Region Kalmar

Region Kalmar 

Kalmar County in the southeast of Sweden has about 246 000 inhabitants and is a primarily rural region with a large part of the private sector consisting of SMEs within manufacturing, agriculture, food industry, forestry, pulp and wood. Besides this it is a popular tourism region.

Kalmar County is one of the three regions that form Småland, Sweden’s foremost forest region in terms of turnover, added value and employment.

The Region Kalmar County is responsible for regional development and do strategically work to enable private and public actors to develop sustainably.

Our strengths

Bio innovation with five specific knowledge areas will be the main area in our smart specialisation strategy and build upon our natural environment, strong competences and proved cooperation between academic research, the regional SMEs and industry as well as public support.

Linnaeus University (in Kalmar and Växjö) has strategically formed interdisciplinary working groups that constitute a natural scientific backbone to our smart specialisation strategy. Even other universities within and outside the region are strong partners to our regional initiatives (e.g. biogas research centre in Linköping).

We are focussing on the following key priorities and actions and look forward to collaborating with European partners:

  • forestry, pulp and wood, e.g. modern, flexible, attractive, cost-efficient, sustainable housing based on wood and glass by our established triple helix network Smart housing Småland as well as new advanced materials from wood,
  • food,e.g. support of a food/nutrition knowledge centre and further develop our focus on proteins (vegetable protein as well as sustainably produced meat)
  • water supply and -technique g. establish testbeds and a knowledge platform for sustainable water management including the water cycle in agriculture and forestry as well as providing industries and households with the right qualities of water without further contributing to the eutrophication of the Baltic Sea.
  • Bioenergy, Producing, distributing, and utilizing bioenergy from agriculture, forestry, sewage, and bio-based industries
  • nature and culture-related tourism, creating value from high natural values and a very much alive cultural heritage. Creating valuable experiences based on art, culture, food, hiking and other outdoor activities, sports events, wildlife, boating etcetera

Development area e-health: The national Swedish eHealth Agency is based in Kalmar which together with the well-established e-health research institute at the Linnaeus university has led to a growing e-health cluster. Development of this vast area is very much depending on collaboration with other e-health hubs.