By Alf S. Johansen, IC project manager

Young and creative people is a marginal resource and should be the key target group for all smaller places and even for shrinking cities with a will to stimulate innovation and to make structural changes. With a constant decrease of young women the places will shrink or even die for sure.

The Innovation Circle Network is arranging a meeting for planning of future project activities. The event will take place 24 – 26 January 2008 in Cesis, Latvia. Cesis District Council is a member of the IC Network and Mrs Rita Merca is the chairman of the board. In addition to a board meeting the main purpose of the gathering will be preparation for the new project called TRANS-IN-FORM. The new project is expected to have up to 30 partners. During the days in January all the partners are going to discuss the project activities. The creators of TRANS-IN-FORM are expecting to start the project eraliest in August 2008.

For more information about the event please contact management team.

For more information about TRANS-IN-FORM

Visvaldis Valtenbergs
Vidzeme University College, Latvia.

”When I first learnt about the Innovation Circle project my understanding of innovation was shaped by sterile academic debates in economics, public administration, and political science. I had read about innovation but I had never seen how innovations were actually produced. That’s why I decided to stay in touch with the IC by attending Innovation academies and follow the whole process by watching and listening carefully. To find out how partners used the opportunities offered by the IC to promote local and regional innovation and development in their own communities I interviewed 27 community members, and I reflect on some of my observations in this article.”

By Professor Mr. Cliff Hague

IC was an exciting project. It began soon after the Baltic States and Poland joined the EU, so it was a new beginning, not only for the IC Partners but for the EU itself. It grappled with the future of small towns in rural regions in Europe’s periphery, one of the most challenging long-term problems facing the continent. Innovation was not just a fancy title for the project: innovation defined the way the project worked.