• Home
  • About
    • Governance & Structure
      • The AER Executive Board
    • The AER Secretariat
    • Statute & Strategies
      • AER Statute
      • AER Procedures
    • The History of AER
  • Members
    • Who are AER’s members?
    • Member Directory
    • Join AER!
  • Mutual Learning
    • About Mutual Learning
    • The Knowledge Transfer Forum
    • Working Groups
      • Ongoing Working Groups
      • Past Working Groups
  • Advocacy
    • About Our Advocacy Work
    • The Bureau
    • The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
    • AER Political Priorities 2020-2025
    • Intercultural Regions Network
  • Projects
    • About Our Projects
    • Ongoing Projects
    • Look for Partners
    • Completed Projects
  • AER Programmes
    • AER Eurodyssey
    • AER SUMMER ACADEMY
    • AER Youth Regional Network (YRN)
    • AER Observatory on Regionalisation
  • Events
    • AER events
    • Other events
  • AER stands with Ukraine

Assembly of European Regions

Connecting regions, inspiring Europe since 1985

You are here: Home / Archives for Event 2016 Autumn Committees

This is the tag for all posts relating to Event 2016 Autumn Committees.

Health innovation ecosystems: who’s in?

23 November, 2016 By Johanna Pacevicius

(If you feel you understand all of the words of the title but not the title itself, please read through, you will be seeing clearly soon)

 

E-health, economic growth & social change

Delegates at the AER Committees joint Fall Plenaries in Izmir (TR) had the opportunity to participate in a workshop on health innovation ecosystems, which is a continuation of the work initiated by Committee 1 President Jean-Luc Vanraes and Committee 2 President Agneta Granström in the field of e-health last Spring in Timis (RO). Indeed while demographic change should be an opportunity to develop IT innovation and e-health technologies, SMEs are the backbone of the European economy and more than ever before regions need to support their companies in being able to take advantage of the growth potential of e-health & the silver economy.

 

Health innovation: from discovery to commercialisation

As Dr. Deborah Jackson writes in her white paper on innovation ecosystems, and Gustav Söderlund (E-health Strategist, Norrboten, SE) explained in the workshop, the term innovation ecosystem derives from the analogy with biological ecosystems. These are a complex set of relationships among the living resources, habitats, and residents of an area. Their functional goal is to reach sustained equilibrium.

An innovation ecosystem brings together very diverse actors and entities which work for technology development and innovation. This includes the material resources and human capital of universities, colleges of engineering, business schools, business firms, venture capitalists, industry-university research institutes, state or regional economic development agencies and chambers of commerce, funding agencies, policy makers, etc.

Health innovation ecosystems bring even more stakeholders together: patients, carers, informal carers (family, friends…), doctors, nurses, hospitals plus the stakeholders of a “classic” innovation ecosystem with the aim of bringing innovation to users and improve their health and wellbeing, while improving resource efficiency in healthcare systems. Because healthcare systems are expensive.

And this is one of the reason which make health innovation ecosystems difficult to create or to sustain: engaging stakeholders and creating a shared vision is a challenge.

 

Stakeholder engagement

The workshop aimed at identifying methods to engage stakehoders as well as methods to create shared objectives among diverse stakeholders. Prof Mitch Blair from the Imperial College of London, and Principal Investigator of the MOCHA project in which AER is a partner, shared his experience in engaging stakeholders in Northwest London and facilitated the workshop

On the basis of the e-learning quality improvement tools developped by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC) Northwest London (NWL), participants to the workshop were invited to identify stakeholders who should be engaged in their respective regions to create health innovation ecosystems.

 

stakeholder matrix
source: http://clahrcnwl.qi4u.org/

The Stakeholder Engagement mapping tool used by AER delegates allows to analyse the list of stakeholders. Mapping stakeholders evidences their influence and interest in the success of a given project. This is a good basis to prioritise activities in the stakeholders management plan. The tool helps clarifying why certain groups of stakeholders need to be engaged, what they can retrieve from their engagement and what they will provide.

 

source: http://clahrcnwl.qi4u.org
source: http://clahrcnwl.qi4u.org

Another tool from the QI4U e-learning platform AER members used during this workshop was the Action-Effect Diagramm, which allows stakeholders to first of all agree on a shared overall aim and then agree on the different factors leading to this goal. Only once all the factors have been identified, will stakeholders decide on specific interventions. As was also evidenced during the workshop, we are very prone to proposing solutions which will lead to hidden details not being taken into account. Starting a complex initiative with a fixed idea on an intervention leads to hidden details becoming a barrier in the implementation of the initiative. The Action-Effect Diagramm avoids this hurdle by starting with the aim. It also allows to

  • design smarter interventions
  • have a clearer of the impact you aim to achieve and how
  • explain unexpected results
  • provide intermediate evidence if the overall project aim isn’t met

Such tools are therefore very valuable for policy makers in the setting up of large projects and in this case in the creation of regional health innovation ecosystems.

E-health: let’s find a common language

invest-cover

The workshop at the Committees autumn plenaries fits in a wider framework of actions the Assembly of European Regions is implementing to revitalise democracy and engage stakeholders. One of the major challenges with such diverse stakeholders and diverging interests in the field of e-health is to increase mutual understanding and trust. While improving cooperation is on all lips, the consequences of miscommunication are often under-estimated. The so-called geek-gap is costing millions to the economy.

This is why the AER’s Committee (1) on Economy and regional development and Committee (2) on Social policy and public health are organising an event “E-health: let’s find a common language” on December 1st together with AER partner networks CORAL, EUREGHA and EHTEL at the Committee of the Regions.

The event aims at providing participants with:
– information on funding opportunities in the field of healthcare, especially for companies
– new connections: opportunities for matchmaking and peer-to-peer meetings
– tested ideas to improve communication between stakeholders
– inspiration to engage stakeholders from the demand, the suppliers and the users sides in e-health innovation
– mutual understanding between different stakeholders

It is still possible to register!

(now you can see clearly!)

Other upcoming events

alec2017-comALEC, Accelerating Digital Health is organised for the fifth time in Norrbotten (SE) and will be an opportunity to discuss how to bridge health gaps in the age of digital everything. The conference is a place for meaningful connection with peers and experts from all over the world in an incredible environment where time and space seem to obey to different rules. These two days of inspiration, networking and skill development will enable participants to futher engage for the digital transformation of health and society as a whole and develop tools to design better health for all.

Once again ALEC will present a great line-up of top-level digital health thought leaders, policy makers and business innovators who will deliver inspiring and informative keynotes on The Digital Transformation of Healthcare and Health Equity in the Digital Age.

Regions, which would like to share their experience in change management for digital transformation should contact AER Coordinator for Policy & Knowledge Transfer Johanna Pacevicius ([email protected])

 

Photo credit featured image: Shawn Alladio @Flickr http://tinyurl.com/hnbycta

Follow AER!
Facebooktwitterlinkedinrss

Committees plenaries: results for projects, good practice exchange and lobbying

17 November, 2016 By Johanna Pacevicius

During the joint plenaries delegates had the opportunity to participate in 2 workshops aimed at identifying project ideas, topics for good practices and lobbying activities to be carried out within the network. The workshops were also an opportunity to share information about upcoming EU calls for projects.

Youth empowerment for a sustainable Europe

Sharing experiences: the case of Izmir

After a presentation on the development of youth training in the Izmir Peninsula,izmir-basket weaving
where several initiatives have been implemented to ensure young people are trained, remain in the area and valorise its cultural heritage, delegates were informed about the awareness raising and engagement efforts of the region in terms of European affairs and relations. Quite interestingly in order to increase knowledge about opportunities, the department of EU affairs organises information events in less advantaged areas because young people of these areas will generally not seek information about Europe.

Delegates then worked in two groups, one focused on projects and good practice sharing and the other one on lobbying with AER

Projects & Good practice exchange

Based on the Logical Framework (Logframe) Matrix, presented by Agnese Pantaloni, AER Coordinator for European projects and partnerships, participants shared the challenges their regions face in terms of youth policies. The Logframe Matrix enables to outline the key features that lead to a project achieving its goal, with challenges as a starting point.

izmir-workshop2016

Identified challenges range from unemployment, heavy reliance on parental support, drug abuse, lack of interest or lack of education, to early marriage or teenage pregnancy, domestic violence or intolerance and racism. One issue which was consistently mentioned by regions, despite very diverse economic and social backgrounds, was mental health of young people.

Participants therefore decided to concentrate their actions around the following main problem: the difficulty for young people to relate to others. (disclaimer: representatives did not at any point suggest that this problem was limited to young people. Rather as policy makers in charge of youth policies they identified this as being the main problem for the policy area they are dealing with).

The region of Norrbotten decided to take the lead on this topic and organise the experience sharing. Members may at a later stage decide to enter in an interregional project.

Lobbying

Looking back on the many high level meetings AER organised this year with AER members, Alexandre Brecx, AER Coordinator for Institutional affairs and membership, explained how regions can take advantage of the network to also raise their own regional issues towards the European institutions. Typically this was the case on the occasion of the meeting with EC Commissioner Karmenu Vella or the meetings with Commissioner Andrus Ansip, First Vice president Frans Timmermans or COR President Markku Markkula or on the occasion of events where AER members act as ambassadors for the network. A network is a place to give and retrieve, member regions, which engage in AER lobbying activities directly benefit from it.

When regions want to initiate a major lobbying action, they can also turn to AER for support. This was the case for instance for Lower Austria: representatives from the region were informed that Cohesion Policy may not be continued post 2020, they herefore decided to reiterate an initiative they had successfully carried out in 2011 to gather regions in a common position for the continuation of Cohesion Policy, which is a major support for regional development. Under the leadership of Lower Austria (At) and the Assembly of European Regions, 337 political representatives of regions from 22 member states (71,5% % of EU population) and 5 interregional organisations signed a common declaration to demand the continuation of a EU Cohesion Policy for all regions after 2020. AER President Dr Hande Özsan Bozatli and Vice-President Treasurer Mr Magnus Berntsson represented AER member regions in this high level event.

 

Sustainable management of natural resources

In the framework of the Committee 1 activities on mobility, rural development and energy, this workshop aimed at identifying ideas for joint actions. Indeed the 3 topics, which are often discussed separately within working groups, are connected in many ways. This was for instance highlighted in the Backgård report on energy security as well as in the work on the circular economy. In the context of a general conference which looked at how sustainable mobility affected many policy areas, members had the opportunity to explore synergies in this workshop.

Participants shared their main concerns in these areas, which go from building material and insulation to integrating a circular economy perspective in industry but also increasing the connectivity of regions, making them more attractive for professionals, improving the sustainability of transport choices in the public sector, shifting from high reliance on coal to healthier and more sustainable energy choices.

The issue of increasing the regional attractiveness was identified as a the main objective, and the main focus to address this at present will be improved and sustainable connectivity. Because policy learning is key in this regard members could take advantage of the Horizon 2020 call EE-09-2016-2017 “Engaging and activating public authorities” which deadline is 7th June 2017

Follow AER!
Facebooktwitterlinkedinrss

Committee elections in Izmir

17 November, 2016 By Editor

The AER Committees were in Izmir from 7-10 November for the Autumn Committees Plenaries at which time elections took place for the open positions. We would like to congratulate Mr Martin Tollen (Östergötland-SE), Mr Kenneth Johannesson (Värmland-SE), Mr Michiel Rijsberman, (Flevoland-NL)and Mr Damir Zobenica (Vojvodina-RS) for their election.

The Committees are now composed of the following politicians:

AER Committee 1 for Economy and Regional Development

President: Jean-Luc Vanraes, Political representative of the Government, Brussels-Capital (BE)
Vice-president for Rural development, Energy and Environment: Kenneth Backgård, County Councillor in Norrbotten (SE)
Vice-Presidency for Economic Development and Mobility: Damir Zobenica (Vojvodina, RS) (elected in Izmir)
Chair of the working group on Investment, Business and SMEs: Jean-Luc Vanraes, Political representative of the Government, Brussels-Capital (BE)
Chair of the working group on Mobility and Transports: Martin Tollén, County Councillor, Östergötland (SE) (elected in Izmir)
Taskforce on Cohesion Policy post 2020: Michiel Rijsberman, Flevoland (NL)

Representatives for the Equal Opportunities Group
We are still looking for two representatives (1 woman & 1 man) from Committee 1 to join the Equal Opportunities Group

AER Committee 2 for Social Policy and Public Health

President: Agneta Granström, County councillor, Norrbotten (SE)
Vice-President for Social Inclusion: Mihai Ritivoiu, County Councillor, Timis (RO)
Chair of e-Health Network: Agneta Granström, County councillor, Norrbotten (SE)
Head of the focus group on Prevention and Child Healthcare: open position

Representatives for the Equal Opportunities Group
Mr Kenneth Johannesson (Värmland-SE) (elected in Izmir)
We are still looking for 1 representatives (woman) from Committee 2 to join the Equal Opportunities Group

AER Committee 3 for Culture, Education and Youth

President: Sonja A Steen, Fylkesordfører (President), Nordland (NO)
Vice President: Dag Rønning, Chairman of the County Council, Hedmark, (NO)
Chair of the Sub-Committee on Culture: Nina Björby, County Councillor, Västerbotten (SE)
Vice Chair of the Sub-Committee on Culture: Christer Kax Sundberg, Chairman of the County Council, Sörmland (SE)
Chair of the Sub-Committee on Education and Training: open position
Chair of the Sub-Committee on Youth: Marta Vilalta, General Director For Youth, Catalonia (ES)

Representatives for the Equal Opportunities Group
Mr Dag Rønning (Hedmark-NO)
We are still looking for 1 representatives (woman) from Committee 3 to join the Equal Opportunities Group

Follow AER!
Facebooktwitterlinkedinrss

Committee 2 takes a closer look at the health of refugees

14 November, 2016 By Editor

At their plenary meeting in Izmir on 9 November 2016, Committee 2 took a closer look at the challenges facing regions for tackling the health of refugees. The work on this topic was initiated in September this year when AER President Dr Hande Özsan Bozatli visited Saint-Pierre University Hospital in Brussels to raise awareness on the issue. The visit crystallised the numerous challenges that medical practitioners face to provide care to asylum seekers and the need to share expertise among regions.

Committee 2 took advantage of their presence in Izmir to hear from Ms Fatma Sıla Asıbostan, Health Care worker at ASAM, Multi Service Center for Refugees. She highlighted the specific needs of asylum seekers in Izmir which include providing information and training, with interpreters but also automatic vaccination upon arrival. She confirmed what was already confirmed by doctors in Brussels that refugees do bring diseases that are less common or sometimes non existant in their new country.

AER Committee 2 President, Ms Agneta Granström (Norrbotten-SE) also gave an overview of the integration process of migrants in Norrbotten stressing that “migration is an opportunity to improve our societies, especially in Sweden, so our greatest challenge is not migration itself, but the most effective way to integrate these people. As health can be a barrier for integration, we pay special attention to develop migration-sensitive health systems”. Ms Granström presented some of the concrete outcomes policies in place for the 6000 asylum seekers in Norrbotten which include a health examination, information in their own language, training for health care professionals, etc.

Prof. Mitch Blair, Professor of Paediatrics & Child Public Health from the Imperial College London (UK) presented some of the outcomes and lessons from the MOCHA (Models of Child Health Appraised) project. The project aims at building a picture of what type of health care for children exists in all 30 EU/EEA countries. MOCHA is a European project, funded by European Union (EU) within the Horizon 2020 program.

In August 2016, MOCHA produced a study entitled: “Migrant Children in Europe: Entitlements to Health Care” and reads “Research has shown that asylum-seeking and newly-settled refugee children have high rates of stress-related mental health problems during the first years after resettlement, with unaccompanied minors having the highest rates of symptoms. Infectious diseases and poor dental health are more common in these children than in settled European populations and many have an accumulated need of preventive and basic health. Thus, access to health care is a major concern for migrant children.”

 

Read the full MOCHA report on migrant children

MOCHA website: http://www.childhealthservicemodels.eu/

MOCHA Models of Child Health Appraised

Follow AER!
Facebooktwitterlinkedinrss

AER’s Committees meet in Izmir for talks on sustainable mobility

8 November, 2016 By Editor

“Sustainability is key for all development and the regions have an important role to play in this” AER President, Dr Hande Özsan Bozatli, said in her opening speech. “Regions are diverse, as are the problems we face when working towards sustainability. That is why cooperation between regions all over Europe is important” she said an pointed out that Izmir sets an example for regions to drive sustainable mobility.

In his opening words, the host and Mayor of Izmir, Mr Aziz Kocaoglu underlined this and stated “Izmir’s objective is to get to a really sustainable world, and it starts with a sustainable region”

The conference on sustainable mobility took place on 8 November in the framework of the Autumn Committees Plenary in Izmir (TR). The speakers in the panel shared insight and good practices for regions to drive sustainable mobility.

Izmir sets the standards high for sustainable mobility

Dr. Buğra Gökçe, Secretary General of İzmir Metropolitan Municipality gave an extensive overview of the wide-range of actions set up in Izmir to improve the sustainability of mobility. There are almost 6 million journeys taken in one day in İzmir. Two thirds of these are taken in the center are by vehicle (motor vehicles such as private vehicle, bus, minibus, services, motorcycle).

Izmir has set up an impressive range of public transportation including rail (serving 192 kilometers), sea transportation (ferry boats), rubber-tired vehicle transportation, electric buses, bicycles (and the very useful “busses carrying bicycles” allowing passengers to better switch from one public transport to another).

These numerous vehicles are optimised by projects and studies that guarantee their proper implementation and usage. Izmir is also equipped with an advanced IT system allowing for the management, in real time, of the different transportation systems.

High return on investment for sustainable mobility

Mr. Kaan Yildizgoz, Training Director at the international organisation for public transport (UITP) presented the 5 pillars for increasing the investment in public transport with examples from cities around the world. (1) the economic impact with more jobs and productivity gain for businesses; (2) human capital with quality and high skilled jobs, (3) physical capital and the regeneration impact, (4) the global appeal with attractiveness for tourists and business travellers (5) improved quality of life including road safety and air quality.

Mr Yildizgoz also gave recommendations for mobility in low density areas as the city centre congestion problems are linked to the mobility issues in rural areas. Some of the solutions and trends include on demand transport, car-sharing and uber-like systems. “Our data shows that for every euro invested in public transportation, the return on investment is approximately 4 euros” explained Mr Yildizgoz, encouraging regions to continue their efforts towards sustainable mobility.

Experience from Istanbul

Mr Gökan Zeybek, Vice Mayor of Sariyer Municipality presented the situation in Istanbul and some of the particularities linked to the great population increase rate and large immigration rate have caused unique problems for the city. 30% of household budgets are spent on transportation compared to the 10% recommendation from Europe. Many investments have been made including suspended bridges and metro to cope with the needs of the population. Mr Zeybek identified the gap for development of railway in Turkey and the race now to catch up on that front.

The conference was followed by a study visit in Izmir where the participants could experience many of the public transportation systems including bicycles, ferry boat, bus and metro.

Presentations will be published on the event page.
All pictures are available on our Facebook page.

Follow AER!
Facebooktwitterlinkedinrss

Sustainable mobility: the way forward

7 November, 2016 By Johanna Pacevicius

The modernisation and democratisation of means of transports have radically changed how we perceive distances and the world in general. At the same time resource scarcity, climate change and geopolitical stakes have obliged us to re-think models of mobility.

Sustainable mobility: a brand new world

From 7 to 10 November AER members are gathered in Izmir (TR) on the occasion of the Fall Plenary meetings of the 3 AER thematic Committees. The overarching theme of this series of meetings is sustainable mobility, because mobility is first of all access – to work, education, goods and services including health, friends and family. Choices in mobility therefore directly affect the competitiveness of territories but also rural-urban relations, territorial and social cohesion, fairness in terms of health or education, energy security, the circular economy etc

An energy intensive sector

According to the Fifth Asessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, transports account for 14% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Trends in transport are impacted by population growth and changes in demographics as well as by changes in the structure of the economy. The shift to a service economy among other things considerably  increases the weigh of transport in greenhouse gas emissions as for instance retail and other services depend on energy-intensive infrastructure.

Connectivity: essential for regional development

For regions, connectivity is an essential element for economic development. For Europe this is also a question of territorial cohesion, a matter for which AER has consistently been lobbying. This is why members in the working groups on transports and energy have focused on different aspects of connectivity including railway, regional airports, and electric vehicles.

“Sustainable”, what’s in a word?

Defining mobility as sustainable refers to the ability of individuals to provide for their needs without compromising the same ability to future generations. To minimise the negative impact of greenhouse gas emissions, individuals need information, motivation and/ or incentives to promote more sustainable solutions for instance public transport or bicycles, instead of individual cars. The key challenge is to meet environmental, economic and societal sustainability. With the new role of subnational entities and organisations, after COP21, regions more than ever have a crucial role in implementing environmentally responsible and sustainable policies.

Regions: the way forward

Sustainable transports and mobility therefore require a holistic approach which goes far beyond the remit of spatial planners. But more importantly sustainable mobility requires mutual learning and experience sharing because the time is now. Regions have a tremendous potential to make the change happen and they are doing it already.

 

More Links

IPCC report on Transport
EC Studies on sustainable transport

Photo credits Tambako The Jaguar @Flickr http://tinyurl.com/jbmxbsx

Follow AER!
Facebooktwitterlinkedinrss

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
Tweets by @europeanregions

Library

Statutory Documents
AER Strategies
Minutes
Media Kit
Activity Reports
Newsletters
European Regions Map

Join AER!

Become a Member

Job Opportunities

Sign up for our Newsletter

Search

Website map

Brussels · Strasbourg · Alba Iulia

A Network, a Partner and a Voice of European regions, since 1985 · Copyright © 2023 · Assembly of European Regions · [email protected] · Log in