The project Arena Kallerud shall develop and make Kallerud visible as a powerhouse for education, research and development and innovation in a regional perspective, located in the axis Raufoss Industrial Park, Kallerud and the hospital (SIHF dep. Gjøvik and Reinsvoll). The objective is to position the environment in relation to a future University in Oppland and Hedmark County, an expert centre for lightweight materials and Centre for Information Security (SIS).

Project Arena Kallerud started in spring 2003 with a pilot project, who framed a vision for the area, chose name and composed a logo and graphical profile, design manual and a communication platform. In addition to own effort, the project is based on allowances from the Gjøvik region and the county municipality.

In the first phase of the main project there has been working with seven sub-projects. The first phase terminated at the end of 2004. Some of the sub-projects were terminated in the first phase, while others already in the application for the first phase indicated that it would be necessary to continue the sub-project in a long-term perspective. The work that has been done in the first phase have been interesting and exciting, not least because two big companies in the area, Mjøskraft and Mustad, have been actively engaged in the project besides the contact with Raufoss Industrial Park. The work in the first phase shows that the project Arena Kallerud further should focus on:

• Terminate the work with an overall drawn up plan for the Kallerud Area
• Carry through internal signage
• Analyse a co-localisation of the vocational school and GUC
• Continue the work with a contact arena and marketing and profiling of Arena Kallerud
• Continue the work with the student region Gjøvik

In the application for 2005 the above mention areas are taken into account. Application is approved with NOK 586 000 from the Gjøvik region and NOK 319 000 from the county municipal. Own effort and self-financing is estimated to NOK 860 000.

The project has brought the participants on Kallerud closer together in the work with developing and visualising the area. Through the allowances which are given from the Gjøvik region and Oppland county municipal, it is obvious that the development project has a broad support and is counted as strategically important for the regional development. For the environment at Kallerud and not least at GUC, it means that there is not only financial support for the development work. It shows there is a whole range of strong participants who wants to develop a competence centre on Kallerud, as an important campus in the future university in Oppland and Hedmark County. On Lillehammer there is a corresponding project called Campus Lillehammer.

Read more: www.arenakallerud.no