Local Resilience, Food Security, Competence Development

FLORA – Local Resilience and Food Security in the North Atlantic

FLORA explores how North Atlantic communities produce, access and secure food in a time of growing uncertainty. The project brings together food security, local resilience and place-based knowledge in order to understand how communities function in everyday conditions and how they cope when systems are under pressure.

The project focuses on the local foundations of resilience: production, processing, distribution, access, skills and cooperation. It looks at both formal systems and the practical knowledge embedded in communities, including the ways people adapt to remote geography, fragile logistics and changing social and environmental conditions.

Across participating regions, FLORA develops a shared framework for analysing food systems while respecting local differences. The aim is not only to map vulnerabilities, but also to identify strengths, practical options and pathways for stronger local and regional food resilience. The project is funded by the Arctic Cooperation Programme of the Nordic Council of Ministers and Nordisk Atlantsamarbejde (NORA).

FLORA logo

Local Resilience Profiles

A central tool in FLORA is the development of Local Resilience Profiles. These profiles examine how communities produce, process, distribute and access food, and how these systems function during disruption. They combine quantitative information with local knowledge in order to give a grounded picture of resilience at community level.

The profiles are designed to support local dialogue and decision-making. They help identify critical dependencies, local resources, competence gaps and opportunities for stronger cooperation between municipalities, food producers, schools, civil society and regional actors.

Resilience Profiles Process

Project Results

One of the first concrete outputs from FLORA is the summary report from the joint study visit and workshop in Sisimiut, Greenland, held in November 2025. The visit served as an early practical step in the collaboration and gave the partners a shared understanding of local food systems, infrastructure, entrepreneurship and resilience challenges in an Arctic municipality.

The report documents key observations from the visit and provides an early project baseline for the continued work on Local Resilience Profiles and comparative analysis across the partner regions.

Download Sisimiut Summary Report

An important early result from FLORA is also the development of a shared conceptual model for local resilience and food security. The diagram outlines how enabling factors such as skills, networks, governance, infrastructure and geography interact with core food system functions including production, processing, distribution and external supply. It also shows how long-term food resilience depends on capacities such as diversifiability, acceptability, recoverability and sustainability.

Conceptual framework

Project Overview

Innovation Challenge

In April 27-28 2026 the partners and stakeholders from the partner regions met in the Orkney Islands and participated in a transnational innovation challenge. The event was organised by the Islands Entrepreneurial Network (IEN) / Robert Gordon University together with the FLORA project.

The report documents key observations from the workshop, study-tour and participants.

Download Orkney Summary Report

Partners

FLORA brings together municipalities, regional organisations, educational institutions and consultancies from across the North Atlantic. The partnership combines local implementation capacity with regional development experience, education and analysis.

Partner organisations

Austurbrú – Iceland

Regional development organisation for East Iceland.

Bodø Municipality – Norway

Municipal partner with experience in local development and food systems.

Qeqqata Municipality – Greenland

Arctic municipality with strong relevance for local resilience and food supply.

Kommunufelagið – Faroe Islands

The national association of Faroese municipalities.

Orkney Islands Council – Scotland

Island authority contributing North Atlantic and local governance perspectives.

Tekniski Skúlinn í Klaksvík – Faroe Islands

Vocational school with food-related education and training.

LinkNordic – Denmark

Lead Partner - project management and communication.

Beislun ehf – Island

Lead Partner - project management and communication.

Partner geography

Map of FLORA partner locations