Lead Partner: Umbrian Regional Waste and Water Agency

Reuse Centres are usually managed by SMEs, often social enterprises, that receive, prepare for reuse and distribute goods extending their product lifetimes with important social and environmental impacts, promoting a circular economy vision. They are a powerful vehicle to promote qualitative growth, help develop human capital and strengthen social cohesion. To fulfil this mission reuse centres need to have an economically sustainable business model, an issue that will be at the centre of the project. SUBTRACT will concentrate on the post start-up and scaling-up phases to render reuse centres effective and durable, i.e. to have a steady flow of incoming and outgoing goods well prepared for reuse, a professional management, a suitable financial strategy and an attractive image for the users. The project will research knowledge, exchange experiences, develop guidelines on how to develop the full potentials of reuse centres and render them competitive and will provide guidance to the ERDF managing authorities and other policy makers on how to assess and govern reuse centres in their territory. It will strengthen them in their capacity to enact efficient policies of sustaining reuse centres in becoming self-sustaining, evaluating their management, their investment and innovation readiness, measuring their impact. The elaboration of business principles and models will help actors along the reuse chain (regional and local governments, waste management authorities, NGOs, social enterprises) to collaborate effectively and strengthen networks. Measures will be identified and rendered operational that enforce waste prevention and preparation for reuse activities and favour citizens’ contributions. Efficient awareness strategies, campaign models and other suitable measures will be developed and tested to stimulate the supply and demand of reusable goods and render them attractive and desirable.

Lead Partner: Provincial Council of Bizkaia

According to World Health Organization (WHO) "making cities and communities age-friendly is one of the most effective local policy approaches for responding to demographic change”. However, regional initiatives still lack alignment between absolutely complementary policy areas such as health, social affairs, territorial sustainable development, employment and wellbeing. This silo approach restrains the creation, availability and large-scale adoption of age-friendly solutions across Europe. Known is also the gap between technological developments and end-users real needs and expectations. Therefore, policy alignment, collaborative efforts and sharing of good practices will be keystones to add better quality of life, more inclusive and sustainable health and social care systems and citizen’s access to the services. The EU_SHAFE project will improve policies and practices in 7 European regions by developing a comprehensive approach to Smart Healthy Age-Friendly Environments (SHAFE). Through a 'learning by sharing' methodology, this robust multi-disciplinary and intersectoral consortium will build a four-helix European community to exchange experiences and practices to improve multilevel policy instruments. The consortium will create a cooperative, inclusive ecosystem between public authorities, European networks and user’s associations, embedding their experience and skills with research & design knowledge from academia and SMEs for the growth of community-based services and “ageing at home” around Europe. • EU_SHAFE will Invest in policy design and adaptation of regional instruments derived from ETCF (R&I priorities) and ESF (Social Inclusion), through the creation of a large Euro-local network of stakeholders that will work together in ecosystems towards a common model – a White Paper on SHAFE. • Select and re-design concrete and scalable interventions in the area of social innovation for SHAFE, that may be implemented as realistic innovative models for the future.

Lead Partner: Aufbauwerk Region Leipzig GmbH

E-mobility has a great potential to improve our environment. Cars, trains and planes account for a quarter of global energy consumption and approximately the same proportion of emissions. That is a heavy load – but at the same also a unique chance to limit our impact on the climate. The 9 partners of the E-MOB project represent 8 European regions at different stages of e-mobility development, but they all share the view that e-mobility represents the future of mobility: a clean, quiet, advanced technology, combined with power, speed and lots of fun. E-MOB stands for Integrated actions towards enhanced e-mobility in European Regions and aims at enhancing e-mobility solutions in regional passenger transport systems through coordinated policy learning and planning. As an ambitious target, the partners strive for influencing in total more than 26 million EUR of Structural and other Funds through 8 policy instruments to be revised in the frame of a series of peer reviews and learning conferences. Based on the outcomes of this interregional learning process (8 good practices and policy recommendations), the partners will jointly elaborate Action Plans for the improved implementation of the selected 4 Structural Fund Programmes and 4 other policy instruments. Actors of regional relevance will be involved in the whole procedure, being invited in the whole interregional learning and action planning process. The engagement of stakeholders will be facilitated by the establishment of 8 Regional Stakeholder Groups. Members of the RSG – together with interested municipalities – will also have the possibility to improve their capacities in turning the policies concerned into actions: Partners will elaborate the E-MOB Guideline and organise regional trainings in e-mobility strategic planning. This coordinated intraregional learning will contribute to plan and implement concrete measures and projects in the field of e-mobility, bringing tangible results to the participating regions.

Lead Partner: Pannon European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation

INTER VENTURES promotes the internationalization of SMEs in EU border regions, thus contributing to their growth and increased competitiveness. INTER VENTURES brings together partners from five European border regions, representing various stages of evolution of SME ecosystems, from occasional cross-border cooperation through more structured networking to international clusterization. During the project implementation Partners will intensely share their experiences and learn jointly via Thematic Study Visits, Interregional Meetings combining training with discussions. Regional stakeholders will be intensively involved in the process through RSG Meetings and Webinars including training, brainstorm sessions and assisted workshops.   Lessons learnt will be adapted to regional conditions explored through targeted surveys of regional SMEs. As a result, tailor-made regional Action Plans will be elaborated that can lead to the desired improvement of the five selected regional ERDF programmes for the enhanced internationalisation of SMEs.

Lead Partner: Ministry of Development and Investments

Statistics reveal that succession of business ownership between generations can be a life -or-death situation for many companies in Europe: only 30% of family-owned businesses  survive the transition to a second generation while only 10% of them can overcome the  transition to a third generation.  Success Road will address this challenge by helping manufacturing companies of the  textile, clothing and footwear sectors prepare and manage their succession, both in the  context of family successions and when selling to third parties.  The project overall objective is to help project national and regional authorities implement  policies and new succession measures in their operational programmes so that SMEs  can better face the succession phase and secure their future after a change of  ownership. Working to strengthen the overall sustainability and long-term viability of European SMEs will further contribute to the growth of the economy by preserving jobs and  boosting economic growth. Objectives • To analyse the gaps between the current and the desired state of successions and  transfers of companies and examine the parameters and obstacles at play.  • To sensitise regional and local policymakers and civil servants about the problems  and risks of the succession process in order to foster the creation of tools to help business owners withstand the succession process.  • To shape a business-friendly legal and institutional ecosystem by creating incentives  and removing barriers to entrepreuneurship. 

Lead Partner: Regional Council of South Ostrobothnia

INTENCIVE project addresses the societal challenge of ageing society combined with decreasing population in rural and other remote areas. There is a dire need for new, accessible and user friendly models, practices and tools for providing different types of high quality health services accessible to all citizens not depending on their age or place of living. Combining technology to the different phases of service processes with emphasis on the customer orientation means re-thinking and re-planning the health services. Objective of INTENCIVE project is to improve the implementation of policies and programmes in terms of health technology innovation-driven and customer-oriented health services in the partner regions and influence the ERDF Regional Operational Programs or Regional Strategies. Partners from five regions conduct interregional exchange of experiences in the specific field and introduce into their policies of innovative technologies and services in e-health sector.                      Basis for the exchange of experience consist of state of the art evaluation, good practice evaluation against BIKVA-model, study visits and thematic workshops. INTENCIVE has an unique bottom-up and customer-oriented approach using the BIKVA-method developed for social services giving voice more directly to the citizens using services.

Lead Partner: Applied Research and Communications Fund

CityZen responds to the growing number of cities and regions that recognize the benefits of urban farming for living sustainably and improving revenues. It aims to promote urban farming as a successful driving force for economic and social transformation by introducing the concept to policy makers. Various regional policies on green innovation and resource efficiency, like food security, waste management, community development and adaptation to climate change, are to be improved by integrating urban farming models and practices. CityZen will explore successful and new (business) values that urban farming brings to the ecosystem and link them to innovative entrepreneurship and supply chains. The creation of a knowledge pool of urban farming policies, initiatives and business processes is meant to support decision makers and leverage the efficiency of their actions. Showcasing how improved policies impact the five European partner regions, create entrepreneurship opportunities and drive business and social transformation is set a priority of the CityZen project.

Lead Partner: ANATOLIKI S.A. Organisation for Local Development

Circular economy is a new approach of economic development models. It provides the potential to use one’s waste as resource input to others productive chain thus offering a longer life cycle of the products and a more environmentally friendly business approach. This regenerative system is of high priority in the EU. SinCE-AFC is being developed along with the on-going EU action plan for Circular Economy and the respective National Circular Economy Action Plans across the EU countries. Although the principles of circular economy are already applied by many large industries, SMEs, which represent the 99% of the businesses sector, still remain uninvolved due to lack of motivation and support. Thus, the regional SMEs policies improvement towards a more regenerative economy is of high importance. SinCE-AFC aims at involving SMEs of the Agri-Food chain in circular economy through the promotion of the appropriate managing and financial horizontal mechanisms. All the Agri-Food agents committed to production, processing, packaging, distribution and final consumption are expected to operate in a coordinated way to better adapt to circular economy. This objective will be achieved via the intense collaboration and interregional exchange of experience of 9 partners representing 7 Regions from 7 EU countries. The partnership’s tasks will focus on the investigation of efficient practices, via interregional thematic learning events, study visits, import workshops, stakeholders’ meetings and consultation processes, of how the relevant policy instruments can be improved in order to assist SMEs to enter circular economy. The core results will be depicted in a joint study reflecting the related regulatory framework and good practices at regional and EU level. The project will promote innovation, derive knowledge and develop close collaboration with the Interreg Europe Learning Platform as well as with the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform and the RIS3 Platform Group.

Lead Partner: Municipality of Florence

The European Crafts sector is a rich and complex interwoven tapestry combining tradition, heritage, culture, skills and design. Crafts encompasses a wide range of disciplines as a mirror of the diversity of European cultural identity. CRAFTS CODE aims to enhance the competitiveness of craft SMEs by developing a framework to stimulate policy learning and build capacity to improve the implementation of regional development policies and programmes. The project idea is based on efforts made by the partners for the implementation of policies and projects supporting the competitiveness and the skilling up potentials of SMEs belonging to the crafts sector, in order to innovate it and mitigate the risk of disappearance of many traditional crafts and manufacturing. Crafts is a peculiar productive sector deeply linked with tradition and transmission of "knowledge", and plays a key role as innovator in Europe’s economy and social stability, even if most SMEs are not performing R&D activities as traditionally defined. Their competitiveness depends on their capability to improve processes, products and services. 

Lead Partner: MUNICIPALITY OF REGGIO EMILIA

The EU is acknowledged as one of the most urbanized areas in the world, characterized by a relatively dense urban network consisting mainly of medium sized cities. The trend of urbanisation is increasing and the consequent pressure on peri-urban areas has many impacts at environmental, social and economic level: increasing soil consumption, loss of ecosystem services and reduced resilience towards climate change effects, soil speculation. All this has negative impact on economic activities, public health and life quality. Tackling natural heritage protection in peri-urban areas becomes crucial to guarantee that natural resources are not compromised by urbanization; nevertheless, natural heritage protection is often seen as a constraint to economic growth, making the two concepts antithetic. PROSPERA’s overall objective is to improve regional policies on protection and promotion of natural heritage by tackling loss of ecosystem services and improve sustainable development in peri-urban areas threatened by urban-sprawl, with the ultimate aim of preventing biodiversity loss, soil consumption and further degradation of natural assets, by in parallel leveraging on these challenges as a way to favor regional attractiveness and economic sustainable development. To this end, 7 PPs from 5 EU countries (IT-EL-SE-BE-HU) have agreed on 3 leverages as means for a shift from the traditional perspective seeing urban/rural as a dichotomy to a new perspective, where protection of natural heritage fosters economic development in peri-urban areas: 1. Wise governance 2. Eco-lo(gi)cal value chains 3. Sustainable PPP (public-private partnership) PROSPERA PPs will identify at least 15 Good Practices from 5 regions and, after a process of interregional learning based on Study Visits and knowledge exchange sessions, they will define regional Action Plans to improve 5 policy instruments.