From January 2022 on, WNRI's Director will be Anne Karin Hamre, the former County Governor of Sogn og Fjordane. Hamre is currently a Director General in the Ministry of Local Government and Modernisation. "I am looking forward to leading a robust and expanding researh institute, says Hamre.

"I would like to be so bold as to claim this is one of the most varied and interesting positions available if you wish to work with and for research in Norway", says Anders-Johan Almås, the current Managing Director of Western Norway Research Institute. This autumn he is leaving his position at WNRI after just two years, in spite of satisfactory achievements and highly pleased staff members.

Researcher Svein Ølnes and professor Arild Jansen, University of Oslo, have written the paper "The nature of public e-services and their quality dimensions" published in Government Information Quarterly vol. 33, issue 4.

Emergency management has become a problem for authorities across the world because the frequency of disasters such as floods, landslides, earthquakes, and even riots have considerably have increased.

Norstella, a foundation for e-Business and trade procedures, arranged a conference on blockchain technology 26th of October. Researcher Svein Ølnes was invited to talk about the potential of Bitcoin and blockchain technology in public sector.

The book is written by professor Rajendra Akerkar from Vestlandsforsking and Dr Priti Srinivas Sajja from Sardar Patel University, India

Vestlandsforsking has been awared funding for its research on ICT and minority integration in Norway by the Rådet for anvendt medieforskning (RAM) program of the Medietilsynet.

A research based committee was appointed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Thursday 7th of Januar. The committee's mandate is to evaluate all sides of the EEA Agreement and other agreements between Norway and EU and look at the over all effects on the Norwegian society. Research Manager Ivar Petter Grøtte from Vestlandsforsking will be one of three secretaries for the committee in its two year long work.

Robert Engels, who holds a position as a scientific adviser at Vestlandsforsking, has two great passions: semantic technologies and motorbikes. He now tries to combine these two in his Linux-enabled motorbike!