A half year long dialogue with key actors of regional development and growth was rounded off on the 10 of May in Stockholm when the Swedish National Federation of Resource Centres for Women together with NUTEK - The Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth, the County Administration of Gävleborg and Södermanland and the RRC SAGA arranged a national conference about 'WRCs - legitimization, criteria and sustainable development'.

60 regional and local RC's and key actors of regional development participated in the event that marked an important stage in the project that is to result in a key set of criteria for WRC's that from the 1st of January 2008 will form the basis of WRC's basic financing and certification.

In Sweden there are at present appr 160 local (LRCs), 21 regional (RRCs) and a national RC (NRC) and based on the Swedish modell WRCs have been rapidly increasing in number all around Europe leading to the formation of a European Association of Women Resource Centres (WINNET Europe) on the 20th of June 2006.

Key note speakers of the day were

• Ms.Catharina Håkansson-Boman, the Head of the Cabinet Office of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Industry, Trade and Regional Development who among others emphasized that future Swedish government regulations and initiatives desire to support women in playing a more key role in regional development through getting more involved in regional partnerships and larger Structural Funds development projects.
• Professor Gunnel Forsberg, Stockholms University presented recent research about the role of women's participation in regional development and the importance of genderequal and sustainable growth.

• Britt-Marie Torstensson, Chairwoman of NRC and WINNET Europe presented some of the good examples of WRC's playing a key role in the regional development and growth of Skåne, Södermanland, Gävleborg, Västmanland, and the Stockholm Region.
• Agneta Eriksson, RRC Kronoberg - Qvinnor på G summarized the results and lessons from the on-line questionnaires that has been answered by all RRCs, regional key actors and many LRCs and of the three dialogue seminars that were arranged with broad participation of the involved stakeholders. Thereafter the modified list of criteria was presented and will now be referred to the WRCs for comments untill the 31st of August. After the deadline there will be a new evaluation round and the final criteria will be adopted before the end of the year.
• The national conference was rounded off by Eva Fabry, Secretary of NRC and WINNET Europe, who presented the experiences with the innovative network portal(s) www.nrckvinnor.org - the Swedish national portal that now is co-edited by all WRCs and the European portal www.winneteurope.eu . Eva Fabry emphasized that women in the Information Society now have a historic opportunity to bridge over the gap as presented and reflected upon by Professor Gunnel Forsberg, if they, however miss this opportunity the gap will grow considerably and in a more rapid pace than ever before.  Eva Fabry stressed that 'recognizing the necessity to diminish this gap WINNET Europe is now making all efforts and taking concerted actions , to raise the IT knowledge and enhance the use of IT by women both in Sweden and all around Europe.' WINNET Europe has also initiated key stakeholder meetings aimed at setting up in the near future of a European Centre for Women and ICT. For more information contact Eva Fabry, e-mail.