References of MDI (updated 7th March 2017) Speed sparring of the municipal strategy for Liminka Client: Municipality of Liminka Liminka is a 2000’s growth miracle. Next to the city of Oulu, the municipality of Liminka still has a 2 % annu- al growth. MDI sparred the municipal council and chief officials in the strategy seminar 1st March 2017. The agenda consisted of evaluating the current municipal strategy, further developing the value and vision basis and municipal tasks in the future. Strategy Process Client: City of Kokkola The city of Kokkola is renewing its strategy while preparing 400-year anniversary in 2020. Kokkola has cho- sen MDI to support the city in preparing the strategy. MDI is responsible for planning and conducting the strategy process, making a proposal for the structure of the strategy document and drafting a written con- clusion of the process. MDI also helps the process by facilitating workshops. The strategy work is conducted in cooperation with the city personnel, councillors, inhabitants and various stakeholders. The strategy is due in September 2017. Planning the approach for vitality policies in Jyväskylä Client: City of Jyväskylä In the future, ensuring the vitality will be one of the main tasks for Finnish cities. A successful city is appeal- ing and attracting. The city as a whole is responsible for the vitality policy. However, the city itself only has a limited power to affect the vitality factors. Hence the activities of local companies, universities and citi- zens are utterly important. The current business-led vitality policy model in Jyväskylä doesn’t meet the needs of the changing environment. MDI made a proposal of reorganizing the policy for the city of Jyväsky- lä. The proposal also introduces new forms of greater involvement (e.g. sparring forums). The work was due in Autumn 2016. Creating a Regional Development Snapshot Tool to support the Regional Government Reform Client: Prime Minister's Office MDI leads a consortium that during 2017 constructs a Regional Development Snapshot Tool, which com- bines the most functional user-driven data production models that the state and the regions use in deci- sion-making. The aim is to select the most important quantitative and qualitative indicators, which provide quick and up to date information about regional development in the regions. The aim is to select evidence- based indicators that are so called rapid and sensitive variables. These variables are essential in identifying the specific features of changes in the regional economy and development. The Snapshot Tool is connected to the regional reform and thus to the regional development system. The Tool will be tested in autumn 2017 when the provisional county institutions will start their operations. Participation in the analysis of municipalities’ statutory tasks Client: Prime Minister's Office The statutory duties of municipalities will change due to health, social services and regional government reform. The analysis will focus on those statutory duties regarding which municipalities most commonly expand the content and the level of service due to own decisions. The aim is also to produce comprehen- sive quantitative and qualitative data and an analysis of the situation of each chosen municipality with re- gard to the selected statement of tasks and services. The study also produces an updated estimate of the relationship between local government and counties after reforms. The study aims at producing benefits to national and municipal decision-making. The lead partner in the study is Perlacon Ltd. MDI conducts the municipality survey and participates in formulating of the conclusions. The work is due in September 2017. Supporting the Health, Social Services and Regional Government Reform Client: Prime Minister’s Office Health, social services and regional government reform is one of the biggest ever administrative and opera- tional overhauls in Finland. The aim is to transfer the organisation of healthcare and social services and other regional services to counties. In 2017-2018 MDI has the honour of researching the implementation of the reform in three projects (part of Government’s analysis, assessment and research activities) with our partners NHG Consulting, Frisky & Anjoy and Tempo Economics. MDI is in lead of two of the three projects: SMUUTO that focuses on assessing the implementation of the reform (e.g. best practices and critical points) and SOMAYRTTI that studies the collaboration structures, interfaces and operating models. NHG Consulting leads the third project, MOHJU that focuses on steering models between different actors. All the projects aim at collecting and analysing current data for supporting the reform and sparring the actors. MDI is responsible of the regional government reform part and engaging data collection. SOMAYRTTI project is due in the end of 2017, MOHJU in March 2018 and SMUUTO in the end of 2018. 1 Evaluation and Action Research of Regional Experiments in Employment and Business Services Client: Prime Minister’s Office Prime Minister Sipilä’s government aims at lifting Finnish economy on the track of sustainable growth and improving employment. As a significant part of the Government Programme, regional experiments will be carried out during years 2017 and 2018 focusing on employment and economic development services. Dur- ing the experiments, organisation of duties will be transferred to municipalities of joint co-operation re- gions i.e. counties. Regional experiments aim at designing services that are customer-oriented, improve employment rate and decrease unemployment at the same time. A total of nine regions have been select- ed to take part in the experiments based on applications (41 applicants), three of which are being counties and six municipality-based regions. MDI takes part in the research consortium lead by Demos Helsinki. MDI is responsible for evaluating the impact, operation models and applicability of experiments as well as providing regions with peer support and sparring. Common Dialogues is the third member in the consorti- um. The research will be carried out by the end of 2018. Roadmap for Urbanization III Clients: Confederation of Finnish Construction Industries RT (CFCI), Building Information Group, Finnish Construction Trade Union, Hypo Bank, The Finnish Association of Consulting Firms SKOL, cities of Heinola, Järvenpää, Kokkolan ja Uusikaupunki, Regional Council of Häme The ongoing reforms in health and social services and regional government structures challenge the cities with 20 000 to 50 000 inhabitants. In order to clarify the current state and status of the little and middle- sized cities MDI draws a Roadmap for Urbanization III, which highlights the potential of smaller cities. The aim of the study is to sharpen the spears of business policies and brands. In addition, the work aims at cre- ating new models for urban politics. The roadmap is due in March 2017. Business plan for the Metropolia Campus in Myllypuro Client: Metropolia University of Applied Sciences MDI helps Metropolia University of Applied Sciences in drafting the local business plan for Metropolia Campus in Myllypuro region. The aim is to maximize the positive business effects of the upcoming Campus in Myllypuro Region, and in Eastern Helsinki Region. The business plan will also function as a partnership strategy. Local actors, especially entreprises, civil society organizations, inhabitants and city play a signifi- cant role in creating added value in the region. The work is due in February 2017. Evaluation of Structural Funds Programme 2014-2020 Client: Ministry of Employment and the Economy Consortium lead by MDI has been appointed to evaluate the Structural Funds Programme in Finland. In ad- dition to MDI, the consortium consists of Spatia Centre for Regional Research at the University of Eastern Finland, TK-Eval, and The Rehabilitation Foundation. The evaluation kicks of at the end of this year and runs until the summer of 2019. Evaluation of the provision of advice in the Rural Development Programme Client: Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry Provision of Advice has been launched as a new activity under the Rural Development Programme for this programming period. The main objective for the provision of advice is to improve the modernisation and competitiveness of farms as well as further support the advising of environmental issues. MDI has been appointed as an evaluator to study the implementation, results, and preliminary impacts of the provision of advice uner the Rural Development Programme for Mainland Finland 2014–2020. The work includes annual analyses and the work will be completed in the spring of 2019. Ms. Sari Rannanpää from Avaintaito cooper- ative strengthens MDI’s team in the evaluation work. 2 Profiling Southern Finland’s Development Corridors Client: Helsinki-Uusimaa Regional Council The development of the regions is channelled more and more towards development corridors crossing ad- ministrative borders. The region of Helsinki-Uusimaa (Finlands capital region) is preparing the launch of a new comprehensive regional plan, and a key part of this preparatory work is prioritising focus areas of de- velopment on regional structure and on main transport networks. This work is supported by profiling work of Southern Finland’s development corridors conducted by the MDI. The work contains a summary of the Southern Finland’s development corridor analyses, an online survey and four workshops along corridors (1.12. Tampere, 2.12. Turku,