About ELMO Project

Originally founded as a part of the “Regions in Industrial Transition”- pilot, the ELMO-collaboration consists of the seven regions of East and North Finland (ENF): Lapland, Oulu region, Kainuu region, Central Ostrobothnia, Pohjois-Savo, North Karelia and South Savo.

In the first phase of the project ELMO, the focus was on creating and applying a mutual smart specialisation strategy 2019 – 2023 for East and North Finland. During the first phase, the mutual strategy was implemented by developing cluster activities, improving the visibility of the innovation platforms, and by supporting the actors in the ENF region to network internationally. One of the central goals of the project was to promote new supraregional collaboration within the themes of the S3-strategy. The ELMO Task Force, consisting of representatives from each of the seven ENF regions and experts from the East and North Finland EU office, acted as important forum for this this new type of collaboration.

In the second phase, collaboration of the East and North Finland carry on strong in project ELMO II. During the second phase, the work will focus on producing a thorough evaluation of the implementation of the mutual S3-strategy 2019 – 2023. The results of the evaluation will be utilized in updating the mutual S3-strategy for the years 2024 – 2027. The ELMO Task Force will remain as main strategic forum for the preparatory work towards the updated strategy.

In ELMO II, other central goal is to establish ENF’s status as a prominent actor in international networks and to create a permanent procedure to coordinate ENF’s involvement in these networks. The visibility of the ENF regions will also be increased by creating a shared brand for of East and North Finland.