Attracting talents to the North for a greener future

The Nordic Arctic is at the forefront of the green transition. The green industries and the public services are expanding, demanding skilled labour. At the same time population is not growing, and in some regions shrinking. TalentNorth is a collaboration between The Arctic Six, municipalities and regional public agencies in northern Norway, Sweden and Finland aiming to attract and retain skilled labour in the Arctic.

The Arctic region faces a common territorial challenge of stagnating or declining populations juxtaposed with growing economic sectors, leading to a critical shortage of skilled labour and as well as a mismatch of skills and demand. This mismatch threatens the sustainable development, wellbeing, and competitiveness of the region. While initiatives exist to address parts of this issue, a fragmented approach often limits their impact.

The TalentNorth project tackles this challenge by creating a cohesive, cross-border concept and network for talent attraction and retention. The approach is novel in its focus on building a unified Arctic concept for talent, moving beyond national and institutional silos in building educational, training and marketing activities.

The project will develop and implement a joint model that integrates the efforts of universities, municipalities, and regional agencies across the borders.

Cross country cooperation

Current solutions are often fragmented. Cities, universities, and countries compete instead of cooperating, which weakens the Arctic’s overall attractiveness. TalentNorth addresses this by creating shared knowledge, stronger cooperation between the countries coordinated services, and a common message about life and work in the Arctic. It aims at building a long-term, shared system where municipalities and employers work together across borders.

The project is the result of collaboration between The Arctic Six, an organisation comprised of six universities in Arctic Norway, Sweden and Finland, some municipalities within the Arctic Urban Regional Cooperation (AURC), and the Arctic Mayors’ Forum, under the umbrella of Arctic Six Extended.

“The Arctic Six is in itself a product of the insight that we are stronger together, and the network we have built over the years with stakeholders in the Arctic region within Arctic Six Extended has furthered the identification of joint challenges and need for long-term cross-border collaboration on Arctic issues. My position as Arctic Six Chair provided me the opportunity to take on the task to coordinate the consortium”, says Charlotta Söderberg, Arctic Six Chair, Project Lead Partner (EU) of TalentNorth, and Associate Professor in Political Science at Luleå University of Technology.

Practical solutions

“Through our Arctic Six Chair and collaboration with municipalities and employers, the project allows us to connect education, mobility, and labour market needs across borders, in line with Norway’s High North priorities. TalentNorth gives us a concrete platform to turn research and education into practical solutions for sustainable development in the Arctic”, says Roberto Rivas Hermann, Arctic Six Chair, Project Lead Partner (Norway) of TalentNorth and Professor of Innovation and Sustainable Organisation at Nord University.

The project runs from 2026 to 2028 and is funded by Interreg Aurora and co-funded by Region Norrbotten, Region Västerbotten, Regional Council of Lapland and Nordland Fylkekommune with a total of ca €2 million. In its first phase, it will build knowledge about the skill shortages in the region, mapping the needs of employers, municipalities and universities and investigate methods for attracting talent.

Based on the findings the next phase will be to test real life-solutions such as cross-border internships and university courses, hackathons and Arctic narrative workshops for joint branding.

The next phase will be an evaluation of the various methods. Those that were successful will be turned into toolkits and guides, policy briefs and strategic roadmaps.

The final phase focuses on joint marketing of the Nordic Arctic, talent attraction campaigns, promotion of mobility within the region and long-term plans for future cooperation.

The stakeholders involved are:

• The Arctic Six (Luleå University of Technology, Nord University, University of Oulu, University of Lapland, Umeå University, UiT – The Arctic University of Norway).
• The municipalities of Luleå, Oulu, Umeå, Bodø, Tromsø and the associated municipalities of Joensuu and Rovaniemi.
• The Arctic Mayors’ Forum