The future of archipelago

Finnish archipelago policy turned 70 years in June and the Island Committee SANK celebrated its 60th anniversary at the archipelago seminar in Turku in the beginning of June. MDI congratulates the archipelago developers with long and distinguished careers – especially “Mr. Archipelago” Jorma Leppänen, who retires this year, but hopefully continues as an archipelagist in the future. At Turku seminar, MDI contemplated the future of arhipelago development.

Development frameworks look promising. The Commission’s proposal for Finland is favorable – the overall financing is growing and the financing of sparsely housing continues to be part of the criterion of money supply. There is great potential in tourism, but the archipelago is not about volumes but about quality and functionality.

As Finland seeks out its archipelago specialties, it encourages partners to apply from Sweden and, more widely, from Scandinavia and Scotland. Archipelago laws are changing in an interesting way- and inspired by Finland – not only in Scotland, but also in Croatia, where power is distributed to the islands. The basic tone of discussion is changing from a conservative policy towards an island development policy. MDI’s report on European archipelago and water system policy will be completed in early autumn.

A sustainable green transition is achieved by investing in the diversity of RDI activities – the AGDA project continues to work on this theme

AGDA is a Nordic development project funded by the Nordic Gender Equality Fund (NIKK). The project focuses on the opportunities that a greater focus on diversity and inclusion could create in the RDI-field, particularly in respect of green transition.

Read more A sustainable green transition is achieved by investing in the diversity of RDI activities – the AGDA project continues to work on this theme

MDI leads the co-creative process of developing, piloting and sharing practices for wellbeing in Sustainable Cities

The challenge bundle work is the cross-cutting co-development of the “Sustainable City” programme, co-ordinated by the Ministry of the Environment, with the aim of producing and sharing information, knowledge and solutions to the challenges linking cities’ management and practice in the area of leading work towards sustainability. The work produces concrete development measures, new ways of doing things and peer learning.

Read more MDI leads the co-creative process of developing, piloting and sharing practices for wellbeing in Sustainable Cities