AER members have the possibility to propose activities in the context of the different AER bodies. The AER Secretariat will facilitate a co-development session on March 24th. Members will be able to share inputs and define activities they would like to carry out together.

The co-development session will be organised along three topics:

• Youth
• the Bioeconomy & Skills
• Culture & Tourism

Youth: policies to help young people to bounce back

The aim of this session is to hear from members what are the policies they have been implementing to help young people bounce back after the pandemic. This will, in particular, provide content for the preparation of the AER Summer Academy, which will take place from 27 to 30 June 2022 in Donegal (IE)

Members will share:

• What are the main priorities in the field of youth policies for them
• What are the challenges for their region
• What are the topics on which they would like to exchange with other regions
• If there are experiences/ practices they like to share

The Bioeconomy & Skills

This session will be an opportunity to discuss the setting up of a working group, which will take a transversal approach to boosting the bioeconomy: looking at the state of play in European regions, skills needed to foster innovation in the sector, supporting excellency in technical and vocational education.

Members will share:

• The relevance for them of the bioeconomy, & the main priorities
• How they are developing skills for the bioeconomy
• What are the aspects of the bioeconmy on which they would like to exchange with other regions
• If there are experiences/ practices they like to share

This will help shape activities for the working group, identify relevant practices and ressources which could be shared in events of the working group.

Culture & tourism

Culture and Tourism are sectors that have been severely hit by the pandemic. This session will aim to share resources developed in the context of recent projects, in particular the CUBES project on the administration of cultural assets. The session will also collect inputs from AER members on:

• The current stakes for regions in the field of culture and tourism
• The topics in the field of culture and tourism, on which they would like to learn and share with other regions?

Finally, the session will provide brief information on a few EU funding programmes which can be of relevance for regions in the field of culture and tourism.

This co-development session aims to facilitate the development of new collaborations, help AER members to find support for ongoing initiatives and collaborate on issues that are important for them. Other similar sessions will be organised to enable constant flow of information within the network.

Photo by Jennie Razumnaya on Unsplash