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In my region
Discover how the EU supports your local area
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The Northern Lights

Norrbotten County, Sweden

The Northern Lights
© robineriksson | Adobe Stock

Norrbotten County covers the region of Norrbotten and most of Lapland. It’s Sweden’s largest county by area but also one of the most sparsely populated, with fewer than two inhabitants per square kilometre. Luleå is the capital of Norrbotten County and has the most northerly technical university in Sweden. Traditionally, the region’s economy has featured mining, hydro-electric power and Sami reindeer herding. The tourism sector is working to attract visitors to its pristine mountains and forests in a wide variety of national parks and nature reserves. ‘Kalix löjrom’, the roe of the vendace fish, is one of the few Swedish products to enjoy EU protected designation of origin status.

Examples of projects and initiatives supported by the EU

Folk high schools of the future

The ‘Framtidens folkhögskola’ (‘Adult education college of the future’) project brings together four of Norrbotten’s adult education colleges to look at how they can make themselves more relevant as active partners with the public and private sectors. The project will help staff at the colleges strengthen their skills in developing remote-teaching activities and digital-teaching environments to better respond to society’s and employers’ requirements.

Development of hospitality industry in Swedish Lapland

The aim of the ‘Business Capacity Development in Swedish Lapland’ project is to create long-term growth for small and medium-sized businesses operating in Lapland’s tourism sector, covering all the municipalities in Norrbotten, as well as Sorsele and Skellefteå in Västerbotten. The project aims to build up business- and market-development capacities with a view to making firms in the region more competitive.

Production of sustainable bio-jet fuel

As a contribution to the Swedish aviation industry’s target of having fossil-free domestic flights by 2030, the Treepower project plans to develop commercial large-scale domestic production of sustainable aviation biofuel from raw forest materials in Norrbotten. People would also like to see Luleå University of Technology become the national centre for research and expertise in biofuels from raw forest materials and renewable energy.

Space project for innovation and growth

The Space for Innovation and Growth project (known by its Swedish acronym ‘RIT’) was started in 2015. It has helped make Norrbotten into Sweden’s leading space region. The project, which is led by Luleå University of Technology, carries out its testing activities at the Space Campus in Kiruna. Fresh EU funding means it will continue to boost innovation activities involving academia, local stakeholders and the space industry.

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