Farm2Future North – Navigating Unsecure Futures

About the project

Farm2Future North is a cross-border Interreg Aurora project that aims to strengthen the competitiveness, profitability, and long-term resilience of small-scale food producers and food SMEs in northern Sweden and Finland. The project responds to the growing pressure faced by micro-enterprises and family-run producers operating in sparsely populated Arctic regions, where long distances, small markets, high logistics costs, and limited resources constrain innovation and business development.

Led by Luleå University of Technology, the project brings together research, design, and applied innovation expertise to transform well-known challenges into concrete business opportunities. Through close collaboration with producers, students, and regional actors, Farm2Future North focuses on practical, quickly adoptable solutions that create visible impact in real food-system contexts

Why Farm2Future North?

Local food producers play a vital role in regional food security, cultural identity, and rural livelihoods, yet their position in local markets is weakening as imported food increasingly dominates. Despite numerous studies and initiatives, many producers still lack access to tools that help them translate challenges into profitable and resilient business models.

Farm2Future North was initiated to bridge this gap. Instead of producing more reports or complex technologies, the project uses design-driven and participatory methods to co-create opportunity-based solutions together with producers. The focus is on action, relevance, and fast learning - made with producers and for producers - while strengthening cross-border collaboration in the Aurora region.

Project objectives

• Strengthen competitiveness and profitability of small-scale food producers and SMEs in northern Sweden and Finland
• Turn validated challenges into concrete business opportunities through design-driven innovation
• Build a sustainable cross-border innovation ecosystem connecting SMEs, researchers, students, and regional actors

Next steps

• Validate producer needs and opportunity areas across borders
• Conduct co-creation workshops with producers, students, and design experts
• Develop and test SME case studies in real business settings
• Launch and grow the Challenge-to-Opportunity digital platform
• Disseminate results and establish a long-term cross-border SME network beyond the project lifetime