The General Assembly is the highest authority of AER and convenes representatives of all its full members at least once a year. The General Assembly adopts among other things, the annual reports of the Thematic Committees.
This report is the compilation of actions developed and
Activities are organised in 3 categories:
- Projects
- Good practice sharing
- Advocacy/ Lobbying
The AER Action plan, which brings together all the activities carried out within AER, is constantly updated.
Projects
SCIROCCO Exchange project – Personalised knowledge transfer and access to tailored evidence-based assets on integrated care: ongoing
The SCIROCCO Exchange project, under the 3rd Health Programme, is based on the SCIROCCO project, which has resulted in the development of an online self-assessment tool for integrated care. The project will run from end 2018 to end 2020. It will support regions, mainly health and social care authorities for the adoption and the scaling-up of integrated care. The maturity matrix, at the core of the project, offers a tool for regions to better deliver integrated care for their citizens while at the same time empowering citizens. With this tool regions can assess their current status, revealing areas of strengths and also gaps in their capability managing the many activities needed in order to deliver integrated care.
The lead partner is the Scottish Government Health Agency Service, a new AER member. The consortium is composed by 14 organisations.
AER is leading the Working Package on knowledge transfer, helping
Together for Cohesion: let’s rEUnite! project: ongoing
This project is funded by DG REGIO. It will:
- raise awareness on the importance of programmes, projects and services funded by Cohesion Policy funds
- encourage the participation of citizens and stakeholders to ensure they are active players in the dialogue on cohesion policy.
The project officially started on 1st of April 2019 and will last for 12 months. The following regions, which have sent a letter of support for this project will be involved in different actions funded by the project to engage citizens and communicate about Cohesion Policy in their territories:
Trento (IT), Alba (RO), Timis (RO), Catalonia (ES), Varazdin (HR) and potentially Csongrad (HU).
All AER members are invited to share examples of communication campaigns on Cohesion Policy and to participate in the launching event of the project on 5 June 2019 in Larnaka on the occasion of the AER General Assembly.
The project is led by AER with the international communication agency MC Group (DE). The application was submitted to the DG Regio on the media calls for proposals. The project is part of AER’s work on Cohesion Policy.
AMiD project for the inclusion of migrants with disabilities: ongoing
This project is led by the European Association of Service Providers for Persons with Disabilities and aims to improve the access to services for migrants with disabilities. AER is a partner and Valencia, Timis and Värmland are all members of the Advisory Board. The AMiD project will provide opportunities for experience sharing and capacity building in this area for all AER members.
- The project co-organised the event on migrants inclusion in Barcelona
- facilitated a workshop at Committee Plenaries
- and will
organise 2 intense workshops at the AER General Assembly in Larnaka.
Silver Economy Awards (SEED): finished
The Silver Economy Awards aimed to
Models of Child Health Appraised (MOCHA): finished
The MOCHA team is led by the Imperial College London and involves 19 scientific partners from ten European countries and 30 country agents from each European Member State and EEA country. MOCHA appraises the differing models of child health that are used across Europe. The project identified gaps in knowledge, on surveillance of children’s primary care and children’s specific needs in primary care, lack of coordination of care, models of care that are not based on current child health epidemiology, and low prioritisation of children’s needs in e-health strategies. AER is a member of the Advisory Board. AER is benefitting from the connection with the MOCHA experts, which have been invited at AER events (workshop on health innovation ecosystems in Izmir, workshop on social capital for integrated care in Norrbotten) and also shared expertise and advice for the development of the project on youth mental health led by Catalonia and Norrbotten. The project is now in the final year where results will be published. The final conference took place on 15-16 November in The Hague.
Event: EU funding for Croatian & Albanian regions: finished
The event on EU funding for Croatian regions, hosted by Varaždin (HR) and Committee 3 President Radimir Čačić, and the event on EU funding for Albanian regions, hosted by Korcë (AL) and MEG member Ana Verushi brought together about 70 participants, both members and non members of AER to:
-hear about AER’s activities
-learn more on AER services for projects and services
-obtain information on the areas of cooperation with EU
-get a relevant update on the current and forthcoming EU funding opportunities
-become aware of the successful experiences of project applicants
HOME4LIFE – Certified smart and integrated living environments for ageing well: pending approval
AER joined this project as supporting partner, upon the request of AGE Platform which is
INTEGRATE PERMED project – The inter-regional linking infrastructure for implementation in personalised medicine:project rejected
The INTEGRATE PERMED has been submitted under the Horizon 2020 Programme. It aims at linking the efforts in personalised medicine across European Regions by mapping them and then exchange of experiences between selected regions. The project will focus on breast cancer as a launching pathology to maintain focus. After validation, the approach will be replicated to other pathologies.
PATHWAY project – Pathway to social entrepreneurship: project rejected
The PATHWAY project, under the Erasmus+ Programme, aims at providing learners with a training programme which meet their needs in the sector of social entrepreneurship. It also aims to raise awareness on the role social entrepreneurship can play in local development, fostering also be the establishment of links and cooperation between different stakeholders.
The multiplier event will be a collateral activity of the AER Summer Academy. Submitted within the Erasmus+ Programme, the Social Entrepreneurship Key
Social Entrepreneur Key competencies – SEK project: project rejected
Within this project, AER is in charge of organising an international information day, which will be the opportunity to share the project outcomes and to foster networking. AER is also in charge of a training session to test training course for social entrepreneurs. On top of that, AER will perform advocacy work in order to raise the attention on the project findings at regional and EU level.
The activities realised by the AER will take place in the scope of the Eurodyssey and the AER Youth Regional Network.
PIKTOGRAMA project – Visual thinking for social innovation: project rejected
PIKTOGRAMA is a project submitted within Erasmus+ Programme. It focuses on design thinking approach as a method to empower non-profit organisation and implement original visual thinking tools to face new EU societal challenges (e.g. climate change). The project aims at raising awareness on this approach and the advantages it has in the social innovation context as well as stimulating its use by training the youths.
The project will provide regions with recommendations regarding design thinking, which can be an interesting method for non-profit organisations to approach social challenges.
The multiplier event will be a collateral activity within the Youth Regional Network General Assembly, thus creating synergies between AER programmes and the project.
Good Practice Sharing
Equal access to healthcare: ongoing
The AER Group on Equal Opportunities has identified equal access to health as the main topic to be addressed in Committee 2. This includes:
-vulnerable groups: meet them where they are & help them
– exchange good practices on reducing barriers to care & access to services.
Spring Plenary meeting Committee for Social Policy & Public Health: finished
Committee 2 gathered in Örebro (SE) on the occasion of the Spring Committee Plenaries to assess progress, elect new representatives and define its new work
- Committee
President : Mihai Ritivoiu, Timis (RO) - Vice-President for Health Innovation : Kenneth Johannesson, Värmland (SE)
- Chair of the E-Health Network : Donna Henderson, Scotland (UK)
Autumn Plenary meeting Committee for Social Policy & Public Health: finished
The 2018 Autumn Committee Plenaries were hosted by the region of Vojvodina in Serbia from 25 – 27 September 2018. A detailed recap of all the meetings that took place is available here. The Committee on Social Policy and Public Health members said farewell to Agneta Granström, Vice President of the Committee and Chair of the AER e-Health network. Albert Castellanos, Catalonia (ES) was elected Vice-President for Health Innovation, other positions were left open for future candidacies.
On the occasion of Committee 2 plenary meeting in Novi Sad, Vojvodina (RS), members decide to focus on social entrepreneurship & inclusion
Good practices from Umbria (IT) and Maramures (RO) were presented
Breakfast Briefing on welcoming unaccompanied migrant children: finished
Committee 2 members decided to share experiences on welcoming
unaccompanied migrant children. In this context a Breakfast Briefing was
organised on welcoming unaccompanied migrant children in Novi Sad on 27 September 2018,
which was led by the European Programme for Integration and Migration,
an initiative of currently 25 private foundations, which has the goal of
strengthening the role played by civil society in advocating for
constructive approaches to migration in Europe.
A background article on youth on the move was published by the AER Secretariat.
Panel discussion at the Vojvodina plenaries on Open data for regional development: finished
On the occasion of the Autumn plenaries in Vojvodina, the panel discussion “Open data for regional development: governance, start-ups and innovation” took place.
The discussion focused on how public institutions collect and generate enormous quantities of data in areas as varied as unemployment, air pollution, hospital consultations etc and how this data can best be re-used to create or improve both public and private services. There is a need to change the political perception of Open Data and instead view it as opportunity for policy-making.
Meeting of the Working Group for Equal Opportunities: finished
The AER Group on Equal opportunities has regular phone meetings
Mutual learning event on the Sharing Economy: finished
Each year Brussels Capital proposes a mutual learning event on a current and transversal topic. On December 4th 2018, Brussels Capital organised a mutual learning event on the sharing Economy together with Catalonia, in Brussels, Brussels Capital Region (BE). This event organised upon the invitation of Committee 1 President Jean Luc Vanraes, aimed to gather experiences from all three AER Committees and regions were welcome to share inputs and regional examples.
The event brought together policymakers, entrepreneurs, academics and representatives of the third sector for vivid exchanges. A follow up article with updates on what happened in Brussels was published.
International Migrants Day: Promoting Diversity in Regions: finished
The three AER committees and the AER Task Force on Migration worked closely together to develop messaging ahead of the International Migrants Day: Promoting Diversity in Regions event in Barcelona on Tuesday 18 December 2018.
Participants
shared their experiences and good practices in diversity management at
regional level, including examples of policies, programmes and projects
promoting inclusion, participation in civic, economic and political
life, positive intercultural interaction and the sense of belonging.
AER e-health network activities: planned
The AER e-health network has achieved the objectives it had set at its creation. The plenary meeting in Arad was the opportunity to set new objectives. These include good practice sharing on
-risks of digital exclusion
-business models
-data protection, profiling & mass surveillance
-Artificial intelligence, bots
After the 2018 Spring plenaries, no concrete initiatives were identified. This was mainly due to the fact the AER e-health network didn’t have a chair to give impulse to its activities. At the Spring 2019 Committee 2 plenary meeting, members will elect a new chair and get an opportunity to define new actions they would like to implement jointly.
Under a new leadership from Scotland, the e-health network will focus on digital health and explore synergies with fellow networks
Leadership programme for policymakers on e-health, integrated care systems and health innovation: cancelled
The AER e-health network wants to share good practices on leadership
for the deployment of integrated care systems. After the 2018 Spring
plenaries, no concrete initiatives were identified. New opportunities
may arise with the implementation of the Scirocco Exchange knowledge hub
which will be developed and will also provide tools to improve
readiness to change, leadership and governance in general.
Advocacy/ Lobbying
Cohesion Policy Activities: ongoing
Members agreed in September 2018 that the Task Force on Cohesion will now be under the responsibility of the Bureau, which is also in charge of the other Task Forces. Joint actions include:
– Convene joint advocacy: Bureau Members adopted an updated position on the European Commission legislative proposals for the future EU cohesion policy, setting out the specific changes European regions propose to make to the new framework.
– Advocate towards the European Union and Member States
– Work in alliance with other relevant stakeholders and European associations
Flevoland (NL) is coordinating the implementation of the action and the cohesion policy task force help implement the action.
AER Bureau Task Forces
The 2018 Spring Bureau established the creation of Task Forces on dedicated topics. These Task Forces will gather examples, identify and formulate policy messages which will be brought together in position papers which will then be used for advocacy. Members who would like to contribute to one of the below Task Forces should contact AER Coordinator for Advocacy & Institutionnal Relations Vania Freitas
-Task Force on Food
-Task force on Digitalisation
-Task Force on Migration
-Task Force on Social Innovation
Joint initiatives for advocacy
Member regions can decide to initiate joint actions and find partners among AER members. Regions can get support from the Secretariat to connect with other regions, get an overview of existing legal framework and identify relevant actions, target institutions. The AER Secretariat will also organise Breakfast Briefings to help regions organise their advocacy activities.
The Committees’ work programmes and the AER action Plan
The developement of the Action Plan is a collective process to enable all participants to specify needs and decide to initiate activities which add value for their region. The principle is the following: as long as an action fits with the AER values, is in line with the AER priorities and has support from other regions, it can be included in the Committees work programmes. The work programmes are developped in Spring each year.
The AER action plan is the consolidation of the three Committees’ work programmes with all other activities led by the Bureau and the Executive Board. It is adopted at the General Assembly.
Members can propose new joint initiatives at any time during
Committee 2 Coordination & implementation of the work programme
The new Presidium of the AER Committee on Social Policy & Public health will meet met on 4 June 2019 in Larnaka, to discuss the implementation of the Committee’s work
Photo by Alessia Cocconi on Unsplash
