White Spaces Innovation in Sweden - Innovation policy for ... - Vinnova

WHITE SPACES INNOVATION IN SWEDENHub‟ and „Packbridge‟ and aims to build these up. Västra Götaland, by contrast, takes amore „engineered‟ approach because of its relatively stable evolution based on a widevariety of clusters ready for integration as platforms focused on specific Grand Challengeprojects and early adoption of Grand Challenge thinking. This has taken the formof „Green Regional Strategies‟ since the first in 2005 (RG Green Strategy), followed by„Smart Energy‟ (2008) whose vision was to heavily reduce the region's dependence onfossil fuels and to secure a sustainable energy supply by 2030. This is now embodied inthe policy „Fossil Fuel Free Region by 2030‟. Contributing to that aim is Gothenburg‟sintegrated waste system that has collected, sorted and burnt 345,000 tonnes of rubbishannually. Compared to an oil-based energy strategy waste-to-energy production savedthe city an estimated 205,060 tonnes of CO2 even in 2006.Figure 3.15 Main Inter-cluster Innovation Platforms in SwedenAccordingly, as a revealing illustration of the manner in which VINNOVA andTilväxtverket‟s regional and national cluster programme alongside Region Skåne‟sexploration of its regional „white spaces‟ initiatives have, mostly in the second half ofthe 2000s, begun to integrate innovative platforms that enhance Sweden‟s innovativeeconomic development we consider Fig. 3.15 to be instructive. It shows three mainstructural features. Keeping in mind that not all regional clusters can be shown around73