Nordic Innovation came to Halogen with ambitious goals: 

• Make the Nordics world-leaders in sustainable mobility.

• Transform the way people and goods move through the region.

• Enable seamless data sharing for mobility companies, so that they can optimise their operations and increase international competitiveness.

But achieving this kind of transformation in such a complex sector required more than just new technology. It required a new way of thinking—one that prioritizes collaboration, long-term impact, and systemic change.

A collaborative effort

The project was a joint effort by four partners:

• Rambøll (Nordic-wide stakeholder management)

• RISE, Sweden (mobility research)

• Demos Helsinki, Finland (foresight expertise)

• Halogen, Norway (design, innovation, and methodology)

Five phases of transformation

Together, we followed steps in our playbook for systemic innovation. It helped us to expand the scope of the work towards establishing a shared purpose and a desired future for smart connectivity. The project consisted of five phases: 

1. Building a systemic mindset

To start, we worked hard with the project group to build a shared understanding of systemic approaches and to embed a systemic mindset.

2. Envisioning the future

We created six vision statements describing a smarter, more sustainable mobility future—guiding lights for decision-making and innovation.

3. Mapping the current landscape

To make meaningful progress, we had to understand where we stood. We analyzed the challenges and gaps in Nordic mobility and identified key stakeholders who could drive change.

4. Identifying hotspots for innovation

We pinpointed high-impact areas—specific challenges where intervention would create the biggest ripple effect. These "hotspots" became the foundation for focused innovation.

5. Establishing a Nordic Innovation ecosystem

We helped create the first-ever Nordic-wide innovation ecosystem for mobility. Instead of funding narrower, one-off projects, Nordic Innovation adopted a portfolio approach, allowing them to support interconnected efforts at a regional scale.

Kickstarting a systemic funding portfolio

Our framework helped Nordic Innovation increase their impact by approaching innovation funding in a more systemic and interconnected way – rather than funding small, limited projects. By placing themselves inside the ecosystem they adopted a systemic mindset and we helped them take a position, so that they can advise and shape the sector from within. By becoming a systemic actor they are better placed to prioritise the work that they fund.

The power of systemic Nordic collaboration

For the Nordic mobility sector, the collaboration showed the value of considering broader social, environmental and economic impact, instead of seeing technology and data sharing as an end-in-itself. Our process provided the opportunity to find leverage points around which to organise Nordic-wide initiatives, as well as demonstrating the value of engaging multiple stakeholders in showcasing that change is possible. 

On a more practical level, we showed that data sharing is as much about governance and collaboration as it is about technology, and that the only way to succeed with data sharing is through a shared, collaborative approach across the Nordics.

Read the full report: smart innovation compass.