The world is changing fast, and urban economic policy makers (like any human being) have to deal with an uncertain future. The city of Tampere developed a new innovative way of collecting urban data and interpreting them, as a basis for policy decisions. Predicting is difficult, there are many data, and interpretations of events. City leaders face many questions related to an uncertain future: how to build economic policy that makes sense? What activities need support where are new promising things happening? Facing these challenges, the city creates an annual “situational picture”, using many available data and reports on the state of the regional economy (figure 3); each block consists of a set of indicators. A green block indicates growth or progress; a red block means stagnation or decline. So far, nothing new: many cities do this.
But then comes the interpretation part: what do the data actually mean; what are the causes of growth and decline, and what could be policy implications? It is here that Tampere takes the next step: The data are discussed collaboratively, in a series of meetings with key players from different backgrounds: government, investors, large firms, entrepreneurs, and academia. The participants interpret the data, and give meaning to it from their perspective, in a systematic way.
This is a smart way of collecting intelligence that really makes sense, by people who are not only knowledgeable in their specific field but also committed to the future of their own city.
The situational picture of innovation provides topical information about the state of innovation activity in the Tampere region. It is designed to support regional decision making, collaboration and smart specialisation strategy. The picture enables regional stakeholders to focus on common strategic innovation policy areas that are actionable over the short and medium terms – cross-cutting various programs, platforms and projects.
“Situational picture” 2014
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