The Green Rural Economy – GRUDE project has been nominated for Arctic Awards 2022.

The Arctic Awards competition is designed for highlighting exceptional and innovative projects that have managed to engage their target groups effectively, as well as created real, measurable benefits for the Arctic communities. This year’s nominees have been chosen among the five funding programmes in the Arctic region. The GRUDE project will present the Interreg Nord programme. After the jury has selected the three finalists, the public will vote for the winner. The winner will be announced and celebrated at the next Arctic Cooperation event, planned in early 2023.

The GRUDE project has collected and shared knowledge about green economy in the North of Finland, Sweden and Norway during 2019–2022. The project has promoted the goals of green growth in sparsely populated areas by disseminating information about resource efficiency, environmentally responsible practices and circular economy.

The primary target group for GRUDE has been the public sector whose policies affect also the local businesses, as well as the everyday life of the citizens. In addition to informing the public sector, the project has created favourable conditions to green entrepreneurship, as well as sector- and border-crossing cooperation which allows the sharing of green practices and knowledge.

The GRUDE project has arranged over 60 events including international, as well as local information sharing campaigns, interactive workshops, study trips and more. The events have engaged over 1200 participants and brought together researchers, municipal decision-makers, entrepreneurs and local people to share and innovate circular practices. Moreover, the project has visited several Municipality Counsil meetings and shared information through the project webpage, social media channels and by sending email newsletters.

The project has produced research reports, videos about local sustainable businesses, event recordings, manuals, blog texts etc. You can find all the materials from the project webpage: www.grudeproject.eu. The GRUDE project was funded by the Interreg Nord Programme 2014-2021. The project was executed by the Lapland University of Applied Sciences in Finland, Natural Resources Institute Finland, Strukturum Jokkmokk Business Service in Sweden and Sintef Nord in Tromsø, Norway.