Following a year of isolation, the Sports Faculty of Lapland UAS welcomed 2 members regions of the Inno4Sport initiative to visit Lapland.

September is a beautiful month to be in Lapland, with changing colours and active night skies, it is understandable why these colleagues were so keen to visit Lapland post-pandemic.

Over the last 2 days (27-28 Sept) key meetings were hosted at the UAS´ main campus of Jokiväylä, discussing the future development of key projects and collaborations such as Data Driven Innovation in Sport and Tourism, with the aim of enhancing business and enterprise opportunities in Lapland.

In the following months Lapland UAS will dispense more details regarding our development of the Data Driven Innovation (DDI) pilot, and how important this feature will be for the development of new business and EU funding opportunities. As an interregional initiative, this will bring expertise from all over Europe to our doorstep here in Lapland.

Following a workshop hosted at Santasport, on the 15th September, Lapland UAS introduced DDI to the Arctic Sport Network and discussed the concept with the present members and also online. Lapland UAS is looking forward to bring more details regarding the progress of this pilot and more future discussion opportunities.

Lapland UAS is an active partner in many EU and international projects, from Forestry, Sport, Tourism, Information Technology, Business Management and many others. We provide expertise in these projects from a unique arctic perspective.

Our partners enjoyed an evening under the northern lights (28.9.21) and also were very comfortable in Jokiväylä. Lapland UAS thanks the visitors for a pleasant meeting in Rovaniemi!

Sport Data Driven Innovation


The pilot contributes to the implementation of the smart specialisation strategy by contributing to a stronger ecosystem collaboration in field of sport and by increasing the capacity of actors, both private and public, to better apply the latest digital solutions and technology in their actions.

Harnessing Lapland´s talent in sport, technology and academia, this workshop will look to develop and discuss ideas focused on how data is used, can be used and should be used in order to exploit new business opportunities and innovation.

The Lapland regional aim is to develop the data driven innovation concept in the winter sports industry. By using data gathered publicly and privately to enhance the experience of locals, tourists and athletes, this pilot project will create the possibility to improve services and products available in popular sport and leisure locations (e.g. Rovaniemi, Ounasvaara).

Inno4sport hankkeen logo

kuva Inno4sport hankeen kokouksesta

Northern lights -picture from left to right: 
Pirkko Sivonen – Lapin Liitto, Finland
Marc van der Zande – Cluster Sports and Technology, Netherlands
Vanessa Jiminez – The Valencia Institute of Biomechanics, Spain
Marja Wijlens
Rene Wijlens – Cluster Sports and Technology, Netherlands
Ben Taylor – Lapland UAS (Photographer)