Political High-levels met in Aalborg
For two whole days on June 12th-14th, 2017, more than 60 project partners and specially invited political stakeholders held several sessions in which the political and strategic capacity as well as the cluster capacity, possiblities and barriers where discussed.Our transnational working days is all about developing collaboration and trust through interchanging know-how and good solutions in the entire North Sea region.
Aalborg, Denmark, set the frame for the first Transnational Working Days in Northern Connections. For two days, more than 60 project partners and specially invited political stakeholders held several sessions in which the political and strategic capacity as well as the cluster capacity, possiblities and barriers where discussed. The political will and engagement is of excellent scope and the potential for innovation in functional regions is very high. The transnational workings days is a recurring biannual event, and this first conference gives a positive indication for further development.
"It means a lot to us to be able to contribute to green transition. I am very pleased to see so many cities, clusters and research institutions participate in this. I can tell that there is a real will to cooperate and to solve the big challenges, that we are facing. I truly belive that this project can move things and create great results," says Thomas Kastrup-Larsen, Mayor of the City of Aalborg.
"I think this project is on a very practical level. It is important that we have all the main stakeholders on board, not least the municipalities, the cities - in the end, they will have to implement, whatever we invent or develop. We have the small and medium entreprises, as those who have to produce, what we implement, and we have a scientific approach. We can learn from each others experiences and exchange knowledge," says Walter Pelka, President of the Hafencity University in Hamburg.
Included in the program was a seperate field trip for politicians and for project participants, visiting Aalborg Portland, the local cement production facility, which is not only located directly ontop the source of the rawmaterial, but in its heat surplus provides 25.000 homes with energy, and has the future capacity for 10.000 more. The combination of heavy industry as energy producer and homes as energy consumers in one of the Danish Living Labs, where inspiration can be brought on many levels.
Living Labs
The first phase of our Living Lab inventory was very well perceived from all our partners and resulted in a number of 170 different Living Labs around our all Northern Connections regions. The thematic areas of these Living Lab's are focused on “integrated energy systems” and “urban energy supply”.
We have through a prioritizing process narrowed this number down to 40 and will in next step come down to approximately 10 Living Labs for our continued work.
The aim is to get a balanced spread of thematic challenges for our different Living Labs to maximize the benefits for our upcoming involved clusters and enterprises.
Learn more about our Transnational working days in our newsletter.