Krista Kampus
Head of the Baltic 21 Unit
The Council of the Baltic Sea States
Sweden

Biography
Since September 2012, Mrs. Kampus is acting as the Head of the Baltic 21 Unit at the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) Secretariat in Stockholm. Mrs. Kampus provides analytical support and advice to the CBSS Expert Group on Sustainable Development ? Baltic 21 (CBSS-Baltic 21). The CBSS is a regional forum for intergovernmental cooperation among the 11 Baltic Sea region countries; the Baltic 21 was set up as a regional expression of Agenda 21 in 1998 and links together a wide variety of stakeholders with a purpose of advancing sustainable development. CBSS Baltic 21 Unit is serving as a focal point for inter-governmental actions related to sustainable development within the CBSS?s long-term priority ?Sustainable and Prosperous Region?. Mrs Kampus is coordinating the following strategic key areas of the CBSS: climate change, sustainable urban and rural development, sustainable consumption and production, innovation and education for sustainable development. Since 2013 Mrs. Kampus become a Leader of Horizontal Action ?Sustainable Development? implemented under the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region. Major accomplishments of her work includes establishment a structured regional policy dialogue on climate change ? the BSR Climate Change Dialogue Platform; initiating the Report ?State of Sustainable Development in the Baltic Sea Region? in order to provide an up-dated outlook on the state of transition towards sustainable development in the Baltic Sea Region. Initiation, facilitation and coordination 15 transnational cooperation projects in the field of sustainable development, including the initiative ?Baltic Sea Region Urban Forum for Smart Cities?. From 2003 she worked as the Deputy Head of Regional Development Department and from 2006 until August 2012 as the Director of European Territorial Cooperation Bureau at the Estonian Ministry of Interior being in charge for national coordination of cross-border and territorial cooperation policy, including the preparation and implementation of the programmes under the 2007-2013 European Territorial Cooperation Objective and European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument as well as the preparation the Estonian positions on the European Territorial Cooperation Goal and European Neighbourhood Instrument for 2014-2020. Krista was also responsible for coordination the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region and a member of the State Chancellery`s Coordination Council of EU issues.

Abstract
Baltic Sea Region Urban Forum for Smart Cities - a market place for smart solutions

This presentation will look into how the existing Smart Cities concepts can be adapted to a Baltic Sea Region context. Can we move beyond pockets of “smartness” towards making the Baltic Sea Region a recognized global forerunner in smart urban solutions? What are the key success factors for smart cities and how experience sharing and regional collaboration on smart urban solutions could be enhanced? The Baltic Sea Region (BSR) has a great potential when it comes to becoming recognized frontrunner in smart urban solutions. There are important metropolitan areas in the region, such as Copenhagen-cities – all of the united by the aspirations to be regarded as the smart cities and the willingness to work jointly for the “smart” image of the BSR. Already now some cities of the region are globally known centres for innovation and sustainability in the sectors such as urban transportation, energy efficiency and social care – what is needed is a more integrated and holistic approach. There are several challenges that today hinder the purposeful adoption of smart city solutions in the Baltic Sea Region, such as: lack of smart city piloting, lack of competence in smart procurement, lack of best practice transfer. Although there are several platforms that provide assistance to cities, there remains a need for an initiative that would guide the cities throughout the process of identifying a need to its successful resolution in a systematized way. Also, there is an overall lack of a regional coordination framework that would ensure better links between various stakeholders and thus create the much-needed synergies. Therefore the stakeholders from the Baltic Sea Region representing the local authorities, the business community and the national governments - the Union of the Baltic Cities (UBC), the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS), the Baltic Development Forum (BDF) the Tartu Smart City Lab and the City of Turku - agreed to initiate under the European Union Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region a Flagship - Baltic Sea Region Urban Forum for Smart Cities (BUF). The initiative aims fostering the innovation processes of the BSR cities, reducing the costs of “reinventing” smart solutions and improving the capacity of all the related stakeholders, e.g. the enhanced competence and innovation readiness of the cities, a better ability to attract financing and develop new solutions by the businesses, an increased capability to collaborate in a transnational context etc. The main activities centre around testing the proposed transnational cooperation approach through pilot actions focusing mainly on two smart city areas - smart mobility and resource &energy efficiency.