MINDSET mission in Örnsköldsvik to strengthen coordinated competence supply

Örnsköldsvik Municipality is testing a new mission-oriented approach to strengthen how competence needs, skills and local initiatives are identified, coordinated and matched. Developed through the MINDSET project, the mission focuses on creating a more coordinated and shared structure for competence supply in Örnsköldsvik.

The mission responds to a complex territorial challenge: while many activities are already taking place across the municipality, education, the labour market and regional development systems, these efforts are not always sufficiently connected. The current system is marked by fragmented responsibilities, limited shared overview, skills mismatches, weak population growth and a need for clearer coordination between internal municipal workforce needs and wider regional competence development.

Through the mission, Örnsköldsvik aims to align needs, skills and initiatives by improving roles, knowledge-sharing and methods for matching competence demand and supply. The work will support better prioritisation of initiatives and contribute to more coordinated decision-making across the local competence supply system.

A key part of the mission is the further development of InnoVera, the municipality’s innovation tool. InnoVera will be used to gather needs and ideas from employees, citizens and other target groups, structure them, and connect them to the wider mission and ongoing initiatives. This will help create a clearer picture of needs across the system and support more targeted action.

The mission is being developed using the Regional Mission-Oriented Innovation approach, known as RegMOI. This approach helps public authorities and stakeholders define a shared mission, map the system around a challenge, identify dependencies and initiatives, and assess a portfolio of actions based on their contribution to the mission.

Örnsköldsvik will act as a testbed for mission-oriented governance, combining data-informed needs analysis with portfolio management. The mission will contribute to the wider MINDSET project objective of testing practical ways to address complex territorial challenges and strengthen regional innovation capacity across the Northern Periphery and Arctic region.

By improving coordination and alignment, the Örnsköldsvik mission aims to support a more resilient local labour market, strengthen the municipality’s long-term capacity and help ensure that competence development efforts are better connected to real needs.

Find out more about MINDSET missions in our results section below:
🔗www.interreg-npa.eu/projects/mindset/home/outputs-results/