The ITS Award is given out every year on ITS Day which had its 20th anniversary this year.

The work of Espen L. Nilsen and the innovation group in the county municipality started in 2020 after an informal conversation with a geologist. The geologist was particularly interested in solutions to detect avalanches that ram roads.

It was the start of a project that led to a system for detecting and alerting avalanches, with the first successful detection in January 2023.

It's incredibly cool, of course. It was very, very unexpected,” Nilsen says of the ITS award.

Nilsen has long been a positive driver for the VIA cluster and was personally engaged in the Innovation Arena when it was hosted for the first time in 2022. Troms (and Finnmark) was a partner and participated as the only county municipality in the first year. In 2023, several county municipalities followed suit and became partners at last year's Innovation Arena.

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Innovation and Collaboration
A separate innovation team has been established in the county municipality's transport department. The team's task is to find new and good solutions for the transport sector. An innovation often occurs because someone has a need that needs to be met, or a problem that needs to be solved. Then the innovation group can initiate processes to find effective and technological solutions.

The award is given to work carried out in 2023 and therefore goes to the previously merged county municipality.

The county government has been awarded the prize with, among other reasons, the following reasons:

• innovative use of ITS technology
• focused on adapting transport solutions to the region's climate
• is behind several successful projects and pilots
• good coordination and knowledge sharing
• the region's natural prerequisites have inspired radical ITS initiatives, such as electronic notification of oncoming traffic
• good cooperation with industry, and focus on sustainability

What do you think is the reason why ITS Norway chose Troms (and Finnmark) County Municipality as the winner?

Innovation has been a key part of our work in recent years. We have been keen to be present in various venues, both to showcase our work and to learn from others,” says Nilsen.

VIA congratulates our partner ITS Norway on its 20th anniversary and a well-conducted event.

Photo: ITS Norway and VIA