"A sustainable, prosperous, and secure future for the communities and people living in the Arctic" – this is how the European Union describes the new project Arctic Urban and Regional Cooperation (AURC), where 15 cities from across the Arctic are forming a network for the first time to handle common challenges in a structured and supportive way.
The project brings together local authorities who are given the opportunity to cooperate through peer-to-peer learning, sharing challenges and solutions within sustainable urban development, skills supply and talent attraction, circular economy, gender equality and social inclusion, sustainable tourism, youth participation, and more. The aim is to facilitate the transfer of knowledge and best practices on sustainable urban development priorities.
"AURC provides us with an opportunity to gather knowledge and inspiration from each other's innovative solutions to our common challenges. Social, economic, environmental, and geopolitical issues have a significant impact on the well-being of people in the north, so I am very proud that Luleå Municipality, alongside local authorities from the USA, Canada, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, and Norway, has been selected to join the Arctic Urban Regional Cooperation (AURC)," says Nataliia Hammarberg, International Relations Officer at Luleå Municipality.
Between December 9-11, the new network gathered in Luleå.
Julia Hanson, Skills Supply Coordinator at Luleå Municipality and Luleå's Project Manager for AURC:
"It is fantastic that Luleå, together with Finnish Oulu, has hosted the project's first study visit in the EU. I am grateful that AURC members traveled long distances to come to Luleå to learn about our community transformation and how we work with opportunities and challenges related to it.
"It is important to showcase Luleå to create an understanding of our local conditions and to invite cooperation where we can learn from how other municipalities successfully work on issues where we face challenges. It is very positive that we, together with the participants of the visit in Luleå, have been able to discuss how to expand cooperation on certain selected issues."
The new network visited places such as Luleå University of Technology (LTU), Norrbotten's Science Center for technology, science, and mathematics, the Art Gallery, the House of Culture, and Port of Luleå and were welcomed by Carina Sammeli, Chair of the Municipal Executive Board, who spoke about the green transition. There were also presentations on how Luleå Municipality works with tourism, skills supply, and connecting culture and business, to name a few topics.
