I am off to Malmö tomorrow to receive an award from the European Social Funds (ESF) being handed over by the Swedish Minister for Local Government and Financial Markets Mats Odell. It is an award for the best marketing idea of the ESF and the reason that the price is being handed over in Malmö has to do with the informal ministerial meeting on eGovernment which is taking place.
eGovernment is about using new technology to make authorities more efficient and to facilitate contact between agencies, citizens and companies. Being invited to accept an award in this context make it sound as if I have invented something out of the ordinary. As if my idea is really new and will change society forever. Unfortuneately this is not the case. My idea is based on three principals – keeping it simple, at a low budget and to make use of new technologies in a better or more efficiant way. Does an idea or a winning concept have to be new or innovative to be good? Probably not but I do believe that to change the world (even if you do it in very small steps) it has to be innovative.
Currently I am in a period of wanting to develop a new concept, a new way of working where we in Sweden make better use of EUs different cooperation programs not only to get financial support but to be part of more innvative, creative environment. I bore Jochem to death with all my theories and ideas but think that I am on to something. This weekend I read the The Medici Effect by Frans Johansson which I can recommend to anyone in search of new creative ideas. The books message is that we have the greatest chance of innovating at the intersection of different disciplines or cultures. If we want to be part of innovative processes (in a project framework) in order to learn and develop we need to put together a team, which reaches the so-called intersection. The intersection is a place where ideas from different field and cultures meet, leading to an explosion of ideas and possibilities. I would like to achieve this in this region and using EU subsidies as a tool. I have a vision of a team with a variety of skills, people of different backgrounds and interests who brought together can work on long-term development issues in a bridge building perspective. However, this is a lot easier said than done and I am still not sure how this would exactly look like and function. It is a fun challenge and it’s filling my head.
Why is this interesting or valuable? Well, Sweden in general is not very good at coming up with new concepts for EU collaboration, we do not send in as many proposals as we could and we do not lead very many international projects. In other words - there is room for improvement. EU funding is not about receiving external financing but about finding new solutions and improving the world we live in. It might sound exaggerated but I like to think that by collaborating in different fields, with different cultures and with different kind of people we can do more than if we try to solve the problems ourselves.
And now I am off to bed after spending a romantic weekend with Jochem in Gothenburg. Tomorrow it is precisely 13 years since we first met at a volleyball tournament in Lund. None of us were top talents when it comes to volleyball and I don’t remember who won the tournament, but I know that we were the real winners in the end!
Ulrika
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