ECREIN+

Who?

11 partners together with AER are in the ECREIN+ consortia:
• Rhône-Alpes (F – leader),
• Andalucia (E),
• Baden-Württemberg (D),
• Chamber of Commerce of Coventry and Warwickshire (UK),
• Chamber of Commerce of Stara Zagora (BG),
• Galicia (E), Ile-de-France (F),
• Lombardia (I),
• Malopolska (PL),
• Romanian Association of Municipalities (RO),
• Uppsala (S).

What?

The goal of ECREIN+ was raising awareness and broadly sharing techniques, financial instruments and best practices all over Europe. The partners shared expertise on how to better support SMEs and clusters which are already involved in eco-innovation or would like to develop strategies to enter this field. 3 working groups were established and shared experiences on different themes:
• “Market knowledge of environmental goods and services (EGS) sector”
• “Regional policies and tools”
• “Assessment of instruments to support eco-innovation”.
By the end of the project, recommendations were formulated by partners and those were brought together as one main interregional recommendation for the European Union.

When?

Malopolska Region implemented the guidelines and objectives of ECREIN+ between 1st of January 2010 and 31st of December 2012. This project was supported by the INTERREG IVC programme, financed by the European Union’s Regional Development Fund.

Why?

Challenges such as resource scarcity, climate change and the growing world population dramatically increase the demand for new and sustainable solutions. Eco-innovation plays a critical role by reducing the impact on the environment and opening new business opportunities through developing sustainable, innovative products, technologies, services and business methods. The ECREIN+ project aimed precisely at supporting eco-innovation at regional level, thereby encouraging green growth and reducing Europe’s ecological footprint.
ECREIN+ was built on the results of the European Clusters and Regions for Eco-investments Network (ECREIN) project. The aim of ECREIN was to compare the instruments which exist in different European regions to promote eco-innovation and eco-investments in small and medium enterprises.

What is AER’s role and how to get involved?
AER contributed to the close partnership of regions within ECREIN+. Participation, organization of events as well as dissemination of project results were key roles of AER, bringing its wide network and its expertise in interregional cooperation at the service of this project.
You can find more information on INTERREG IVC Programme website.