Follows C2B2. – I like that type of research program, with a broad angle of attack, says Mattias Rust, chancellor at the Government Office.
Researchers, stakeholders and partners … many are involved in how things are going in C2B2.
But outside the group of active people there are others who follow the research program closely. Like Mattias Rust at the Government Offices in Sweden.
– That type of horizontal research is very exciting, he says.
He describes himself as a non-political civil servant, attached to the Ministry of Rural Affairs and Infrastructure under Minister Andreas Carlson.
Mattias Rust’s formal title is Chancellor’s Council.
– A kind of layer between the expert authorities and politics, which, among other things, provides the political leadership with special knowledge and carries out many of their initiatives, such as EU negotiations and more, he says.
However, he is not just any civil servant who has been randomly assigned to a subject area. Mattias Rust has academic knowledge in what he works with.
– Yes, I’m a marine biologist at heart and worked for a while with research, he says.
Before he started at the Government Offices he, among other things, worked for a while in an EU-funded project on transboundary marine protected areas along the east coast of Africa.
Today, he is involved in the work with the government’s new maritime strategy, with a deeper focus on Sweden’s seas and its industries.
According to Mattias Rust, integrated ocean management is something that made its way from research environments and further into the world of policy in the early 2000s. He mentions, for example, the more than ten-year-old Marine Planning Directive as ground-breaking.
– They began to look at the sea in a new way, as a whole in the administration. Less silofication and more integrated ocean management.
The concept of sustainable blue economy which is established today – has passed other expressions along the way.
– Blue growth for example. In that process, of concretizing the concepts and taking them from thought to action, research has been important.
At work, Mattias Rust continuously keeps track of what is happening in academia when it comes to things in his field of work, and one of the research programs he follows is C2B2.
He believes that, as in C2B2, to broadly involving the industries that have interests in the marine environment is an important success factor.
– The financial issue is crucial to gaining momentum in a change. The biggest innovations tend to come where there is money to be made. I am convinced that financial incentives are important, not least for the blue economy.
Mattias Rust says that one of the challenges for research projects that want to achieve decisive changes in the blue economy as a whole is not to get stuck in too narrow a niche.
– I think it’s exciting to meet people who actually take in the broader perspective, and I think C2B2 hits the nail on the head there.
Will you continue to follow the work within C2B2 in the future?
– Absolutely. I assume that the contact between us will be continuous.
Do you miss working with research yourself?
– Not in the sense that I would like to be a researcher. I have probably lived in the overarching policy world for too long. But if I ever change jobs, I could very well imagine working closer to the world of research, with different policy ideas, for example, the blue economy. Applied research plays an extremely important role in the transition.
Is there something exciting happening around marine issues in your world right now?
– One example is that after the summer, Ursula von der Leyen sent out a so-called mission letter about an Ocean Pact to incoming commissioners. No one knows yet exactly what that pact will be about. But it will be a process that puts extra emphasize on the ocean. And for those of us who work with the broad blue issues, it is exciting that the EU’s highest leader comes with such a signal.
Facts: Mattias Rust
Age: 49 years.
Occupation: Deputy director at the Government Offices at Sweden.
Lives: Vendelsö.
Family: Wife and two children.
Interests: In the last few years, I have delved into growing edible things.
Listens to: “Everything from jazz to rock, depending on the occasion. But right now, I’m looking forward to Kent’s concert next year.”
Driving: “I mostly take public transport, but we also have a car in the family. A Kia plug-in hybrid.
Photo: Thomas Drakenfors, C2B2