Strategic Planning in the North – SPIN
A joint effort for better regional strategic planning in northern Sweden. The goal is to make regional development and community planning better connected in northern Sweden – across county borders and between different areas of activity.
Purpose and focus
SPIN will strengthen the regions' ability to work with regional development where the spatial perspective has greater scope. The project will develop and test new ways of working for how regional and interregional planning can become more cohesive.
It is also about improving collaboration between municipalities, regions and national authorities, clarifying roles and responsibilities and developing joint processes for community planning and regional strategic development.
Common data and strengthened GIS expertise
An important part of the work is to strengthen the spatial/physical dimension in regional development work. This means producing common data and analyses and increasing expertise in GIS and map use.
The goal is to make it easier to quickly produce relevant maps and use them as support in dialogues, meetings and decision-making processes.
Region Norrbotten's role in the project is to lead the work of developing joint planning documents and analyses.
Organization and target group
The project is organized into four work packages:
- Work package 1: Develop working methods and methods for regional strategic planning (leader: Region Jämtland Härjedalen)
- Work package 2: Common data and analyses (leader: Region Norrbotten)
- Work package 3: Increased GIS competence among regional development managers (leader: Region Västerbotten)
- Work package 4: Project management and finance (leader: Region Västernorrland)
SPIN is primarily aimed at officials and politicians with regional development responsibility, but also at municipalities, county administrative boards in northern Sweden, national authorities and other regional actors. Through the collaboration, planning in northern Sweden will become more coordinated, knowledge-based and sustainable in the long term.
Project period
The Strategic Planning in the North project runs from November 2025 to October 2027.
Who is financing the project?
The project is jointly financed by the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth and Economic Development and Region Norrbotten, Region Västernorrland, Region Västerbotten and Region Jämtland Härjedalen. It is implemented in regional cooperation between the regions. Region Västernorrland is the project owner and is responsible for the overall implementation of the project.
Brief facts about Regional strategic planning
Regional strategic planning is a method of coordinating and planning social issues that extend across municipal boundaries. The aim is to strengthen sustainable and long-term development through collaboration between different sectors.
The work is based on a territorial perspective and is based on spatial data, such as maps, structural images and analyses of regional conditions.
Sweden lags behind many other EU countries in strategic regional planning. Through the government mandate Regional Strategic Planning, the regions will therefore strengthen their capacity to lead development, coordinate planning processes and create clearer direction between the municipal, regional and national levels.
Read more
Regional strategic planning (Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth)
Contact
If you have any questions, please contact us in the project.
Marta Bystrowska (main project manager) marta.bystrowska@rvn.se
Lizah Lund (Norrbotten) lizah.lund@norrbotten.se