Before you refuse to dream, you should ask yourself: Are you proud of where you live – or come from? What does the place look like? Is there good infrastructure - homes, public spaces and facilities, work and study opportunities etc.? According to researcher Mr. Knut Vareide from Telemarksforskning: - Attractiveness of a region or town is a driving force behind regional development that is stronger, or at least as strong, as the development in number of jobs.

Murmansk Governor Dmitry Dmitrienko summarized the MIEF event: «Thanks to the forum one paid attention to the Murmansk Region as a region where there live courageous, energetic, interesting people. They saw that the Murmansk Region is not only an industrial region, but the territory where the culture develops, new characters and new human relations develop. These aspects are not less important, than economic achievements».

Arctic Regions can become a model of effective cooperation for all world community. Such opinion was stated by the Governor of the Murmansk Region Dmitry Dmitrienko at the opening of the I Murmansk International Economic Forum. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov estimated the role of the forum with these words: «The Murmansk Economic Forum is a contribution of Russia to affair of further advance of economic and other forms of interaction, both in Barents region and in the Arctic Regions"

Lithuanian parliament decided last week to increase the VAT with 2% to 21%. The national economy is expected to contract with 15-20 % this year according to Finance Minister Ingrida Simonyte. Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis in Latvia expected in June an 18 % contraction in the Latvian economy. A new 200 mill.euro IMF package has just been settled to ease the pains within the ailing economy. Latvian hospitals are almost out of money. Estonian MP's are fighting over a 2% recently decided raise in VAT. Dark clouds are hanging over the 7 million Baltic heads this summer.

“The issue is not how to stop globalisation. The issue is how we use the power of community to combine it with justice…the alternative to globalisation is isolation”.

Tony Blair, UK Prime Minister, 2001

When people wake up in the morning, they find themselves in different conditions: some are secure, healthy, well clothed, others are unhealthy, poor, hungry and with little security. Many communities around the world today are divided socially...

Last days of July there were some IC meetings in Pskov. I visited the city and had meetings with our IC project partners. I presented the final report from the IC project in Russia and there were talks about follow up cooperation. Several new ideas came up. Pskov can offer many interesting initiatives towards other partners and also new products within tourism and culture in the months to come.

Innovation Circle project part TACIS which was implemented in Russia held the last meeting in Pskov in May. All the results were presented and discussed. Senior Adviser Bjørn Opjordsmoen who was closely familiar with project ideas and performed as external expert for the project prepared a document evaluating project influence to Murmansk and Pskov cities. The report made by Mr. Opjorsmoen together with reflections from coordinators and other participants are available at the Final report.

Download the final report here.

Young and creative people is a marginal resource and should be the key target group for all smaller places and even for shrinking cities with a will to stimulate innovation and to make structural changes. With a constant decrease of young women the places will shrink or even die for sure.

IC was an exciting project. It began soon after the Baltic States and Poland joined the EU, so it was a new beginning, not only for the IC Partners but for the EU itself. It grappled with the future of small towns in rural regions in Europe’s periphery, one of the most challenging long-term problems facing the continent. Innovation was not just a fancy title for the project: innovation defined the way the project worked.

When I first learnt about the Innovation Circle project my understanding of innovation was shaped by sterile academic debates in economics, public administration, and political science. I had read about innovation but I had never seen how innovations were actually produced. That’s why I decided to stay in touch with the IC by attending Innovation academies and follow the whole process by watching and listening carefully. To find out how partners used the opportunities offered by the IC to promote local and regional innovation and development in their own communities I interviewed 27 community members, and I reflect on some of my observations in this article.