The Spot-lit partners application submitted for the recent Bridging Call targeting Interreg NPA 2021-2027 themes has been approved by the NPA 2014-2020 Monitoring Committee. This means that, also in 2022, we will be developing literature tourism in Kainuu.
It has been a practice for the Northern Periphery and Arctic programme to use remaining and de-committed funds towards the end of the programme ’s implementation to fund preparatory projects targeting the specific objectives of the following programme. The bridging call for preparatory projects in autumn 2021 was the last call of the NPA 2014-2020, its main purpose building a project pipeline for future main projects in the forthcoming NPA 2021-2027 programme.
The Spot-lit partners submitted an application for the call, and we’re pleased to inform that the application has been approved by the NPA 2014-2020 Monitoring Committee. N-Lite (Literary Tourism Immersive Technology Acceleration) is a project to scale and develop the ability of the NPA Literary Tourism sector to grow in the coming years. The project will seek to identify new ways to embed the sector in the national and transnational tourism consciousness to better grow the potential in the participating areas. Specifically, it will assess suitable digital and associated technologies to develop immersive visitor experiences in the regions literary tourism sector.
N-Lite will also leverage the literary tourism sector expertise and SME partnership achieved in the Spot-Lit project which has supported over 20 literary organisations and SMEs to develop and trade through the challenging period of the pandemic.
The existing rich literary heritage of the NPA region from the Kalevala in Finland to Yeats and Heaney in Ireland is both moving and profound, the N-Lite bridging project will focus on researching the utilization of digital, immersive and CreaTec technologies to develop unique literary tourism experiences and content.
N-Lite Project partners are Western Development Commission (WDC), Ireland; Irish Central Border Area Network (ICBAN), Northern Ireland; Regional Council of Kainuu (RCK), Finland; associate partners Kajaani University of Applied Sciences, Finland (KAMK); and Troms og Finnmark Fylkeskommune (TFFK), Norway.