AEBR Annual Events 2024 in Innlandet (Norway) and Värmland (Sweden)
The AEBR Cross-Border School (CBS) is a joint activity by AEBR, Borders in Globalization_Lab (BIG_Lab), the University of Victoria (British Columbia, Canada), and the Radboud University of Nijmegen (NL). The 8th CBS took place in Karlstad (Värmland, Sweden) on Wednesday, 23 October 2024, in collaboration with the Värmland Region (SE) and the Karlstads Universitet. Venue: Eva Ericsson lecture hall, Karlstad University campus (building 21, room 21A 342).
Since 2017, the Association of European Border Regions and the Radboud University of Nijmegen (NL) have organized AEBR CB Schools before Annual Conferences. In recent years, cooperation with the University of Victoria (CA) and the BIG Lab has grown in the 21st Century Borders Project framework. The 8th CBS will open AEBR Annual Events 2024.
You can watch the recordings of the VIII AEBR CB School on the AEBR YouTube channel.
We have also edited the videos from the Annual Conference:
Session 1: Security and Cooperation
Session 2: Cooperation and Security in Practice
Session 3: Nordic Border Committees – past, present and future
Task Force External Borders’ Workshop
Session 4: Future of European Territorial Cooperation
Session 5 and closing: Building Security and Resilience
In the afternoon, the participants moved to Trysil (Innlandet, Norway) over the Swedish-Norwegian border to attend the AEBR General Assembly on Thursday, 24 October (only for AEBR members), followed by the AEBR Annual Conference (open to the public) until Saturday, 26 October, with the study visit to cross-border facilities and projects in the region before returning home.
(updated 11/11/2024)
Wednesday, 23 October
The VIII AEBR Cross Border School in Karlstad
The VIII AEBR CBS focused this year on three broad aspects of ‘Building Cross-Border Resilience’, the core topic of the AEBR Conference held in Trysil on 24-25 October 2024, and a priority for AEBR and the Mission Operationnelle Transfrontalière (MOT), our French partner organisation within the European Cross-Border Platform.
Both organisations launched on 4 October, with the support of the European Commission’s DG REGIO, a call for proposals for Resilient Border Regions to select 10 pilot actions to prepare cross-border crisis management plans, and 10 additional pilot actions to prepare cross-border spatial planning schemes.
The Eva Ericsson lecture hall (room 21A 342, building 21) at the Karlstad University campus hosted the VIII AEBR Cross Border School focusing on three broad topics related to ‘Building Cross Border Resilience’, which is the core topic of the AEBR Conference held in Trysil on 24-25 October 2024:
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- Energy Security
- Cooperation & Security
- Governance of cross-border security: coordination, cooperation, collaboration
- Cyber security and privacy in cross-border regions
- Cross-border regions and technology security
- Security without Cooperation
- Fencing, Walling and cross-border security
- Psychological defence and defence awareness in cross-border regions
You can watch the recordings of the VIII AEBR CB School on the AEBR YouTube channel, and here you can find the detailed programme with the panellists and other contributors, including those winning a travel grant and other AEBR partners:
| 8.00 | Meeting at the Peace Monument, Karlstad city square to take bus no. 1 for those wishing to go to Karlstad Uni together, for those arriving by car: there is a parking place right outside building 21. |
| 8.30 | Registration at the Eva Eriksson lecture hall (room 21A 342), at Karlstad University, building 21 |
| 8.45-9.00 | Welcome:
Erik Evestam, Chairman of the Regional Development Board, Region Värmland; Leonardo Iwaya, Karlstad University; AEBR; Prof. E. Brunet-Jailly As President of the Regional Development Board in Värmland, Erik Evestam is responsible for infrastructure planning, energy issues and development for entrepreneurship in the region. He has convened Elkraft Värmland, a partnership with relevant actors from the region (business and electricity suppliers), to cooperate in increasing knowledge about the electricity supply, formulating Värmland’s needs and, by extension, reducing the risk of future power shortages. He previously worked as legal advisor for Swedish farmers and as a journalist. |
| 9.00-9.40 | 1st session. Facilitator: Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly, BIG Lab, University of Victoria (Canada): Security Across Borders
Prof. Horn Iwaya works with the Privacy and Security (PriSec) and Digital Health Innovation (DHINO) research groups. His expertise in privacy engineering for health and social care systems includes impact assessments, ethical hacking, and privacy- and security-by-design. Before joining KAU, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the psychology department at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (Brazil) and the University of Adelaide (Australia) as part of the Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre. |
| 9.40-10.30 |
Neshe Tuna is an Innovation Manager at Compare Foundation, specialising in fostering cross-border and multi-stakeholder collaborations, and ecosystem building. With a background in innovation management and stakeholder engagement, Neshe drives initiatives that promote collective problem-solving and digital transformation with focus on public-private sector interaction and innovation commons. She leads projects that strengthen cybersecurity and AI capabilities, focusing on partnerships and knowledge transfer.
Prof. Hataley is a retired member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. During his tenure as a federal police officer, he worked as an investigator in organised crime, national security, cross-border crime and extra-territorial torture. He is an adjunct associate professor at the Royal Military College of Canada and at the Australian Graduate School of Policing and Security at Charles Sturt University in Canberra, Australia. His research currently focuses on the management of international boundaries, money laundering, Indigenous policing and transnational crime. He is working on the IIRG’s project on the intersection of international and traditional Indigenous boundaries.
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| 10.30-11.00 | Networking coffee |
| 11.00-11.30 | 2nd session. Facilitator: Martin van der Velde, Radboud University in Nijmegen (the Netherlands)
Dr Hyllengren has a PhD in psychology from the University of Bergen (Norway) and is a research coordinator at the Swedish Psychological Defense Agency. In his presentation, Peder elaborates on current research priorities and challenges related to Sweden’s psychological defence and cross-border regions. |
| 11.30-12.30 |
Dr Okunade is an African Border and Migration Expert at Bowen University in Iwo (Nigeria), with various additional affiliations as a fellow at CODESRIA (the College of Mentors and Mentees) in Dakar (Senegal) and the Borders in Globalization (BiG) Institute at the University of Victoria (Canada). He is also a Board Member of the Association of Borderlands Studies (ABS), based in the US.
Dr Progoniuk is Associate Professor at the Department of Public Administration and Administration and International Economics, Faculty of Management, Mykolayiv National Agrarian University, Mykolayiv, Ukraine
Dr Yaremak is Associated Professor at the Department of Electric Power, Electrical Engineering and Electromechanics, Ivano-Frankivsk National Technical University of Oil and Gas.
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| 12.30-13.30 | Lunch |
| 13.30-14.00 | 3rd session: Facilitator: Martín Guillermo Ramírez, AEBR Secretary General
Dr Laine is a professor of multidisciplinary border studies at the Karelian Institute of the University of Eastern Finland, and Docent of Human Geography at the University of Oulu (FI). President of the World Social Science Association and serves on the Steering Committee of the International Geographical Union’s Commission on Political Geography. From 2013 to 2021 he led the Association for Borderlands Studies. He is a human geographer who combines influences from international relations and geopolitics, political sociology, history, anthropology, and psychology to explore the multiscalar production of borders and bring a critical perspective to bear on the relationship between state, territory, citizenship, and identity construction. He is frequently consulted by various government bodies and regularly comments on border, migration and security matters, as well as international affairs, in both Finnish and international media. |
| 14.00-14.15 | Presentation: Dr Maciej Molak, Secretary General of the Faculty of Regional Development and International Studies, Mendel University in Brno (Czech Republic): Cross-Border Cooperation as an alternative way of providing fire protection and its effectiveness
Research methodology and results of the research on Cross-border cooperation in fire protection and crisis management, containing a case study from the Polish-Czech borderland dealing with territorial, institutional, financial and operational efficiency. Cross-border Fire Protection is framed in the context of the defining features of a cross-border public service (CPS by ESPON) and a polycentric non-hierarchical multilevel governance model. It identifies barriers to cooperation and factors affecting its effectiveness. The work also includes research on the motivation and willingness of local and regional policy-makers to engage in cross-border cooperation. |
| 14.15-14.30 | Sum-up Session & Closing: Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly, Martin van der Velde, Martín Guillermo Ramírez |
| 14.30 | Networking coffee |
| 15.00-18.45 | Departure (and transfer by bus from Karlstad to Trysil for the annual conference participants) |
You can watch the recordings of the VIII AEBR CB School on the AEBR YouTube channel.
Transfer and border crossing from Karlstad (SE) to Trysil (NO)
In the afternoon, those participants attending the whole series of events transferred across the SE-NO border to the Skistar Lodge hotel in Trysil and continued the programme.
Thursday, 24 October
The AEBR Annual Conference 2024 followed the morning meetings of the AEBR Executive Committee and the General Assembly of members.
The AEBR Annual Conference from Trysil was web-streamed on the AEBR YouTube channel
and you can watch now the recordings:
Session 1: Security and Cooperation
Session 2: Cooperation and Security in Practice
Session 3: Nordic Border Committees – past, present and future
Task Force External Borders’ Workshop
Session 4: Future of European Territorial Cooperation
Session 5 and closing: Building Security and Resilience
We are now preparing the presentations to be linked to their place in the agenda below. Keep posted.
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Program |
| 8.00-12.00
9.00-10.00 10.00-12.30 |
Registration
AEBR Executive Committee meeting AEBR General Assembly |
| 12.30-13.30 | Buffet lunch |
| 13.30-14.45
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Annual Conference Building security and resilience in European border regions Session 1: Security and Cooperation Mod.: Ana Nikolov, AEBR Balkans
Discussion |
| 14.45-16.00
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Session 2: Cooperation and Security in Practice
Mod.: Steven Frostdahl, Ostrobotnia Regional Council (FI)
Discussion |
| 16.00-16.30 | Networking coffee |
| 16.30-17.30
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Institutional Opening of the AEBR Annual Conference 2024 «Resilient Border Regions»Facilitator: Ana Nikolov
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| 19.30-22.00 | Buffet dinner |
Friday, 25 October
| Time | Program |
| 8.00-12.00
9.00-12.30 9.00-9.05 9.00-10.30
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Registration
Annual Conference Morning Mood by Edvard Grieg, Peer Gynt Suite #1, Op. 46 Session 3: Nordic Border Committees – past, present and future Moderator: Erik Hagen, Head of Section, Innlandet County Administration: Introduction to the session
Discussion |
| 10.30-11-00 | Networking coffee |
| 11.00-12.30 | Workshops organised by AEBR Task Forces:
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| 12.30-13.30 | Buffet lunch and family photo |
| 13.30-15.00
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Session 4: Future of European Territorial Cooperation
Mod.: Martín Guillermo Ramírez, AEBR Secretary General
Discussion |
| 15.00-15.30 | Networking coffee |
| 15.30-17.00
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Session 5 and closing: Building Security and Resilience
Mod.: Caitriona Mullan
Discussion |
| 17.00-17.15 | Presentation of AEBR Annual Events 2025 and Closing |
| 19.00-22.00 | Gala dinner at the hotel |
Saturday, 26 October
| Venue | Time | Program |
| Trysil | 5.30-8.00 | breakfast |
| Trysil | 06.00-08.30 | Transfer to Oslo Airport |
| 8.00-11.00 | Study visit Scandinavian Mountain Airport – SITE region | |
| Gammelgården Sälen | 11.30-12.30 | Lunch at Gammelgården https://www.gammelgarden.se/ |
| 12.30-16.00 | Transfer to Oslo Airport |
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