Eastern Norway Research Institute is particularly involved in research related to business development, resource utilisation and management in Norway’s rural and mountain areas. For a long time, the research has been labelled ‘tourism’, ‘second home development’ and ‘nature administration’. In recent years we have increasingly looked at general development challenges in rural areas, such as planning in small municipalities, population decline, public health, living conditions and entrepreneurship.
Network
We have built up a significant research network with both national and international partners. Our staff is active in the national research network Fjell-forsk-nett and in the peer-to-peer journal Utmark. The Institute has been a member of the international network Euromontana since 2014 and is represented on the board. In addition, we are active in the European mountain research network NEMOR.
Examples of projects
The Horizon 2020-project MATILDE was finalised in 2023. This project focuses on the impact of migration on the local development of rural and mountain areas.
Another example of a project focusing on rural areas is the Creatur project, funded by RFF Innlandet. The main objective of CreaTur is to investigate how the sharing economy can increase value creation and employment for Inland Norway’s tourism businesses.
A selection of recent publications on mountain areas can be found here(updated 24 April 2023)
The 2021 thematic, digital booklet on second homes in Inland Norway with many references to projects in mountain areas can be found here. It provides knowledge status and a summary of research on the importance of holiday homes in different areas of society in Inland Norway. The booklet and reference list are updated annually with new publications.