Arctic Entrepreneurial Spirit” (category 1) and “Overcoming Critical Mass” (category 2).

The jury’s motivation was that Future Cleantech Solutions demonstrated:

• a concrete cooperation model innovating Cleantech businesses in the Kvarken region, as well as taking into account natural resources in the regions.
• clustering, promotion of clean-tech solutions and creation of vertical links between Arctic companies which answer to the needs of sparsely populated areas really well.
• An approach that is agile and relatively easy to scale and deploy in other parts of Arctic regions.

Motivational Win

The project Future Cleantech Solutions is a cross-border project with parts in Kokkola, Vaasa, Örnsköldsvik, Umeå and Skellefteå. It has been running since January 2019 and is based on a strong cooperation. To be awarded the Arctic Awards shows the importance of good collaboration.

- It is fantastic that our project is paid attention to. Everyone involved, both Swedish and Finnish, are so happy and it is very important for our long-term strategic cooperation within the business development area that we have had since 2013 – and we are determined to continue in the future, says Åsa Fällman, Steering Committee Chairman of Future Cleantech Solutions and Deputy Business Manager in Umeå.

The focus of Future Cleantech Solutions is to, through cross-border collaboration, take advantage of the opportunities that arise through new establishments, investments and initiatives that are planned and implemented in the region. To win this award means a lot to the project and its team members’ continued work.                                              

- Our project team is a real cross-border team that plans and carries out all activities together and the award shows that we work in the right way. The Arctic Awards fulfil a very important function to give us and others the inspiration to increase collaboration, says Peter Hedman, Project Manager Future Cleantech Solutions.

Future Cleantech Solutions runs 2019-2021 and is 60 % funded by the EU programme Interreg Botnia-Atlantica. Other financiers are Regional Council of Ostrobothnia, Region Västerbotten, Region Västernorrland, Municipality of Umeå, Umeå Energi, Municipality of Skellefteå, Skellefteå Kraft, Municipality of Örnsköldsvik, VASEK, Merinova, City of Vaasa, City of Kokkola and KOSEK. Kompetensspridning i Umeå AB is the project owner.

The winner of "Arctic Entrepreneurial Spirit" var projektet BRIDGE, Barents Region Initiative for Development Growth and Employability. The winners were announced on social media on December 9^th, with a dedicated video which you can watch here:

Read more about Future Cleantech Solutions here!