The climate crisis is the greatest challenge of our time, one that knowledge institutions, businesses, the public sector, and citizens must jointly find solutions to. One way to address this challenge is by using data and digital technologies to accelerate innovation. Municipalities and regions are simultaneously committed to the green transition and motivated to find digital solutions to meet national and global climate goals.

However, municipalities lack the resources and expertise to implement innovative technologies that support their work on the green transition. It is therefore necessary to involve universities and businesses to support the public sector through knowledge transfer, such as sharing research.

Universities possess specialized knowledge that innovative companies can use and transform into solutions tailored to the needs and requirements of municipalities. There is therefore a need for an arena where stakeholders in the ØKS region can collaborate in broad constellations, exchange research results, knowledge, and challenges, and thereby enhance innovation and research capacity.

Interest in a cross-regional arena – an innovation and technology task force – emerged during the bridging project among universities, municipalities, regions, and businesses, and the concept was developed further.

This project aims to establish and operationalize the task force so that it can deliver value to municipalities and regions, knowledge institutions, and businesses – whether located in Denmark or Sweden. The task force will promote innovation within smart specialization focused on the green transition and sustainable cities, ensuring that solutions are developed according to principles based on standards, architectural frameworks, and so forth, so that solutions can be scaled more easily and benefit more people.

The task force will also provide support and address specific technological challenges in line with national and European frameworks and objectives. In short, we aim to create the foundation for a permanent organization – beyond the project period – that can continue to accelerate innovation, drive sustainable change, and build competencies in municipalities and regions, enabling them to confidently adopt innovative, green, data-driven solutions and technologies to a greater extent, while delivering added value to the various stakeholders.

The “bridging project” identified municipal and regional needs for green objectives in the Øresund region. Some of these needs will now be translated into data-driven solutions in collaboration with the task force. For this purpose, we have also identified several suitable tools and methods to ensure that all solutions follow the same structured process. These will be incorporated into a 360-degree digital process tool to be used in innovation projects, making them robust and ready for scaling. The task force places particular emphasis on methods and processes suited to technology-intensive data projects that can enrich individual solutions and stimulate data sharing.

Collaboration within the ecosystem means that market-ready and technological solutions are developed through cross-regional cooperation. When companies base their solutions on the latest research and have insight into municipal business needs in Denmark and Sweden, their products will be stronger and enhance their competitiveness. Anchoring the task force in existing municipal networks, projects, and organizations means that, on the demand side, there are around 60 Danish and 50 Swedish municipalities in close contact with the task force. In addition, the project is supported by, among others, Local Government Denmark and Region Skåne.

In addition to leading the work package “GDPR and Cybersecurity”, DTU Engineering Technology is involved in the following cases, described in Danish:

• Water quality in Frederiksberg, DK
• Rainwater management with green downpipes, DK
• Water level measurement in Høje-Taastrup, DK
• Transport habits among school pupils in Guldborgsund, DK
• Transport habits among school pupils in Tomelilla, SE
• Nature quality in Høje-Taastrup, DK
• Road quality in Frederiksberg, DK

InnoTech – Taskforce is led by Gate 21. The project, running from 2023 to 2025, is supported with DKK 1.6 million from Interreg ØKS.

Read more about the project here.

Partners

Denmark:

• AKiLAY Aps
• DTU Compute
• DTU Construct
• DTU Engineering Technology
• Frederiksberg Kommune
• GovTech Midtjylland
• Guldborgsund Kommune
• Høje-Taastrup Kommune
• Horsens Kommune
• Region Sjælland
• Roskilde Universitet
• We Build Denmark
• Zealand Academy

Sweden:

• Högskolan i Halmstad
• RISE
• Tomelilla kommun
• Ängelholms kommun