Track | Smart Villages Marianne Selkäinaho, Senior officer, Rural Affairs, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry Mindtrek Conference 15th of November 2022. Tampere, Finland www.mindtrek.org

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Smart Villages in
Finland
MINDTREK 15.11.2022
Marianne Selkäinaho, Senior Officer – Rural Affairs
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry

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The existing policy landscape for supporting Smart Villages
in Finland
• 2008 the first national strategy for Fast
broadband
• Broadband Funding
• 2016: Study for Smart countryside,
governmental project
• 2017: New governmental decision for
Rural Digitalization
• 2018: Governmental alignment:
Prioritising of digital services (public
sector)
• Co-operation between national
administration and other actors →
Broadband Competence Office Finland
www.bco.fi
• National Rural policy council
• National Village Action Association
• Rural Development Programme 2014-
2020, regional and local actions
• Digitalisation projects
• Smartest Village of Finland -competition
2018-2020
• Government Programme 2019-2022
• National transport system plan 2021-
2032
• European Green deal and Long term
vision for Rural Areas (2040)
• The Digital Compass (2030)
• CAP 2023 – 2027: digitalization,
broadband connectivity, smart villages

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”Smart -family”
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• In the big picture of regional
development, the smart villages
and rural areas are related to
what the “smart family” has
already promoted at the different
levels of the regional hierarchy
and with different concepts.
• The relationships between
concepts and their positioning in
the regional hierarchy are easily
blurred. Smart specialisation is
discussed in regional policy,
smart cities in urban policy, and
smart villages and rural areas
(smart countryside) in rural
policy.
•
•
Tantarimäki, Sami (2020). Älykkäistä kylistä älykkäisiin suurkaupunkeihin: Pienet ja keskikokoiset kaupungit älykkään alueen rakentajina Terra 132 (2).
Politiikkasuositukset: https://www.maaseutupolitiikka.fi/uutiset/politiikkasuositus-smart-lapileikkaava-aluekehittamisen-kysymys

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Digital/smart is a cross-cutting and unifying issue of regional
development
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• It is essential to understand that decisions need
not be made alone and in a point-based manner,
but that they can also be implemented jointly
and regionally
• Smart thinking and digitalisation as concepts and
practices offer a shared language and operating
practices for implementing the digital society
regardless of location
• Responding to similar everyday needs and
goals shows that it is a unifying question of
regional development
• By sticking to existing priorities that cross
the regional levels, you can connect more
strongly to ready-made cooperation
networks
• At the same time, it is possible to support
features, themes or goals that are locally
considered the strength
• The effectiveness of regional development
is naturally greater the better one is able to
see smart concepts as complementing each
other and producing a common benefit
•

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Smart Villages at EU level
• 'Smart Villages' was the sub-theme of the broader ENRD thematic work on 'Smart and
Competitive Rural Areas'.
• A Thematic Group (TG) has worked on this topic between September 2017 and July
2020.
• The Thematic Group (TG) on Smart Villages was to explore how rural services in are as
such as health, social services, education, energy, mobility, and digitalisation, can be
improved and made more sustainable and innovative through a) the deployment of ICT
tools and/or b) by supporting community led actions and projects.

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Activities in relation to smart villages in RDP 2014-2020
• Digital know-how for seniors and
enterpreneurs (M07, Leader)
• Digital tutor actions (M01, Leader)
• Digitalisation of cultural heritage and
other activities (M07, Leader)
• Multiservice centers, integrated
services (M07, Leader)
• Digital tools for tourism and different
kind of sports (M07 and M16 and
Leader)
• e-health service and other services
for different age groups, local
experiments, planning, pilots (M07,
Leader)
• e-learning, distance learning (M01,
Leader)
• skills and know-how for using digital
services (M01 and M07 and M16)
• digitalisation of rural businesses, new
co-operation (M16)
• integration of immigrants (M07, M16,
Leader)
• certain tangible and certain intangible
investments and start-up aid for rural
enterprises (M6.2 and 4.2)
• Possibilities in the new CAP-plan as
well

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What is needed for delivering smart village?
• Broadband infrastructure (ultrafast broadband)
• The activators, “the priests” are needed and a lot of work. Somebody to collect and
co-ordinate actors and work. Activists are getting older..
• New attitude and know-how
• CO-OPERATION: Strong communication and interaction in the region and between
regions
• Quality and reliability of services, Know-how and knowledge transfer
• Change in attitudes towards technology
• New people (immigrants) and young
• people.

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SWOT analysis concerning Smart Villages

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Background of Smart Villages
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10. the Smart village funding in Finland
• Measure in the Finland’s CAP-plan
• In the CAP Strategic Plan, the Smart village Strategy means a concrete plan for
seeking new solutions and new cooperation.
• The EU’s long-term vision for rural areas sets many objectives that support a
sustainable future for rural areas.
• SV project is not just a strategy paper but a concrete thing/challengde to be
resolved or promoted. A concrete implementation plan is drawn up and the
measures directly linked to its implementation may be included in the project.
The Smart village main project includes the set short-term and long-term goals
and a plan on how to achieve them.
• The project may last for a maximum period, if necessary. 5 years 10

11. (At least) Two actors / partners = group
• Importance of co-operation between every spatial scale cannot be underlined too much
• Beneficiary: village or other local association, municipality or other kind community
• Cooperation projects eligible when at least two actors (group)
• Partners may be from the village or municipality nearby, from other part of country or
from another country
• Partner may also be some research institute or educational institution or other
specialist organisation
• Peer to peer learning and brave use of different kind of specialists
• Working together towards the big picture
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Examples:
• A joint biogas plant in a village or a few villages or municipalities. Joint planning, networking of
companies, farms, food services, etc. Investments as it’s own project (different intervention).
• Joint working space/remote working office/joint digital innovation point for companies in villages or
a few villages. Planning and cooperation agreements in the project. Investments as it’s own project
(different intervention).
• Joint circular economy plan for villages or a few villages and its implementation. For example, a
baling plastic or other difficult waste can be material used by someone else. Plan and cooperation
models for the project. Funding for businesses and investments from their own
measures/interventions.
• Mobile service experiment in the village or in couple of villages (Finland’s health and social services
reform requires new co-operation especially in sparsely populated areas)
• Enviroment and climate innovations: Environmental ambition must be increased
• Digitalisation service and experiment, planning of broadband investment (fiber) or 5G for Smart
Communities (CEF)
• Security, preparedness, security of supply, self-sufficiency in region
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The scope of the
potential support for
Smart Villages in
Finland
• Social – innovations to ensure sustainable and good quality of social
and cultural services. Also, investments in skills for the future,
support for urban-rural linkages and sustainable wellbeing:
preventing segregation and inequality between people, improve
integration of immigrants and other newccomers, sense of
community, living conditions, culture, safety, improving rural know-
how, and accessing the “hidden” knowledge of rural communities
• Environmental – innovations to improve resource efficiency, create
local energy communities, reduce the carbon footprint, enhance
biodiversity, both protect and valorise environmental assets.
Encouraging municipal authorities, business representatives, local
residents, research institutes and experts to work together to devise
and tailor new cost-effective solutions to reduce emissions, especially
in the contexts of transportation and mobility, housing and food. Low
carbon villages: circular economy, and bioeconomy, sustainable food
production and local food
• • Economic innovations and actions to emerging value chains and
local economic clusters (both agricultural and non-agricultural) based
on local assets and (potential) areas of comparative advantage
(bioeconomy, smart tourist destinations, etc.). Smart transport and
logistic solutions, smart local services and service chains and smart
food chains, digitalization and co-operation of enterprises.
Connectivity (broadband) and different models for businesses (for
example social entrepreneurship). Multi-locality, opportunities for
location-independent work. Smart adaptation.
There is no intention to produce an
overarching national strategy.
The aim is to be able to respond in a fast
and flexible manner to the needs
expressed by local communities in the
following fields, mainly using
digitalization as a tool or as a helper:

14. https://www.maaseutu.fi/en/the-rural-network/smart-
villages
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