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This is the tag for all posts relating the circular economy.

#ShineBright Vojvodina improves waste management systems

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On the Occasion of the Regional Innovation Award on Circular Economy, ShineBright on the region of Vojvodina, in Serbia that presented its project on a Regional Waste Management Center.

The overall objective of the project is to develop an EU-standard integrated sustainable solid waste management system in the region of Zrenjanin, Vojvodina.

In the region, there is no control, treatment or systematic monitoring  of emissions, leachate waters or landfill gas.

In that sense, the initiative aims to build a regional sanitary landfill; a composting facility; a transfer station; local recycling centres. Adding  improvements to waste collection services and the closure and rehabilitation of selected existing waste disposal sites.

Improvements in the waste management system will contribute to significant improvement of health and environmental conditions in the region.

For more information visit Vojvodina’s website!

 

The next Regional Innovation Award will take place in 2018 and will be dedicated to the Silver Economy in the context of AER SEED project.

 

Photo credits: Filip Zrnzevic @Unsplash at https://unsplash.com/@filipz

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#ShineBright Zuid Holland ‘biological revolution’

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On the Occasion of the Regional Innovation Award on Circular Economy, ShineBright on the region of Zuid Holland, and more especially the village of Berkel en Rodenrijs in Netherlands that presented its project on Biological Solutions for Sustainable Agriculture.

The initiative started in 1967, where Jan Koppert set out to reduce the usage of chemicals in commercial indoor agriculture. Koppert Biological Systems has introduced a range of biological solutions that has changed the horticulture industry and caused a ‘biological revolution’. Today, European commercial indoor agriculture is almost free of harmful chemicals. The impact? Healthier, cleaner food for consumers, a safer working environment for growers and less damage to nature.

After revolutionising horticulture, Koppert wants to spark a similar revolution in commercial outdoor agriculture. In 2015, Koppert introduced Panoramix, the first microbiological seed treatment solution. It increases resilience in wheat and corn and supports farmers in regions where climate challenges and poor soils cause intense usage of fertilizers and other chemical.

This initiative promotes a global biological revolution to make agriculture sustainable.

For more information check out Koppert Biological System!

 

The next Regional Innovation Award will take place in 2018 and will be dedicated to the Silver Economy in the context of AER SEED project.

 

Photo credits: Tommy Ferraz @Unsplash at https://unsplash.com/@tommyferraz

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Join the Committees’ Presidiums!

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AER is looking for candidates to fill out newly vacant positions in the Committees’ Presidiums. It includes Vice-President positions and various representative posts inside all three AER Committees. Join the Committees’ leadership and get a profound involvement into AER decision making process!

What’s a Committee Presidium?

The AER Committees are the backbone of our activity. They are the place where knowledge and experience exchange happen and where new collaborations are shaped. To this end Committee members meet at least twice a year on the occasion of their Spring and Autumn plenaries. Workshops are organised along with the statutory meetings in order to dig deeper in specific topics and identify areas for policy innovation. Through experience sharing, including both good and bad practices, AER members engage in mutual learning. Whenever a need arises for focused cooperation on a topic, specific projects are set-up, to ensure the experience exchange will be sustainable and co-funded.

The Committees are led by a Committee President, who is supported by a seconded officer. Each Committee has its own structure and organisation, despite differences in names, they share the following basic structure:

  • Committee level: President + Vice-President(s)
  • Subcommittee level: Chairs of ad-hoc structures which can be working groups, subcommittees, focus groups or networks
  • Representatives for Equal Opportunities: 1 male & 1 female

Members of the Presidium are elected politicians from AER member regions. The members of the Presidium share a vision for the Committee and provide the necessary impulse for action. They advise the Committee President, who sits in the AER Executive Board, thus contributing to strategic decision making.

Committee Presidium members are also invited to represent AER in external events and get extra media coverage via our partnerships with media and events organisations.

Open for candidacies:

Committee 1 on Regional Development & Economy

Committee 1 works on issues covering Cohesion Policy, economic development, innovation and research, climate change, energy and rural development. For the past year, there has also been a strong focus on the circular economy, the development of business/SMEs in specific in the field of health innovation. Long term investments and green investments are also high on the Committee 1 agenda.

The following positions are open for candidacies:

  • Vice President for Rural development, Energy and Environment
  • Vice President for Economic Development and Mobility

The Committee 1 Vice Presidents advise the Committee 1 President on policy and strategy and they support him to represent AER and speak at external event.

  • Representative for Equal opportunities, we are preferably looking for a man with views to gender balance

Mandates last 2 years and are renewable

Candidacies can be sent to the Committee 1 Seconded Officer: Pierre Gérard at [email protected]

Committee 2 on Social Policy & Public Health

Committee 2 is supporting members in implementing e-Health services and exploring the potential of integrated care. It aims at building leadership on change management and innovation in the public sector. Active ageing is a major topic, especially for cooperation at EU level. Inclusion and social entrepreneurship are other key topics.

The following positions are open for candidacies:

  • Vice President for Inclusion & Social entrepreneurship

The Committee 2 Vice Presidents advise the Committee 2 President on policy and strategy and they support him to represent AER and speak at external events

  • Representative for Equal opportunities, we are preferably looking for a woman with views to gender balance

Mandates last 2 years and are renewable

Candidacies can be sent to the Committee 2 Seconded Officer: Agneta Kardos at [email protected]

Committee 3 on Culture, Education and Youth

Committee 3 focuses on culture, education and youth policies. The Committee has been particularly active in the fight against school drop-out. This resulted in the implementation of an ERASMUS+ interregional project to share good practices and improve regional policies for youth inclusion and empowerment. Committee 3 furthermore shared regional good practices in the field of culture for inclusion and cultural heritage.

All positions are fill

Photo by Quino Al on Unsplash

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Why one should think of life cycle approaches at the regional level

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The upcoming AER Committees’ Autumn Plenaries will feature a workshop on  life cycle approaches for renewable energy, circular economy and regional development. Its main objective will be the identification of opportunities for life cycle approaches to regional sustainable development.

Most regions have sustainability policies and programmes of various sorts, trying as best as they can to meet the many challenges in implementation.  While a holistic approach seems too complex to many administrators, a series of simpler piecemeal actions often just solve one problem at the expense of another, as for example when production of biofuel occurs at the expense of biodiversity, water consumption and pesticide use.

These problems can be overcome by a greater use of “life cycle tools” that substantially improve the sustainability performance of regions.  The relevant procedures were usefully outlined in 2017 in a book published by the LCASRD Group, titled “Life cycle Approaches for Sustainable Regional Development”.  Over 40 authors contributed to the book.

Life cycle thinking is not an ‘additional’ programme for regions, instead it is a way of re-appraising existing management procedures to achieve better sustainability outcomes.

Sustainability is evaluating economic & environmental costs

For example, the purchase of regional goods and services according to sustainability criteria is a fine ideal. But without an appreciation of the actual life cycle impacts and costs, it is difficult to select appropriate products. International advice is now to focus on lowest economic and environmental cost over the entire service life (cycle) of goods rather than on the cheapest purchase price.  The practice of ‘Life Cycle Costing’ greatly assists such choices.

Regional sustainability depends on also appropriate infrastructure choice by factoring in end-of-life dismantling, rehabilitation or replacement of installations and equipment. This applies to renewable as well as conventional energy installations, and to many other items of regional infrastructure. Our society is already suffering from the damage from abandoned installations and polluted lands whose remediation was never included  in the original purchase costs. We have the life cycle tools now to do better.

Features of Life cycle management

For these and many other examples, the current set of sustainability assessment procedures gives valuable information to decision-makers.  Subsequently, the use of life cycle management procedures as already used by many industries makes it easier to attain the sustainability objectives that have been fixed by the region.

The book observed that a major barrier to life cycle management was the lack of familiarity of regional managers and politicians with life cycle procedures.

A series of conferences, meetings and workshops, some at regional level, is now underway to encourage greater use of the life cycle tool box for regional use.

Fritz Balkau is an international advisor on sustainable development for national government and the United Nations. He has both worked as part of the OECD and UNEP. He recently supervised the edition of “Life cycle Approaches for Sustainable Regional Development”, published in 2016. F. Balkau is taking part in organising the next AER workshop on energy, waste & regional economy: life-cycle approaches. 

For more information, please contact:  [email protected] or [email protected]

Register here for the AER Committees’ Autumn Plenary (12 September 14:00 – 14 September 18:00).

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Apply now for a LIFE Action Grant!

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The submission deadlines for LIFE Calls for proposals is getting closer! The LIFE 2017 Info Day and Networking event,  a side session of EU Green Jobs Summit within the EU Green Week, took place between May 29th and June 2nd. Several other partner events, such as the ‘Green is the new smart. Green jobs boosting regional economy’ (organised by the Pomorskie Regional EU Office), were also held during the EU Green Week.

AER is pleased to share some useful information and tips with you to succeed in the application process.

Why important?

Since circular economy and green jobs are a core topic of these events, AER got deeper insight on May 31st and June 1st. Both events referred to the opportunity for Europe having a leading role in paving the way for a transition to circular economy as well as pushing for more ambitious standards. For instance, Montpellier’s Master Degree Programme in Water Sciences contributes effectively to a more environmental friendly society by raising awareness about the challenges and opportunities that this green transition can bring.

3 projects as good examples were introduced during the event:

The Life 2017 Info Day and Networking Event, organised by the European Commission, was aimed at providing both information and the opportunity of networking for your project. On the other hand, the event of Pomorskie Regional EU Office took place to highlight the importance of green jobs in boosting regional economy, presenting business opportunities for local and regional economies and creating cleantech jobs.

How to get involved?

Firstly, you can apply for several calls for proposals which are already open as well as other funding opportunities such as Horizon 2020, COSME, InnovFin and EFSI. Secondly, AER has already published a partner search of E-Vai project which will be submitted for one of the LIFE Calls. If you are interested in this project, please contact the AER Secretariat for more information. Thirdly, two competitions were promoted during the EU Green Week: the 2020 European Green Capital and 2019 European Green Leaf Awards (the application is still open for both of them).

To get inspiration for designing a LIFE project, please check out the LIFE Project database. Or you can also contact the AER Secretariat and our partner network, ACR+, working on linking local and regional stakeholders in the field of circular economy. You can check out also the Circular economy industry platform launched by Business Europe for innovative solutions contributing to circular economy in Europe.

The Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform will have a coordination group in order to provide guidance, reinforce interaction between stakeholders on exchanges of good practices regarding the transition to circular economy. A call for expressions of interest to become a member of of this coordination group is open until August 31st. In addition to this, you can also share your best practices and/or learn more about smart specialisation boosting interregional collaboration. Therefore, please do not hesitate to register for the 2nd edition of the ‘Grow your region’ conference which will take place in Valencia (Spain) on November 8th and 9th.

The next EU Green Week Conference on ‘Green Cities for a Greener Future’ will be held in Brussels between May 22nd and May 24th 2018. More details on the programme will be announced soon.

What is new in LIFE Calls 2017?

After the introduction of the Climate Action Policy Priorities and the responsibilities of EASME, funding opportunities for traditional projects were explained.

Encouraging the delivery of results from research projects such as Horizon2020 is an additional point to get more scores. In this sense, some new elements were introduced to these new LIFE Calls, such as:

  • Defining and welcoming ‘close-to-market’ projects
  • More specifications regarding quantifiable impacts/benefits
  • Transferability and Replication Plan is mandatory deliverable for certain Calls
  • Sustainability: Exploitation Plan as part of the After-Life Plan as well as Business Plan for ‘close-to-market’ projects are mandatory deliverables for certain Calls
  • Focus on more concrete activities developing new tools to put into practice
  • Control on double-funding and value-added vs previously funded programs.

Within the framework of the LIFE Programme, the European Commission launched the 2nd Call for preparatory project proposals to support the European Solidarity Corps.

More tips for the application?

If so, please just click on this link to find key information.

Photo credits: @2017 Pixabay https://pixabay.com/en/hohenschwangau-alps-alpsee-munich-532864/

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Internship: Would you like to be the new AER intern on EU projects & funding? (CLOSED)

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Are you interested to learn and to be part of the team working on EU projects for the largest independent political network of regions in Europe?

We are looking for an intern to join the Project Unit at our Brussels Office, supervised by the European Projects & Private Partnerships coordinator.

Your main task will be:

  • Mapping calls for proposals and collecting information on funding (both based on desk research and by participating to relevant events as Info Days on funding programmes)
  • Supporting AER’s projects team in its partner searches and follow-ups with its members.
  • Writing articles on the results of your mapping
  • Contributing to the implementation of ongoing projects for all concerning activities and finances
  • Providing inputs in terms of drafting documents to join new project proposals

Finally, the intern will assist the team in general office management tasks.

This is who we are

Here are the things that are great about our workplace:

  • We are a team where everybody is treated equally
  • We are also a very great team, with awesome people on board
  • The thing we work for is super cool: who could be against helping people across Europe to work together?
  • It is a place for personal growth, as you get to work with so many very different people with different backgrounds your horizon widens and you change
  • We use cloud-based team collaboration tools, which allows us to keep in close contact. despite frequent travels and different locations – and, it helps us for community building.

 This is the best place for you if…

  • You have any knowledge or previous experience in European project management and funding.
  • You have excellent knowledge of both oral and written English. Knowledge of any other European languages is considered as a useful asset of your work here.
  • You are self-motivated and have interest in helping people to work together on tackling challenges.
  • You are able to perform tasks autonomously and take responsibilities as well as to coordinate your work with the rest of the team.
  • You are a creative person and problem-solving oriented.

AER is happy to offer you the opportunity to:

  • Gain a practical experience in the field of projects funded by European programmes.
  • Be in contact with high ranking politicians, project officers and partners across Europe and get inspired by them.
  • Learn about regions and get a deeper insight into current European political issues
  • Work in a dynamic, multinational and multicultural environment
  • Develop personal responsibility and initiative
  • Gain invaluable experience in an international professional environment

The internship period will be 6 months, starting in August/September.

From your arrival onward, you will be considered as full team member.

Before applying, please keep in mind…

A contract for internship must be signed by AER, the trainee and the sending University/School/Institute.

You will receive a monthly financial contribution of 150 EUR during your internship period. Travel and living costs must be covered by the intern.

In case of a citizen of non-EU country, please make sure that you meet all the legal requirements (visa, residence permit, etc) to stay in Brussels as specified by the Belgian Law for foreigners. Health insurance must be ensured during your stay.

How to apply?

If you are interested in joining us and making AER your next professional experience, please send us your CV and cover letter to Szabina Laskai by 27th July h 12:00 CET, with email subject “AER European Project Intern”.

Interviews take place from 1st August to 10th August.

For further questions, do not hesitate to contact the Project Unit.

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Join “The Cities of the Future 2017” Brokerage Event!

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Following the successful event on EU Funding for Turkey (which took place in Ankara on May 4th), the AER is now pleased to announce the launch of the “Cities of the Future 2017” Brokerage Event which will be held in Brussels on the 26th and 27th of October 2017. The so-called event is organised by the “Turkey in Horizon 2020”, a consortium formed by International Development Ireland LDT (IDI), the Centre for Social Innovation (ZSI) of Austria, the European Business Innovation Centers Network (EBN) of Belgium, Sociedade Portuguesa de Inovaçao (SPI), and G&G Consulting (Turkey).

What is it about?

The event will bring together up to 400 researchers, industry professionals, government officials and policy makers from Europe and Turkey, targeting the following H2020 topics:

  • “Smart, Sustainable and Resilient Cities” and “Energy Efficient Buildings”
  • “Circular Economy (SPIRE, Raw Materials and Water)
  • “Mobility for Growth,” “Automated Road Transport” and “The European Green Vehicles Initiative”
  • “Smart Energy Systems and Consumers”

Purpose of the event

The Cities of the Future 2017, according to the program description, is meant as a “wider concept that encompasses cities’ overall energy and resource efficiency with profound economic, social and environmental impacts, resulting in a better quality of life. In this context ‘Green Vehicles’ play an essential role, as well as further advances in ‘Factories of the Future’ or ‘Sustainable Process Industries’, for increased resource efficiency, new markets, and new jobs.”

What’s in for regions?

As stated by the EU Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, “Turkey is a much-valued partner. Its dynamic business environment is a perfect test bed for the development of innovative products and services – making cooperation a win-win for researchers and enterprises on both sides.”

This event then provides an excellent opportunity for AER members to build up linkages not only with Turkish and European researchers but also with highly qualified research-performing SMEs, expand networks and create new partnerships for the upcoming calls in Horizon 2020.

Registration

Click now on this link to register for the Cities of the 2017 International Brokerage event in Brussels

All participants are strongly encouraged to present their organisations and project ideas at the workshops. You can download the presentation template here and send it back to [email protected].

For more information, just visit the event website: http://turkeyinh2020.eu/news/be3/

Photo credits: @turkeyinh2020 http://turkeyinh2020.eu/news/be3/

Related Article

https://aer.eu/successful-event-eu-funding-turkey/

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Exchange to change with the Policy Learning Platform

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AER is a key partner of the Policy Learning Platform (PLP) which is the second action of the Interreg Europe programme established to boost EU-wide policy learning and capitalisation of practices from investments on growth and jobs. The Platform is a space for continuous learning where regional actors in Europe can tap into the know-how of experts and peers.

The Platform held its first events from 26-30 June. Four thematic workshops brought together 40 Interreg Europe projects, and European Union (EU) level stakeholders and experts, with an aim to meet, learn about, inspire and stimulate each other.

Heading for a low carbon economy

The first thematic workshop was held on Monday, 26 June. It was organised by the Policy Learning Platform on low carbon economy and focused on sustainable urban mobility planning. The workshop brought together representatives from nine Interreg Europe projects and EU level experts and policy makers. Two topics were highlighted by the participants as both challenging and promising to promote cleaner transport and alternative mobility behaviour, namely – cycling and ‘Mobility as a Service’ (MaaS). The workshop provided an opportunity for the participants to find out more about these and other challenges related to sustainable urban mobility planning, and gave an insight into how they are addressed by Interreg Europe projects.

Tapping into the potential of silver economy

The second thematic workshop “Investing in health and wellbeing as an opportunity to implement innovative solutions, create growth and jobs while providing better services” was held on Wednesday, 28 June. The PLP on Research and innovation brought together six Interreg Europe projects and European level stakeholders, including the European Commission. Participants discussed challenges and opportunities to facilitate the take-up of new services and speed up changes in the innovation ecosystems. Outcomes from the debate:

  • It is important to ensure the buy-in of the Managing Authorities to mobilise resources from the current cohesion policy programmes.
  • A new generation of innovation actors, like the Living Labs, are among the key drivers of the innovations and should be recognised as such and supported.
  • There is high potential of synergies with other programmes, like the ones launched by the European Commission’s Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CONNECT).
  • European Associations like AER, ERRIN and ENOLL contribute significantly to boost external capitalisation.

Circular economy is more than a buzz word

On Thursday, 29 June, colleagues from 11 resource efficiency projects met. The focus of the day was circular economy. The transition to circular economy requires a paradigm shift. We all need to realise that an economy based on linear model is no longer viable. In times of dwindling natural resources every regions has to have a vision – what environment do we want to live in? Circular economy is a very innovative field for which more an awareness and real action on individual, company, local and regional level is required. Regional level can play significant role but regions’ efforts need to be taken in the context of wider national and EU level policies. An awareness raising and promotion of existing cases and solutions can help and encourage a wider action, especially in regions with less tradition in implementing innovation enabling the shift to circular economy. In addition, regions should recognise the power of cooperation in making further progress. It is time for action: don’t wait, start doing!

Supporting SMEs to go international

The fourth thematic workshop was held on Friday, 30 June, and addressed SME internationalisation. 14 out of 33 Interreg Europe projects dedicated to SME competitiveness met to learn more about each other and exchange around the barriers and challenges for increasing internationalisation of SMEs. During the plenary and breakout sessions, the discussions focused on governance issues – mainly the necessity and difficulty to align the objectives and coordinate the initiatives of multiple actors supporting internationalisation of SMEs, and concrete instruments addressing the identified barriers to internationalisation. A series of topics were identified, which will be used as input for the coming activities of the Platform.

Expert discussions held during the Thursday and Friday workshops were streamed live and can be viewed on Facebook.

The most important outcome of the workshops was the positive feeling among the participants. Workshops were also an opportunity to discuss the support of the PLP. A clear demand was expressed for the Platform to continue support exchange of experiences between the Interreg Europe projects, and also to stimulate the exchange of interesting approaches and practices with other initiatives, programmes and non-Interreg Europe projects.

What’s next?

The next steps will be the launch of the online platform, the networking event in Milan on Research and Innovation and SME Competitiveness (19-20 October 2017) and the networking event on energy and resource efficiency in November in Sevilla. The Policy Learning Platform will also be present and active at the European Week of Regions and Cities in Brussels, on 10-12 October.

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The first European Silver Economy Awards at the AER General Assembly

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The AER General Assembly is one of the launching events of the fist European level Silver Economy Awards. AER is proud to be a partner of the SEED project, the promoter of this important initiative.
Silver Economy is on the AER priority list since years. Already AER and member regions addressed Silver Economy  at the Training Academy in Aalborg in 2015 and more recently at the 2016 European Summit on Innovation for Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP on AHA), network in which eight AER member regions are active players.

SEED project powers the Silver Economy Awards
SEE project represents a good achievement for AER within the project side, having a big potential for the three Committees both in terms of content and activities. AER briefly presented the project at the last 2017 Spring Plenary now we would like to share with member regions more information being the time for the launching of its main activity: the Silver Economy Awards.
SEED is the acronym of “Supporting the recognition of the Silver Economy in Europe in the Digital era”, a successful project submitted under the Horizon 2020 programme, as Coordination and Support Action. Led by Empirica, SEED aims to put under the spot innovative solutions that show the prominence of the silver economy and the importance of the quality of life for the ageing population.
The nine partners of the consortium are engaged to design, organise and launch an innovative award scheme to finally give to silver economy the highest visibility possible at EU level.
The Silver Economy Awards has a long term vision as, once the two years project ends, the European Covenant of Demographic Change will assure the sustainability of the award itself.

The launch of the Silver Economy Awards: the stand at the General Assembly
The 2017 edition of the General Assembly is going to be an important milestone of the promotion of the award. AER took the opportunity of this important event for the AER network getting to know the process to apply and to promote the participation to the award among the member regions. AER wants member regions to submit all the great experiences they are carrying on to show how regional authorities and stakeholders are committed and innovative in this field. To put member regions in the best position to prepare a successful application, AER provides new format: not the usual presentation, but a stand. The Silver Economy Awards stand will be accessible to all the participants of the General Assembly during the two days of the event. Agnese Pantaloni – Coordinator for European projects and private partnerships, helped by Elin Berglie – Coordinator for member relations, will give you all the information about the Silver Economy Awards.

The must-to-know of the Silver Economy Awards
AER members are used to awards. The Regional Innovation Award is an an opportunity that no region want to miss.  Following the 2016 Regional Innovation Award on circular economy, this time (2017) the Silver Economy Awards will replace the replaces the Regional Innovation Award.
Member regions will have even a broader visibility thank to the composition of the award stakeholders. Not only public authorities, but also non-for-profit and business organisations.
Save the dates: applications opens the 8th June and close the 15th Novembre 2017.
The award ceremony is planned in Brussels, in May 2018.

Check the website of the Silver Economy Awards and bring your questions to the stand!

If you are already looking for additional information, do not hesitate to contact the AER Secretariat!

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#ShineBright Brussels-Capital

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At the AER Spring Committee meetings in London, the region of Brussels-Capital (BE) was recognised in the #ShineBright session in recognition of its leading role in the 2016 Regional Innovation Award. The region of Brussels Capital last year gave a new impulse to the AER Regional Innovation Award which was focused on the circular economy. The awarding ceremony was combined with an information session on the Juncker Plan and the following day Brussels Capital hosted a very interactive and highly inspiring event “E-health: let’s find a common language” which also included a visit to the Microsoft Innovation Centre in Brussels. The feedback from SMEs and non profits was very positive on this event, which was also a very nice example of transversal cooperation between Committees. We would definitely like to replicate this type of events in the future.

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Noord-Brabant encourages bio-based economy – #ShineBright

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On the Occasion of the Regional Innovation Award on Circular Economy, ShineBright on the region of Noord-Brabant, in Netherlands that presented its project Green Chemistry Campus: Waste2Aromatics project by Biorizon.

The Green Chemistry Campus is a business accelerator for developing biobased chemical building blocks for the chemical industry. The Campus thus contributes to the realisation of a biobased economy.

One of the multiple programs and projects that are hosted by the Campus is Shared Research Center Biorizon. It’s aim is to develop technologies to produce aromatics from organic waste. Aromatics are one of the main feedstocks of the chemical industry, constituting 40% of the total market. Currently, these are exclusively produced from fossil sources, generating considerable CO2 emissions. Biobased aromatics reduce dependence on petroleum, lead to lower CO2 emissions, enable the transition to a circular economy and offer profitable and sustainable prospects for the chemical industry and its supply chain.

One of the multiple technology development projects in Biorizon focusses on turning waste, that would otherwise be incinerated or end up in landfill, into valuable raw materials for the chemical industry.  Biodegradable waste, nappies, compost and sieving material from wastewater will be converted to aromatic compounds, such as those used in the production of plastics. This innovative Waste2Aromatics project will bring the commercial production of cost-competitive bio-aromatics, along with the circular economy, significantly closer.  Biorizon is now working towards its ultimate goal: commercial production of bio-aromatics.

 

For more information check out the Green Chemistry Campus website!

The next Regional Innovation Award will take place in 2018 and will be dedicated to the Silver Economy in the context of AER SEED project.

Photo credits: Daria TaskArmy.nl @Unsplash https://unsplash.com/@taskarmy_nl

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AER series on investments: Episode 2

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Episode 2 of the AER series on investments focuses on the EFSI technical and advisory services available to regions for a sound and smooth implementation of the Juncker Plan.

Reaching the real economy

At the Opening Conference of AER Committees’ Plenaries in London, Florentine Hopmeier, Team Leader for the Investment Plan for Europe, European Commission, presented the latest features of the Investment Plan. She insisted on the EFSI technical and advisory services in particular. Regions had the opportunity to discuss and ask her questions about the challenges their facing. The European Fund for Strategic Investment is mobilising at least € 315bn for access to finance and strategic investments and is already supporting projects from areas such as research & innovation, digital economy, energy union, transport or the circular economy.

To facilitate the process of developing projects and matching with the investment opportunities, the EFSI has been equipped with the European Investment Advisory Hub (EIAH), for advisory services, technical assistance and providing expertise and with the European Investment Project Portal (EIPP), to improve transparency and to help matching investment opportunities proposed by project sponsors with investors’ interest. We will go through the main accessible services.

EFSI technical and advisory services for project development

To address the main financial and non-financial obstacles the European Investment Advisory Hub (EIAH) is providing support to the investment environment, during the project development and preparation. It is a partnership between the EIB and the European Commission and both contribute to its financing.

Project promoters, public authorities and private companies can ask for technical assistance and receive advices from high-level experts in order to get their project ready and suitable for investment opportunities. Here are the main programmes available:

  • JASPERS (Joint Assistance to Support Projects in European Regions), provides EU Member States with assistance during all stages of the project cycle, from development to capacity building and provides you an independent quality review. Here is the detailed description of the services, which are free of charge.
  • ELENA (European Local ENergy Assistance), provides investment preparation support related to energy efficiency and renewable energy across the 28 EU Member States. You can contact ELENA providing a brief description of your entity and the planned investment programme. The ELENA team will review the information and assess if the project meets the eligibility criteria and they will actively support you during the application process.
  • EPEC (European PPP Expertise Centre), supports the public sector’s ability to deliver better Public-Private Partnerships, through market intelligence, helping the PPP legal framework, the processes of preparing, approving and managing PPPs. This is mainly done through network activities, policy advice and project development support. Through the helpdesk facility they provide responses to immediate questions or find the relevant expertise needed.

The fi-compass  platform supports and enhance the use of EU funds. Searching by topic or by country gives access to guidance and manuals, providing practical know-how and learning tools on financial instruments. Through events and learning opportunities the platform enables the sharing of experiences in using the financial instruments and supports in the management.

InnovFin Advisory guides its clients on R&I projects in order to improve their structure and the access to finance. The services provided are many such as business modelling, strategic planning, eligibility criteria, governance, innovative financial instruments and they are provided independently of the EIB’s lending/investment decisions. You can submit you request writing a detailed description of the project, including business plan highlights and the expected budget commitment.

Bridging opportunities to investors

The European Investment Project Portal (EIPP) is a web portal where investors can search for project opportunities across Europe, choosing the size, sector and geographical position. Project promoters seeking for investors have only to register their proposal to the portal  and filling out a project application. The publication is free for public authorities.

In this way the project opportunities gain visibility and the investors can choose the solution which better fit their willings. The matching process between the interested sides becomes smoother and easier. This simple and user-friendly portal enables the transparency of the EU investment opportunities and at the same time makes them attractive to investors worldwide.

Useful link

Presentation on Investment Plan for Europe & EFSI 2.0

Related articles

AER series on investments: Episode 1

Committees’ Spring Plenary

Investing in the future: new perspectives for the regions

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Not your usual plenary meetings

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The AER Committees are the R&D lab of AER where experiences are shared, discussed, transferred to other regions, transformed, brought back in the network and adopted by yet other regions. However, the plenary meetings don’t always do justice to the wealth of ideas and initiatives regions are implementing or want to implement.

Just do it!

Spring is coming, and at AER, spring is Action plan preparation season.

On 22 March at the AER Spring Plenaries in London, members of the three thematic Committees will develop jointly their action plans. The main idea is the following: if you want to carry out something within the network, just do it! Any idea is welcome!

The actions members can implement via the committees are diverse: project development, organisation of a workshop, seminar, international conference, study visit, brokerage event, breakfast briefing, webinar, collection of good practices, elaboration of a political report based on the experience of regions etc. To have it included in the AER Action Plan, regions should share their idea at the relevant Committee plenary meeting, explain how they are going to implement their action and get support from other regions.

How this will be done

Participants will be seated around round tables, where each table will work around 1 topic (or set of related topics). They will share their own ideas & develop jointly actions on the different topics the Committees are working on:

Committee 1:

  • Cohesion policy: Task Force on Cohesion post 2020, contribution to the survey, dissemination, awareness raising, lobbying…
  • business SMEs & investments:
    -involvement of regions in the Silver Economy Awards (SEED project)
    -Follow-up on photonics: what should be done next?
    -E-health innovation, innovative SMEs: after the e-health event, what should now be done?
    -The different new models of economy: collaborative, social and solidarity savings, circular, post cop21
    – New forms of tourism economy: e-tourism: renting by private persons (Airbnb, …) solidarity tourism….
    – Smart regions
    – Other proposals
  • rural development: should something specific be developed this year? If so which region would like to take the lead? Lobbying with the European Countryside Movement, other proposals…
  • energy, climate change & the circular economy: suggestions are welcome! Dissemination of the report on energy security, collaboration with the R20, with other stakeholders, projects…
  • transport & mobility: good practice sharing on connectivity, the use of big data, sustainable transports…

Committee 2: Inclusion, social entrepreneurship & inclusive entrepreneurship, digital transformation in health, leadership for change management in health, integrated e-care systems, child healthcare & prevention, follow-up for the MOCHA project, cooperation within EIP-AHA, involvement in the Silver Economy Awards (SEED project)

Committee 3: Cultural heritage (developing a project), culture for inclusion of migrants (handbook), School dropouts (dissemination of the handbook), youth policies, mobility & youth employability, youth wellbeing & inclusion, youth participation, youth entrepreneurship

The 3 plenary meetings will be held separately and consecutively so that members are able to participate in all meetings, allowing for synergies & cooperation between Committees
Members of the AER Youth Regional Network, the Summer Academy and the Eurodyssey programmes are invited to join the process as well so that they can provide ideas on how their work could integrate and feed the work of the committees.

At the end of the session the different actions will be brought together on a flip-chart and organised according to the 3 main categories:

-Lobbying

-Projects

-Good practice exchange

This document will then be adopted as the Committee’s action plan.

Get involved!

In order to get involved AER members can

  • ask to join the AER Committees online communities in order to already share ideas with other members
  • identify the needs they have in their region which could be addressed via AER
  • define an activity they would like to carry out in the Committees, think about how other members could contribute and benefit from this activity, share the idea at the plenary meeting
  • support other members proposing joint actions via the online communities and at the plenary meetings.

 

photo credits: Jakob Owens @unsplash https://unsplash.com

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Call for expressions of interest for third call of Interreg Europe

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We are pleased to share with you that the next edition of the interregional cooperation forum, Europe, let’s cooperate, will be held on 22-23 March 2017 in Malta by Interreg Europe. The forum’s goal is to help prepare for the third call of Interreg Europe by facilitating the presentation and exchange of ideas, along with building new partnerships and completing existing ones. As such, it could be especially interesting for regional authorities to attend.

If you are a region in the European Union, you can apply to get co-financing from the European Regional Development Fund for working with other regions (also in the EU), learning from each other and solving common challenges under the following topics: Research & innovation, SME competitiveness, Low-carbon economy, and Environment and resource efficiency.

Research & innovation: aims to support sustainable growth that is increasingly related to the capacity of regional economies to innovate, transform and adapt to challenges. Through the Research and Innovation (R&I) theme, Interreg Europe fosters exchange of experience, capacity building and networking aimed at achieving the ‘smart growth’ envisioned in the Europe 2020 strategy and specifically in the EU Innovation Union flagship.

SME competitiveness: aims to improve policies that can boost entrepreneurship and support SMEs – in all stages of their life cycle – by helping them to grow and innovate and breaking down the barriers that prevent business growth. Through the SME Competitiveness theme, Interreg Europe fosters exchange of experience, capacity building and networking aimed at helping SMEs to grow in regional, national and international markets.

Low carbon economy: aims to reconcile the twin goals of carbon abatement and economic growth. Through the Low-carbon Economy theme, Interreg Europe fosters the exchange of experience and collection of best practices towards a low-carbon economy and how growth is achieved as a result of integrating all aspects of the economy around technologies and practices with low emissions.

Environment and resource efficiency: aims to better protect natural and cultural heritage and use Earth’s limited resources in a sustainable manner. Through the Environment and resource efficiency theme, Interreg Europe can help regions to find practices to answer regional challenges, such as preparing sustainable exploitation models for natural and cultural heritage assets, developing and integrating green infrastructure, encouraging SMEs to assess and address resource use issues, or, reducing waste volumes in SMEs and households.

If you are interested in working on Interreg Europe projects, please fill out this short survey by 20 March to help us help you network, build your consortia and develop a strong proposal.

For any additional information you might need, please feel free to get in touch with the AER Secretariat.

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INTERREG North West Europe – Fifth call for project proposals!

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On 14th February 2017, an Info Day on the INTERREG North-West Europe Programme was organised by the Brussels Capital Region, Brulocalis (the Association of the City and Municipalities of Brussels) and the Secretariat of the INTERREG North West Europe Programme, at the offices of the Region.

This Info Day, addressed to public and private actors – such as regional organisations, local authorities, associations, companies and universities, gave an overview of the funding possibilities offered by the INTERREG Europe North West Programme.

The INTERREG North West Europe Programme supports cooperation projects between actors based on eight countries: Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The activities that can be funded are exchanges of good practices, especially operational projects including pilot and innovative projects. It focuses on three main areas:

• Innovation (including social and entrepreneurial innovation);

• Reduction of carbon emissions (including mobility);

• Rational use of materials and natural resources (including circular economy).

The next deadline for applications is on 24th May 2017 (being the opening on 18th April 2017).

To begin with, a presentation concerning governance, budget, themes, objectives and results of the Programme was given. It was followed by suggestions and good practices for successful INTERREG projects. Then, two beneficiaries of the programme spoke about their experiences: Bruxelles Mobilité (Brussels Mobility) and the City of Liège. Finally, individual interviews were held during the afternoon for potential project promoters.

The next Project Ideas Lab will take place on 28th March in Luxembourg.

To get more information on the Info Day, presentations are available.

If you wish to submit a project proposal within this call and you need to network with partners, get in touch with AER Secretariat!

Please find below a report on the Info day written by Gianmartino Contu, and translated by Susannah Go.

 

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