the ideas that were created online

Three months into the pandemic, NORA and Scotland organised an online idea competition for young people of the North Atlantic. Participants were challenged to use their creative abilities to come up with ideas that could save lives, save communities and save economies in the North Atlantic.

For 48 intense hours participants from coastal communities throughout the region met virtually for a battle of creative thinking in order to win great prizes. The 60 participants, aged 18 to 30, hailed from Iceland, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Norway and Scotland. All told, they submitted 12 original proposals for digital solutions that could help the region through the pandemic.

Online shopping by video

The idea for the winning proposal, Shop with Me, arose after more than half of Scottish businesses had been forced close at the start of the pandemic, a situation that was common throughout the NORA region as well. In response, many stores turned to digital solutions, but this was not without its consequences. Some customers felt they lost the authenticity of good customer service, while establishing an online sales platform is often expensive. Samuel Warnock and Rachael Bews, who created Shop with Me, turned to a hybrid solution that made use of a video platform to allow people to interact with a store employee and personally choose the items they want to buy. he result is that customers can shop and experience good customer service yet avoid the risk of infection. “The solution is easy to implement and can be used by small businesses.

It makes it possible to combine e-commerce and a traditional retail outlet, which addresses the problems many small firms face when they have to decide whether to run a traditional store or go online,” said jury chair and COO of Greenland Business Christian Wennecke.

Wide variety of ideas

There was no lack of creativity among the many participants, which the jury commented on during the award ceremony. Dommerpanelet, som bestod av én representant per land, skulle forholde seg til kriteriene originalitet, realisme og påvirkningsmuligheter[ØA1] . He said: “I was surprised by the variety of ideas. There were a wide range of proposals, including tools for shopping, tourism and high-tech medical solutions.”

“Jeg var overrasket over variasjonen blant idéene.

Forslagene spant fra verktøy for shopping via turisme til høyteknologiske medisinske løsninger”. As the winning idea, Shop With Me took home DKK 30,000. he second-place award in the amount of DKK 20,000 went to an app that supports parents with online education for their children. Third place and DKK 10,000 went to a new type of Covid-19 test. A tourism platform aimed at connecting tour guides to their customers during the pandemic while also creating scope for future face-to-face clientele, received a prize of entrepreneurship support from Scotland’s Highlands and Islands Enterprise.

The event was financed and run by NORA and the Highlands and Islands Enterprise, with support from Klaksvík council in the Faroe Islands and the Nuuk-Reykjavík-Tórshavn funding mechanism.

Many of the small coastal communities in the NORA area have only rudimentary water systems. This is particularly an issue for high-Arctic communities. In addition, many of the water-delivery networks are mini-grids where the of supply water is insufficient. In some places, running water is only available for a few short periods during the summer.

Challenging geological conditions can make it difficult to transport water over long distances or to store water for use during the winter. This adds costs for local firms, particularly those in the water-intensive fish-processing industry. The primary goal of the project was to evaluate existing solutions and to work together to develop alternatives.