Author: Mikko Pajula

The Closing event of the BRIDGE project was successfully held on 18^th – 20^th May in Alta, Norway. Despite all challenges the project faced due to the current political situation, the project team from Lapland UAS and UiT were able to plan the programme and organise the event in extremely short period of time.

19 students from Lapland UAS and UiT – the Arctic University of Norway and 8 organizations took part at the event. The first day of the programme started with the BRIDGE past years overview by the project coordinator from Lapland UAS – Teresa Chen. Then the students got acquainted with the cases provided by new commissioners: “Sami Siida” and “Visit Lyngenfjord” from Norway and “Wolverine Fell Wilderness and Nature” from Finland. Furthermore, the day was set up for the ice breaking session and intensive team work.

This time students were challenged not just with the business cases, but with the timeframe as well, since they had only three days to rally a team and develop case solutions. It was worthwhile that on the second day of the event the former commissioners Tervolatalo, Sorrisniva, Spor Guiding, Tornio City, Datadrivers shared their expertise and experiences in order to facilitate the innovation process. On the last day of the session students finalized their ideas and presented them to the audience.

In spite of the time pressure the participants had an opportunity to ease up, relax and build social connections with each other.

Translated from: https://petrsu.ru/news/2021/100584/final-shestoi-sessii

On November 24, within the development program of the flagship university of PetrSU and the international project of the ENI KO1013 project “BRIDGE – Barents Region Initiative for Developing Growth and Employability”, the final videoconference of the last, 6th session of the BRIDGE project took place which was hosted by ITMO University (St. Petersburg), where digital economy solutions for 8 business cases for 7 St. Petersburg companies were presented.

On November 24, the final presentations of the 6th session of the BRIDGE international educational project, which is part of the CBC Kolarctic 2014-2020, took place. The representatives from five university-partners participated in the videoconference: UiT – the Arctic University of Norway (lead partner), Lapland University of Applied sciences (Finland), Murmansk Arctic State University, ITMO University (St. Petersburg) and Petrozavodsk State University.

The final online presentations were attended by 38 people (including 18 foreign participants), including heads and managers of companies from St. Petersburg. PetrSU was represented by 4 students: Andrei Chuvak (2nd year undergraduate in Economics and Finance at the Institute of Economics and Law), Ekaterina Moseeva (4th year bachelor student in Tourism) from the Institute of Physical Culture, Sports and Tourism, Ilya Tkachuk (3rd year bachelor student of the IEP in the direction of “Management”) and Pavel Stafeev (bachelor student of the 3rd year of the IEP in the direction of “Economics”). The head of the group is Oksana Prokhorova, Associate Professor of the Department of Economic Theory and Management.

In total, 8 cases from 7 companies from St. Petersburg were solved in the project: Arcadia, Geoscan Group, Digital Design, Trip for students, Teachingame, Cofium, KORA, all are interested in digital solutions and development on international markets.

The winner of the 6th session of the BRIDGE project became the Teachingame case 1 -team, who proposed prototypes of two educational interactive games for students and schoolchildren, the 2nd place went to the Trip for students -team (creation of tours for foreign students) with the participation of our student Ekaterina Moseeva and the 3rd the place was shared between the teams Cofuim 1 and GeoScan (promotion of the drone show) with the participation of the master student of PetrSU Andrei Chuvak.

This is my first participating in such a kind of event. And I think this experience has been very successful. It was a pleasure to work in an international team, where the participants are highly motivated to achieve the best result. The experience of communicating and working with partners from other countries is also useful.

I am glad that I got into the team of the Arcadia case. Although it was, I think, the most difficult, I worked in a field that is interesting to me. It was a very productive month, the work on the case required a lot of free time. If I get the opportunity next time, I will definitely take part in BRIDGE-2022.It is a pity, of course, that there is so little time for the final presentation. It is very inconvenient to present important material in a hurry. But I am sure that our team was able to demonstrate in full all the work we have done. The participants were responsible, no one got out of the process. All in all, this is a super experience

Ilya Tkachuk

commented the participant of the Arcadia team Ilya Tkachuk.

Pavel Stafeev, a member of the Digital Design team, also expressed his opinion about participation in BRIDGE:

Thank you very much again for the opportunity to participate in such a significant and interesting event as BRIDGE.

Me and my team members had a great experience. Each of us has improved our skills in teamwork, communication, communication in English, the ability to set up goals and achieve them.

I advise all students who want to learn how to achieve their goals to participate in the BRIDGE event in the upcoming years.

Pavel Stafeev

4th year bachelor student of the “Tourism” of the Institute of Physical Culture, Sports and Tourism Ekaterina Moseeva:

For me, my second session in the BRIDGE project was special, because this time I worked, indeed, in an international team.

My team members were students Russia, Germany, France, who are getting their education in Finland, Norway and Russia. I think that this is what helped us to adequately present the results of work on the case from the St. Petersburg company “Trip for students” and to take the 2nd place in the final.

Our task was to develop a strategy for promoting “Trip for students” in the tourism market of the Scandinavian and Baltic countries.

Ekaterina Moseeva

Based on the results of six sessions for the period 2019-2021 of the BRIDGE project being in the winner team PetrSU students took the 3^rd place once, twice were the 2^nd and won four times, which undoubtedly indicates their high level of both professional training and soft skills.

By the decision of the Kolarctic experts, the BRIDGE project was extended until the end of June 2022. The next 7 months of the project will be devoted to the publication of a collective monograph from BRIDGE coaches and administrative staff, as well as to the dissemination of the project results among interested universities, scientific organizations and municipalities.

On 18 October, 2021 the BRIDGE project participated at the High-Level online meeting on common efforts across borders for strengthening education and research under the Norwegian Barents Euro-Arctic Council Chairmanship. The event was organized to discuss issues related to strengthening and increasing the sustainability of the Barents region, the best practices of cooperation between universities and the prospect for the development of scientific networking in the field of ecology, health care, economics and regional identity.

The event was opened by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Norway and Chair of the Barents Euro-Arctic Council Anniken Hitfeld. Additionally, representatives of ministries of the educational and scientific organizations of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russian were in attendance.

The BRIDGE project was presented by the project manager Peter Fischer from UiT – the Arctic university of Norway and Yulia Shestova, head of international office at Murmansk Arctic State University. Peter and Yulia presented the successful experience of cross border cooperation within the BRIDGE project and its impact on the developing of the Barents region through enhancing employability of graduates.

Moreover, the students Patricia Aida Linao (UiT – the Arctic University of Norway) and Kaisa Paakkari (Lapland UAS) were also invited to share their experiences about participation in the BRIDGE and how the project contributed to developing their skills and knowledge.

Translated from: https://petrsu.ru/news/2021/98127/shestaya-sessiya-mez

The 6th online session of internships of students on solving business cases within the framework of the joint international ENI project “BRIDGE – Barents Region Initiative for Developing Growth and Employability” is taking place from 11th to 15th October hosted by ITMO University.

The sixth session of the international educational project BRIDGE “Barents Region Initiative for Developing Growth and Employability) is being held on 11^th – 15^th October at ITMO University (National Research University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics) in St. Petersburg, in which 49 people take part: 30 students, of which 20 are Russian, 10 are foreign; 12 coaches, 4 of them are from Russia, 8 from Finland and Norway, 7 commissioners from St. Petersburg.

The 3-year BRIDGE project is a part of the CBC Kolarctic program 2014-2020. In addition to PetrSU, four partner universities are participating in the BRIDGE project: the Arctic University of Norway (lead partner), Lapland University of Applied Sciences (Finland), Murmansk Arctic State University and ITMO University (St. Petersburg).

During the 6^th session of the BRIDGE project, cases are solved for seven companies from St. Petersburg, all of them are marketing cases and related to the digital economy: Arcadia, Geoscan Group, Digital Design, Trip for students, Teachingame, Cofium, KORA. The cases are being solved by nine international interdisciplinary teams of students, since Teachingame and Cofium offered two tasks each. The case tasks are very diverse: from promoting drone shows, corporate information systems, online shop of bouquets of flowers and training florists, developing a smart coffee shop brand, gamification in school education to developing digital solutions for the business-class travel industry, tours in Russia for foreign students.

The 6th session of BRIDGE is held in a hybrid format – students and coaches from Murmansk and St. Petersburg work offline in the ITMO University’s coworking space, other partners (PetrSU, UiT, Lapland UAS) join online. Traditionally, colleagues from Finland Anitra Arkko-Saukkonen and Anzelika Krastina, together with Norwegian colleague Matthew Lynch, provide four training sessions on the authors’ method “Creative Steps” in order to unite teams and prepare intermediate and final presentations on cases using Padlet online boards. In addition, at the workshop week from 11th to 15th October, the host university ITMO has organized three informative lectures with invited experts: Igor Kuprienko (with the topic “Project Management”, Natalia Lukovnikova (“Foresight”) and Anton Gopka (“Innovative entrepreneurship”). The last-mentioned lecturer is the Dean of the Faculty of Technological Management and Innovations at ITMO University, a venture investor and general partner of the management company ATEM Capital, writes a column for Forbes.ru. Communication interaction within the 6^th BRIDGE session is organized via Microsoft Teams.

Five students from PetrSU were selected for solving the cases: Andrey Chuvak (2^nd year undergraduate in Economics and Finland of the Institute of Economics and Law), Ekaterina Moseeva (4^th year bachelor in Tourism of the Institute of Physical culture, sports and tourism), Ilya Tkachuk (3^rd year bachelor of the IEP in the direction “Management”), Pavel Stafeev and Evgeny Plenkin (bachelors of the 3^rd year of the IEP in the direction of “Economics”).

The students successfully passed the interview/casting in English in order to freely communicate in international interdisciplinary groups while solving cases under the supervision of Associate Professor of the Department of Economic Theory and Management of the Institute of Economic Policy Oksana Nikolaevna Prokhorova.

During the week, participants meet with managers of Russian companies from St. Petersburg in order to develop a team solution. As a result of the session, on 15^th October the teams will present interim presentations with an action plan for the next five weeks of online work. the final presentations will take place on 24^th November via videoconference.

Summer is gone but it is hoped that all of you had the opportunity to soak up the sunshine, enjoy delicious ice cream, get relaxed or may be even visited your dream destinations.

Tomorrow on 15^th September we will kick-off the last semester of the BRIDGE project hosted by ITMO University, St. Petersburg. But before that we would like to share with you some good news!

While we were treating ourselves during the summer, our visibility manager Mikhail Uksusov from MASU was working like a Trojan by participating and winning the contest “Russian Chairmanship Youth Envoy for International Arctic Cooperation for the period of Russian Federation chairmanship of the Arctic Council 2021-2023”.

About 30 active, goal-oriented, enterprising youth from all over Russia applied for the Youth Envoy position. Mikhail was one of those seven people whose applications passed the first round of selection. The second round included personal interview with the expert jury represented by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, MGIMO University, the Government of Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Region, Rosmolodezh, The Alexander Gorchakov Public Diplomacy Fund and International Youth Cooperation Project Office. During the interview the participants shared their ideas and suggestions on implementation and promotion of international Arctic agenda.

Constructive comments on Arctic agenda, innovative ideas and practical experience in development of Arctic region allowed Mikhail to win the contest. As the Youth Envoy Mikhail will support initiatives of Russian youth and represent his country at specialized international platforms.

We warmly congratulate Mikhail for the magnificent position!

On the 22^nd of June the Arctic Award entrepreneurship for 2020 was finally handled over to the BRIDGE project manager Peter Fischer. The ceremony took place in Vadsø, where Kolarctic CBC’s programme coordinator from Norwegian branch office Jan Solstad congratulated the winner. Watch the ceremony here:

Translated from: https://petrsu.ru/news/2021/94319/pyataya-sessiya-mezh

The 5th online session of internships of students on solving business cases was held within the framework of the joint international ENI project “BRIDGE – Barents Region Initiative for Developing Growth and Employability”.

Therefore, hosted by the Arctic University of Norway, the 5th session of the international educational project BRIDGE: Barents Region Initiative for Developing Growth and Employability was organized. The online session was attended by 47 people: 30 students (16 – Russian, 14 – foreign); 12 “coach-trainers” (4 – Russian, 4 from the Finnish and Norwegian sides) and 5 Norwegian commissioners.

The ENI project “BRIDGE – Barents Region Initiative for Developing Growth and Employability” is part of the CBC “Kolarctic” cross-border cooperation program (2014-2020). Project partner participants: Petrozavodsk State University, Arctic University of Norway (lead partner), Lapland University of Applied Sciences (Finland), Murmansk Arctic State University and ITMO University (St. Petersburg).

In the 5th session of the BRIDGE project, case studies were solved for the Norwegian companies from tourism industry: Sorrisniva, Hasvik, Spor Guiding, Flatmoen Nature and Sami Aurora. Norwegian students introduced the participants of the session to these companies and delivered their video presentation. To solve the cases, 8 international teams of students were formed. The teams need to solve all sorts of tasks: finding channels for promoting a company in Russia, developing a mobile application, designing a campground, and many others. The final presentation of the projects is scheduled for April 29, 2021 in a video-conference format.

Finnish colleagues Anitra Arkko-Saukkonen and Anzelika Krastina have conducted the training session using the author’s methodology “Creative Steps”. The training is designed for rallying teams and preparing them for the final presentations of case solutions. In the online session PetrSU was represented by: Andrey Chuvak (1^st year undergraduate in Economics and Finance), Ekaterina Moseeva (3^rd year bachelor in Tourism) and Elizaveta Krasovskaya (1^st undergraduate in Tourism). The students’ tutor is Oksana Prokhorova, Associate Professor of the Department of Economic Theory and Management of the Institute of Economics and Law.

Translated from: https://petrsu.ru/news/2020/91953/pobeda-proekta-bridg#t20c

The project “BRIDGE – Barents Region Initiative for Economic Development and Employment Promotion”, the online session of which in September-November 2020 was organized by PetrSU, received the prestigious international Arctic Awards in the category of “Entrepreneurial Spirit”.

The international educational project BRIDGE, in which one of the partners is PetrSU, was officially announced as the winner of the prestigious international competition Arctic Awards, which awards international rewards to the most significant projects from all over the world that contribute to the development of the Arctic region.

Arctic Awards gives an attention not only to innovative technological and environmental developments, but also unique cultural and educational polar projects. This year, the Arctic Awards gave a special attention to youth projects, highlighting only two categories for the award: “Entrepreneurial Spirit” and “Overcoming Critical Mass”. 15 candidates were shortlisted for Arctic Awards 2020.

The BRIDGE project took the 1st place in the “Entrepreneurial Spirit” nomination for “developing the abilities of young entrepreneurs”. We remind, that the recently held 4th session of the BRIDGE project in solving business cases, for examples, for 10 Karelian companies which was conducted under the leadership of PetrSU and, in particular, the Institute of Economics and Law (project coordinator – Associate Professor of the Department of Economic Theory and Management Prokhorova Oksana Nikolaevna). It was a successful experience of interaction between Karelian businesses and international teams of students and coaches from Finland, Norway and Russia, which was evidenced by the feedback from the participants.

For information, the winner in the Overcoming Critical Mass nomination was the Arctic 5G Test Network project about expanding cross-border testing and testing possibilities in the 5G networks.

The Arctic Awards 2020 ceremony took place online. Northern Periphery has released an official video about this.

The international educational project BRIDGE is included in the CBC Kolarctic cross-border cooperation program 2014-2020. PetrSU and 4 partner universities are participating in the BRIDGE project: The Arctic University of Norway (lead partner), Lapland University of Applied Sciences (Finland), Murmansk Arctic State University and ITMO University (St. Petersburg).

The goal of the BRIDGE project is with a use of a common online platform to connect international interdisciplinary teams of students for solving business cases of companies operating in the Arctic zone.

Congratulations to the BRIDGE team of partner universities!

The recruitment of PetrSU students for the next online session of the BRIDGE project, organized by The Arctic University of Norway for 5 cases from Norwegian tourism companies, has been opened. Contact person – Oksana Prokhorova, oksana_prokhorov@mail.ru.

We are so delighted and proud to announce, that the BRIDGE project has won the Arctic Awards 2020 in the category of “Arctic Entrepreneurial Spirit”! More details will come soon.