- What is a good practice?
In the context of Interreg Europe, a good practice is an initiative carried out under one of the programme's topics. It can be for example a methodology, project, process or technique which has some evidence of success in reaching its objectives. There are already tangible and measurable results of the initiative. Moreover, a good practice has the potential to be transferred to other geographic areas.
Since Interreg Europe is dedicated to regional development policy improvements, a good practice is usually related to a public intervention. A private initiative may be considered as a good practice only if there is evidence that this initiative has inspired public policies.
- Who can submit a good practice?
Anyone who is our Interreg Europe community member can submit a good practice.
We collect good practices mainly from our projects. Project partners work on identifying good practices during their exchange of experience activities and submit those they deem the best in the topic they work on.
However, anyone with a good practice which fits the programme definition can submit a good practice and have it validated by the Platform experts.
- Where can I find Interreg Europe good practices?
Interreg Europe good practices are available in the Policy Learning Platform good practice database and on each Interreg Europe project website.
The project websites contain all good practices submitted by the project partners and approved by their web administrators.
The Platform database displays only the good practices validated by the Platform experts for their particular features and value for policymakers all over Europe.
- How to submit a good practice?
1. Log in to the Interreg Europe online community
2. Fill in the good practice form. You can find the link on your dashboard under the good practice section – see pics. A template for describing good practices is also available.
- Ideally, the owner of the good practice should fill in the form. Indeed, if you submit a good practice, your personal and organisational profile in the Interreg Europe community will be linked to it. If your organisation is not the one in charge of the good practice, you can indicate the relevant organisation in the dedicated section of the form. But your contact details will still be linked to the submitted good practice.
- Please note that the name and contact details of the author are visible to all members of the Interreg Europe online community.
- Make sure you connect your good practice to the respective Interreg Europe project, if relevant. This point is important because it determines the validation steps of the good practice (as explained in point 3 below).
3. After you submit your good practice, it goes through a validation process. This can take a few weeks. You can follow the process on your user dashboard as well as through email updates.
4. Once your good practice gets validated, it appears in the Policy Learning Platform good practice database.
You can learn more about submitting a good practice by viewing our recording of the webinar on good practices (recorded on 23 January 2018).
- What are the validation steps?
Each good practice submitted through Interreg Europe website goes through validation by the Platform experts.
Steps for validation:
- Once an author submits a good practice connected to an Interreg Europe project, the project web administrators receive a notification email.
- The project web administrators decide whether the good practice is complete and should be published on the project website.
- Once a project web administrator approves a good practice, it appears on the project website. A notification is sent to the joint secretariat for the next validation step.
- The joint secretariat checks the good practice against the indicators in the project progress report and on its overall quality (description).
- Once the joint secretariat approves the good practice, a notification is sent to one of the Platform experts for the next validation step. They consider the good practice on its value as a source of inspiration and learning for European policymakers.
- If the Platform expert validates the good practice, a comment will be added and the practice will be included in the Platform good practice database.
If your good practice comes from your own institution or region and it is not linked to an Interreg Europe project, the first five steps are skipped. Only the Platform experts have a close look at it and consider it for validation. If validated, your good practices will appear in the Policy Learning Platform good practice database.
Please note that not all submitted practices will be published in the Platform database. All are subject to validation by the experts.
You can find more detailed description in this Good practice validation guidance note.
- What does the map show?
The map included in the good practice page was programmed to display a pin in the middle of the region where the good practice is localised. These details correspond to what you mention in the form when submitting a good practice ('location of good practice' section).
It is currently not possible to show the exact location of a good practice.
- I am a web administrator, but can't see any good practices belonging to my project in my dashboard. Why?
This is probably because the owner of the good practice forgot to connect the good practice to the respective Interreg Europe project.
To solve this, contact your communication officer in the JS and ask them to do the necessary changes in the system.
