REDINN is a four-year research project that looks at regional development outside metropolitan regions based on the recognition that innovation and entrepreneurship are crucial for economic growth and development. First and foremost, the project will seek to contribute with answers to the Inland region’s major challenges related to business development and renewal. The project started in January 2021.

The project has four work packages:

WP1 – Regional analyzes, new data, and new methods

This work package analyzes regional innovation dynamics. Central themes are:
– Regional innovation trends in the Inland region
– Composition of industries
– The importance of employees

WP2 – Knowledge flow and internationalization’s role for innovation activity

Work package 2 is based on the relationship between «localized» resources and «global» resources for knowledge development and innovation. The work package examines, in particular, the way in which new knowledge is spread and circulated in the region, as well as whether and how the new knowledge is absorbed in the Inland region. The background for the work package is increasing internationalization and the role of the global knowledge, innovation, and production networks for innovation in the region.

WP3 – Actors and structures in the innovation system of the Inland region

The starting point for work package 3 is the Inland region as an economic region. How does it work and what are the critically important resources for renewal? Like everyone else, our region is affected by automation, digitization, and «green» innovations that are becoming increasingly relevant to the region. In work package 3, the focus is how the region reacts to such changes and challenges. The research is about how the innovation ecosystem in the region is calibrated, and how the system and the individual actors are coordinated and mutually reinforce each other.

WP4 – Development of site-specific regional policy

In work package 4 we use the analyzes and results from the other work packages together with our own empirical data, such as network and policy analyzes. We look at how a policy that is adapted to the contextual conditions in the Inland region can be developed and thus contributes to increasing innovation activity and development of business throughout the region. The work package looks at how current policy formulation affects the innovation system and absorption capacity in the region, how the Inland region’s absorption capacity and overall innovation capacity can be increased. Then we finally look at how to develop an innovation policy that is adapted to regional conditions.

 

REDINN is financed by Sparebankstiftelsen Hedmark.

Do you want to know more about the project or do you want to contribute? Please contact project manager Atle Hauge.