- 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.
Watch this webinar for more information on what is a good practice and how to submit them in the good practice database.
- 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?
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, they might send it to a Platform experts for the next validation step. Experts 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).
If you would rather want to show the exact location of your good practice, please contact us and we will make the necessary changes.
- 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.
- How can I edit my good practice?
You may need to make changes to a good practice that you have already submitted (for example: because your policy officer has asked for improvements or you want to add new tags).
To edit your good practice:
1. Log into your Interreg Europe community account and go to the 'Good practice' tab
2. Click on the title of the good practice you want to edit
3. Click the edit button on the right corner
Please note: you cannot edit your good practice if it is being looked at by your project's website administrator, policy officer or a Platform expert.
- When can I edit my good practice?
Once you have submitted a good practice related to an Interreg Europe project, it will go through three validation stages: web administrator, Policy Officer and Thematic Expert. Once validated at a certain stage, it will move to the next stage in the process. If declined, your good practice will not continue in the next stages of the process.
When you have submitted a good practice not related to an Interreg Europe project, it will go through one validation stage: Thematic Expert.
Your good practice is not be editable when under evaluation by the web administrator, the Policy Officer or Thematic Expert. At either of these three stages, you might be requested to make improvements, at that moment you will be able to edit your good practice from your dashboard.
In case you have made a mistake when uploading the good practice, you can contact us and we will make sure you are able to edit your good practice.
- How can I add tags to my good practice?
1. Log in to your admin account and go to the 'Good practice' tab
2. Click 'Submit a new good practice' or click on the title to edit an existing good practice
3. Click in the box called 'Keywords related to your practice'
4. Scroll down and select the relevant tag.
Tip: You can use as many tags as you want. Select the relevant ones from the drop-down menu.
- How do I suggest new tags?
There are currently 215 tags to choose from. Download the list.
It is possible that the tag you need is missing. If you think the existing tags do not help you describe your online content, please contact your communication officer with:
- Your tag suggestion
- The reason why you cannot describe your content with the existing tags
We will look at the suggestions every six months. Please note that we reserve the right to refuse new suggestions if they are too specific or too similar to an existing tag.
- How can I change or update the location of a good practice?
Once you have submitted your good practice and you want to change or update its location, you will have to wait until you have the possibility to edit your good practice. View the FAQ on 'When can I edit my good practice?'.
You can also contact us and we can update the location for you. If the location of your good practice is not showing exactly as you want, please also refer to the FAQ on 'What does the map show?'.
