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This is the tag for all posts relating to e-health.

Capacity-building for Integrated Care: From the Maturity Assessment to Improvement Planning

22 April, 2022 By Birgit Sandu

Interested in knowing more about how your region can strengthen its health and social care system and improve the design and delivery of healthcare services? Join online the Scottish Government and all the partners of the SCIROCCO Exchange project at its closing event ‘Capacity-building for Integrated Care: From the Maturity Assessment to Improvement Planning‘! The conference will be held on Thursday 5 May 2022 from 9 am to 4:30 pm CET online. 

Throughout the past years, SCIROCCO Exchange has contributed to foster capacity-building among regional healthcare authorities through tailored evidence-based support for the adoption and scale-up of integrated care. As a result of this process, the project has developed an effective tool that ensures and offers to regions, countries, and organisation effective knowledge management and improvement planning starting from a comprehensive understanding of the local context and maturity of the specific healthcare system – the Knowledge Management Hub. Specifically, the Hub is a community-driven platform supporting public authorities and organisation to:

  • Better understand the local readiness, needs and priorities for the adoption of integrated care informed by multi-stakeholders’ dialogues and consensus-building;
  • Access readily available evidence, knowledge and expertise on integrated care maximising their transferability and adaptation to the local context;
  • Co-design personalised knowledge transfer support for those willing to adopt or improve their existing system design for integrated care;
  • Co-design improvement planning that is tailored to the local context, maturity and aspirations of European countries, regions and organisations.

The Hub is currently available in 11 languages and has been used in nearly 100 organisations, regions, and countries in Europe and beyond. By joining the conference, you will learn about the practical experience of European countries, regions and organisations in applying and using SCIROCCO Exchange Knowledge Management Hub to assess the state of art in integrated care, co-design capacity-building and improvement planning activities.

 

EVENT AGENDA: https://scirocco.promotime.media/programme/

 
REGISTER HERE!

Digital Health, Wellbeing and Smart Specialisation

27 November, 2020 By Valeria Simonte

On November 18th, the AER Digital Health Network hosted the webinar Digital Health, Wellbeing, and Smart Specialisation.

The webinar was moderated by Donna Henderson, Chair of AER Digital Health Network. It showcased the experiences of two AER in supporting the development of digital solutions that underpin healthy living and foster collaboration between the public sector, universities, civil organisations, entrepreneurs and businesses.

Kenneth Johannesson, Vice President for Health Innovation of the AER Committee on Social Policy and Public Health opened the webinar by stating that new forms of innovation in digitalisation are necessary to offer more proactive, personal, patient well-being oriented and cost-effective care.

The benefits provided by the digitalisation of services, he explained, such as virtual visits, patient portals, electronic medical records, early disease detection, and better management of chronic conditions contribute to increasing patients’ safety and deployong a competitive healthcare system.

What to do?
Place-based approaches and International Collaboration!

Anders Olsson, Manager of Research and Innovation at the Värmland Department of Regional Growth (SE), noted how the model to foster Smart Specialisation Strategies and the collaboration with the University of Karlstad are instrumental for the regional’ innovation system development.

Existing regional assets are tested, managed, developed, and used to create valuable services for users and society:

  • Forest-based bio-economy specialisation derives from the region’s strong production of paper, packaging, and tissue.
  • The competitive position in testing and developing complex IT systems and the funds given for 10 years from the national innovation authority INNOVA are strong assets for the development of the Digitalisation of Welfare services
  • The high-quality steel industry present in the region allows the support of the Advanced Manufacturing & Complex Systems sector

Mr. Olson stressed the importance of the cooperation agreement with the Karlstad Academy for Smart Specialisation which transforms and renews the private and public sector in Värmland and strengthens research and education across the Universities.

In line with the Sustainable Development Goals, the new ambition is a well-developed and safe IT environment where the focus is on the human aspect, through testing services with real users, and designing new and better solutions.


Linda Murray, Director of Strategy at Scottish Enterprise then presented Scotland’s broad innovation ecosystem, which brings together government, universities, institutions, civil societies groups, innovation centres, and small-medium enterprises, as well as some more local actors through a joined-up approach.

The priority in light of the Brexit, she noted, is to foster even more international cross-agency collaborations and sustainable linkages between regional innovation ecosystems to develop an inclusive, fair, sustainable, and self-reliant economy and develop new innovative solutions. 

Scotland has contributed to the work on Smart Specialisation in Europe from an early stage and plays a lead role in 3 pilot projects of the Vanguard initiative – a platform where European partners can work to deliver shared aspirations for smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth.

Ms. Murray stressed the importance of continuing to influence an open environment because Regional innovation ecosystems can and do develop solutions for significant common societal challenges while improving international competitiveness.

How can be achieved an innovative Digital Health ecosystem?

Magnus Bårdén, Process Leader at the innovation cluster DigitalWell Arena, Region Värmland, Sweden, presented the process of how to establish a trusty ecosystem that creates innovative digital health services.

In this context, the Swedish innovation agency VINNOVA started the programme VINNVÄXT which brings together the public sector, stakeholders, and different service research centers, to establish a health arena by creating, developing, and testing innovative digital health services.

We have to test, before we invest!

Mr. Bårdén, explained the importance of using an approach based on user perspective to build competence for innovation on health and wellbeing focused on individual’s need. In this context, the health arena in Värmland concentrates the activities in a smaller community, by testing new, digital, and innovative ways of ensuring an equal, safe, and inclusive health ecosystem.

Let’s shift the balance of care!

Prof George Crooks, CEO, Digital Health and Care Innovation Centre, Glasgow, sets out the approach that refocuses the balance of care and mobilise innovative digital health services, especially in the post-pandemic.

The collaboration with the Scottish government has allowed identifying the key priorities where concentrates more efforts through an innovation process model based on a partnership of collaboration. In this context, joining the forces in co-designing new ways of developing, testing, and sharing innovative digital health services is instrumental to achieve the best outcomes.

Prof Crooks, therefore, presented the Demonstration & Simulation Environment as a best practice from the region, a physical platform where exchange, experience, learn and create new ways to support preventive, co-managed, and predictive care.

The concept behind is to allow citizens to be empowered to access services at their own term and be the point of data integration, to achieve it, solutions need to be flexible to develop digital tools focusing the balance of care to prevention, detection, and independent living.

Watch backClick here
AgendaClick here to download
Contact[email protected]




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Digital Health Network: Knowledge Exchange Webinar

17 November, 2020 By Valeria Simonte

The rapidly evolving digitalisation of health and wellbeing requires new knowledge and collaboration models to accelerate growth globally. Small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) need to increase their business development expertise and capabilities in the field of digital health. Health care providers need to speed up their adoption of digital innovations and assess the impact of digital solutions on healthcare processes. New collaborative action models at the European level will speed up this development and knowledge building.

Digital Health, Wellbeing and Smart Specialisation

The AER Digital Health Network is pleased to invite you to the webinar Digital Health, Wellbeing and Smart Specialisation organised on 18 November 2020, 10.00 – 11.30 CET.

The objective of this webinar is to learn and exchange experiences of two AER regions in supporting the development of digital solutions that underpin healthy living and foster collaboration between the public sector, universities, civil organisations, entrepreneurs and business.

It will be a practical opportunity to discuss how we intend to achieve business growth and efficiency in public health services. how digital health innovation fits with our regions’ smart specialisation strategies.

Webinar agenda

10.00-10.05Welcome and introductions
Kenneth Johannesson, AER Committee on Social Policy and Public Health, Vice President for Health Innovation / Councillor Region Värmland,

Donna Henderson, Chair of AER Digital Health Network / Head of International Engagement, TEC & Digital Healthcare Innovation, Scottish Government
10.05-10.35Setting the Scene – Smart Specialisation in Värmland and Scotland
Anders Olsson, Manager of Research and Innovation,  Värmland Dept of Regional Growth/
scotland govment
10.35-11.15Creating an ecosystem for digital health and wellness –
Magnus Bårdén, Process Leader, DigitalWell Arena, (Region Värmland, Sweden)
Prof George Crooks, Chief Executive, Digital Health and Care Institute (Scotland, UK)
11.15-11.30Q&A and discussion about common approaches, opportunities for collaboration, etc
Register here!
Agenda
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DigiFest2020: the health innovation festival you shouldn’t miss!

13 November, 2020 By Valeria Simonte

The AER Digital Health Network is pleased to invite you to Digital Health & Care Event – DigiFest2020, Scotland’s largest annual digital health and care event is back and for the first time will be delivered virtually!

What’s the Festival about?

Digital health and care solutions have had a year of rapid scale-up and development. Taking time to reflect and learn about how digital solutions in Scotland and internationally have grown and been adopted is the focus of this year’s DigiFest.   

2020 has been a challenging year for everyone and for staff working to innovate and deliver person-centred services. Digital tools, services and approaches have had a higher profile than ever before and are recognised as making a key contribution to delivering health and care services going forward. 

DigiFest2020 will be an opportunity to reflect on our experiences and explore key developments with contributions from Scotland, the wider UK, and international colleagues.  

Details

Date1-11 December 2020
VenueVirtual event via Hopin 
CostFree of charge
HandoutProgramme key themes
Contact[email protected]
Register here!

Your registration will be valid for the whole duration of the festival and you can attend any sessions you wish once the event is live. When you register, you will be prompted to update your profile. This will help you get the most out of the interactive experience. If you’d like to know more about how to attend a virtual event on Hopin, please watch this short tutorial (2 minutes). 

#DigiCare4Scot
@DigiCare4Scot 
@TECScotland 

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Committee 1 Annual Report June 2019 – November 2020

3 November, 2020 By Johanna Pacevicius

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 implemented within Committee 1 between the 2019 General Assembly in Larnaka (CY) and the 2020 online General Assembly.

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic the AER Executive Board decided to prolong the validity of the AER Action Plan in order to allow the continuation of knowledge sharing between regions in a structured way.

AER had to define ways to maintain planned activities and offer new opportunities for mutual learning in a radically different and uncertain context, where face-to-face meetings are not possible and all regional stakeholders are focused on fighting the pandemic.

Activities are organised in 3 categories:

  • Projects
  • Good practice sharing
  • Advocacy/ Lobbying

Projects

In terms of knowledge sharing, the idea with projects is to provide a framework, where regions can go deeper in mutual learning and good practices exchange, while being co-financed by the EU. AER always negotiates its implication in projects in a way that will benefit all AER members. In the current situation where face to face events are cancelled, projects offer unparalleled opportunities for online knowledge and experience exchange.

SKILLNET

SKILLNET is a project co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme aimed at improving Vocational Education and Training (VET) systems.

AER joined the SKILLNET project this Spring while most of Europe was in lockdown, specifically because of the opportunities the project is offering for online activities relevant to both Committee 1 and Committee 3. Indeed the project is organising a high number of webinars and offering online platforms for the exchange of knowledge. In order to make sure project activities provide value to members, the topics of SKILLNET webinars are chosen based on the AER Action Plan and further specified together with members which have expressed needs in the process of the definition of workprogrammes at Committee meetings

SKILLNET has launched a series of 18 webinars on EU funding opportunities. Each webinar is open to all interested parties and focuses on different areas of intervention upon which relevant partnerships can be launched.

As a follow-up of each SKILLNET webinar, a Partnerships in Focus bulletin is circulated and stored in the Partnerships in Focus hub on the AER website.

Additionally, the project offers the opportunity for regional stakeholders working on Vocational Education and Training to connect via the Peer Learning Clubs. Stakeholders learn from each other, and get access to relevant information and experts to be applied to develop future partnerships within EU calls.

  • AER members interested in sharing their experience in a webinar should contact AER Coordinator for Policy & Knowledge Transfer Johanna Pacevicius

Together for Cohesion: let’s rEUnite! finished

“Together for Cohesion: let’s rEUnite!” is a project submitted under a call launched by DG REGIO. This project raised awareness on the importance of programmes, projects, and services funded by the cohesion policy funds. It also encouraged the participation of citizens and stakeholders to become active players in the dialogue on cohesion policy. AER coordinated the project and collected experiences on cohesion policy together with regions.

This project was officially launched during the 2019 General Assembly in Larnaca (CY). Six AER member regions were partners in this project: Varazdin (HR), Csongrád (HU), Trentino (IT), Timis and Alba (RO), and Catalonia (ES). The project also had an information stall dedicated to the Together for Cohesion project at 2019 Autumn Committee Plenaries.

Partner regions have organized several local events to raise awareness on Cohesion policy among EU citizens:

The first event of Together for Cohesion held, the “Apulum Agraria” Fair in Alba (RO) held from 20-22nd September 2019, promoting agriculture, the economy of Alba and local farmers and members of professional associations.

The project was also represented at the 37th session of the Local and Regional Authorities Congress, led by the Council of Europe between the 28-31st October 2019.

The project contributed to the organisation of a Career management fair in Alba (RO), which raised awareness on the use and benefits of the EU cohesion policy and funds – with a special focus on how to find employment opportunities and how to receive the appropriate career guidance.

The Forum for Mayors, on the 11th of December, in Szeged, Hungary, by the General Assembly of Csongrand County was an opportunity to learn more about why cohesion policy and funds are crucial for the social and economic development of the cities and towns led by the Mayors taking part in the Csongrad Forum

Regions have also prepared several trainings focused on developing communication skills and understanding of European cohesion policies. The first training, on Together4Cohesion: how to use social media to better communicate the EU cohesion policy took place on the 23rd of January, in Trentino, Italy.

In Varaždin (HR), the annual Gala Ball of Varaždin County on 24 January 2020 was an opportunity to promote the project. On 13 February 2020, Varaždin also hosted an event in the context of the Together4Cohesion Project called “ESI Funds beyond 2020”. On 5 March a third event will be organised, with a contribution by South Ostrobothnia on entrepreneurship education. It is connected with Cohesion Policy since schools will also present how they develop new curricula with the help of EU funds. The recommendations will be sent to AER and be at disposal for all interested members

More events organised in the context of the project can be found on the Together4Cohesion website

CUBES: Cultural Administration Boosting with the Engagement of Sustainability for Local Communities ongoing

The CUBES project was developed to create a bridge between cultural heritage, administrative bodies, and digitalization. The project will:

  • raise awareness
  • emphasizing the importance of culture
  • increase competitiveness and economic growth.

Target: local communities, public authorities, NGOs and CSOs. The kick-off of the CUBES project took place on the 25th of October 2019 in Lisbon, the project will end in April 2020

The experience of the CUBES project on grassroots approaches for sustainable regional development was supposed to inform the discussions at the conference “Territorial Approaches to Regional Development” in Covasna on 11 March 2020. As the plenaries were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, an article was written on Culture, a pillar of sustainable regional development by the Lead partner of the CUBES project.

As the project is progressing, the Secretariat is exploring how to use the knowledge and outputs created in the project to benefit members in Committee 3.

Includ-EU: Regional and local expertise, exchange and engagement for enhanced social cohesion in Europe ongoing

AER and the International Organisation for Migration, together with several regional and local authorities have joined forces in the Includ-EU project. This project will improve transnational knowledge and experience sharing, cooperation and partnerships to build a more inclusive and cohesive Europe.

AER will organise 5 workshops to facilitate knowledge and experience sharing as well as to support the implementation of pilot activities around the 5 key priorities of the EU action plan: post-arrival support, education, labour market integration, access to services, citizen participation & inclusion.

In the context of the pandemic, AER anticipated the organisation of the webinars, which were normally planned for later. A first webinar was organised in collaboration with the Intercultural Regions Network, The Council of Europe and the International Organisation for Migration, to share experiences on access to services, especially health services.

The second webinar will take place on 10 November and will be focused on Labour Market Inclusion, with good practices from Greece and the Netherlands and a presentation by the European Commission on upcoming changes in funding for activities on integration.

E-health in rural areas: finished

Members discussed the possibility to develop a pan-AER regional e-health rural project based on innovation and digitalisation. This idea was not followed up by the development of a project.

As the topic is still relevant for many AER members, members were invited to participate in a webinar on integrated care in remote and rural areas, an activity organised in the context of the SCIROCCO Exchange project (see above)

Project development on farming, rural planning, and infrastructure: planned

Members of the AER working group on rural development would like to develop a project to compare and incorporate good practices in farming (cattle, dairy) and infrastructure.

  • Regions interested in developing such a project should share their idea during the development of the 2020-2021 work programme on 12 March in order to find regions who want to cooperate on this and start developing this initiative.

Project on rural development: planned

Members of the AER working group on rural development would like to develop a project on how to invest and develop basic infrastructure in rural areas. For example, water, waste, gas, roads, education, health care.

  • Regions interested in developing such a project should share their idea during the development of the 2020-2021 work programme on 12 March in order to find regions who want to cooperate on this and start developing this initiative.

Good Practice Exchange

2019 AER Autumn Committee Plenaries – Podčetrtek (SI): finished

The annual Autumn Committee Plenaries of the Assembly of European Regions took place on September 24-26 2019, in Podčetrtek, Slovenia.

The topic of the thematic event of the plenaries was Cohesion & Contrasted Regional Realities. The thematic event consisted of discussions with perspectives from all of Europe, with a special focus on Ireland and Slovenia. Despite the varying experiences and realities in the regions represented, it was agreed that a holistic approach to regional development is necessary

The aim was to share experiences, especially from regions with considerable disparities within their territories to learn about different strategies and practices as well as enablers and barriers to more cohesive regional development.

2020 AER Spring Committee Plenaries – Covasna: cancelled

The main focus of the AER 2020 Spring Committee Plenaries in Covasna County (RO) between 10-12 March was to be territorial approaches. Urban-rural divides within regions were going to be in the spotlight.

While the Autumn 2019 plenaries “Territorial cohesion and Contrasted Realities” looked at how regions address territorial differences, this spring’s plenary should have been about taking stock of the situation in Europe. How to bridge the gap between theories on place-based policies and the actual implementation of effective and participative policies?

Members should have in particular, discussed the state of play of smart specialization strategies in Europe, health innovation and wellbeing, as well as brain drain vs brain gain.

In the context of the cancellation of face to face activities, AER tried to ensure that the content, which would normally have been shared at the plenaries, was still shared via the AER website. A series of articles was therefore published, featuring the speakers on the programme of the Covasna events, both from AER regions and from external experts with examples challenges and good practices: https://aer.eu/tag/event-2020-spring-plenaries/

While reading articles about a region don’t replace actually visiting it, special visibility was given to Covasna and the good practices to be presented on the spot on the AER website.

Committee 1 Vice President for Rural development, Energy and Environment, Nicola Campitelli, Abruzzo (IT) shared the Abruzzo governance for rural areas and their vision for the post-COVID-19 recovery

The topic of smart specialisation for inclusion and wellbeing will be further developed in the context of the webinar of the Digital Health network on 18 November 2020

Organisation of the Regional Business Forum

The Regional Business Forum (RBF) is an annual international forum to exchange on support for SMEs, promote business and commerce, incentive the possibility to collaborate and share best practices between regions. The event is organised by AER Vice-President for Regional Economic Developmen Damir Zobenica.

This 3rd edition will be a hybrid-event hosted in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina on 10 November. Following the success of last year’s forum, this year’s Regional Business Forum will focus on three main sectors: Agriculture & Food; the Construction Industry; ICT and Creative industries.

Through B2B (business-to-business) meetings, participants will get the chance to find partners according to their own interests and objectives

Interested candidates can register online for the B2B matchmaking, facilitated by the European Enterprise Network matchmaking tool.

Supporting members to use the TAIEX-Environmental Implementation Review: ongoing

The AER Secretariat disseminated information about the TAIEX-EIR peer to peer learning program and is supporting members to use this program to gain or provide knowledge on environmental policies on topics as diverse as air quality, waste management, water management, the circular economy. This program which is relatively easy and quick to access is a good complement to activities carried out within AER and an opportunity to access support from the Commission to carry out exchanges with other regions.

Gelderland (NL) and the European Commission organized a TAIEX-EIR workshop on “Maintaining and Enhancing Ecosystem Services in Urban Regions” on 4 and 5 July 2019.

In the context of the joint action to protect Romanian forests, the AER Secretariat has been in touch with DG Environment, to identify ways to use the TAIEX-EIR program. This should help improve legislation and practices for the protection of primary forests and biodiversity in Romania.

Mutual learning event on economy 4.0: Finished

On 4 December 2019, AER, the Brussels Capital Region and the Government of Catalonia organized a mutual learning event on economy 4.0. Economy 4.0 describes a new era of productive, industrial and economic development characterized by the implementation of big-scale automatization, artificial intelligence (AI) robotic instruments, computational big data analytics software, and high tech infrastructure. It aims to gather experiences from all three AER Committees and regions who are welcomed to share inputs and regional examples.
The report on the event can be found here.

Workshop ” connectivity vs sustainability?”: finished

On the occasion of the Autumn plenary meeting in Podčetrtek (SI), the working group on transports & mobility chaired by Martin Tollén organised a workshop on connectivity and sustainability. Speakers featured Matej Gojčič from the Regional Development Agency of the Ljubljana Urban Region and Sergi Alegre, President of the Airport Regions Conference.

New mobility services: ongoing

Good practices exchange on electric cars and infrastructure both at AER meetings and in events of the European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities and Communities (EIP-SCC), where Östergötland (SE) is representing AER.

Workshop on sustainable transport and mobility: cancelled

AER member regions Gelderland (NL) and Östergötland (SE) planned a workshop on sustainable transport and mobility during the European Sustainability Energy Week on Clean Energy from 18-20 June 2019 in the House of Dutch Provinces in Brussels.

Lowering emissions in transport: cancelled

AER member region Norrbotten (SE) would like to organize good practice exchange on identifying how to lower emissions in transports within the Working group on Energy and Climate Change.

Waste collection in rural areas: planned

Within the working group on rural development, members would like to have an exchange of good practices on how to raise awareness of recycling and waste collection in rural areas.
This topic could be addressed either in the context of a meeting of the working group on rural development or in separate events, such as Breakfast seminars in Brussels.

Webinar on agricultural cooperatives for more sustainable and resilient supply chains: cancelled

In the context of the changes brought by the COVID-19 pandemic and the cancellation of face to face meetings, the Chair of the Working Group on rural development Olimpia Neagoe, Dolj (RO) initiated the organisation of a webinar on this topic made highly relevant in the context of lockdowns in Europe. However due to regional elections in Romania, this activity was cancelled.

AER Delegation at Smart City Expo World Congress: finished

AER took part in SCEWC19. The 3-day conference confirmed its role as the world’s greatest meeting point for cities and companies sharing the same goals as regards the future of cities. Different stakeholders gathered together in Barcelona and explored new innovative ways to make cities inclusive, efficient and sustainable.

Small hydropower plants: cancelled

Exchange of good practice on noise reduction with (small) hydro powerplants (finding a suitable location also from an environmental point of view). Lobbying and advocacy with NGOs and governments about the environmental point of view, partnership, and exchange of good practice. National stimulations for developing projects on national tourism strategy on a local and regional level. Members didn’t express interest about this topic anymore.

Creation of a working group on how to attract more workforce: planned

Several regions in AER have expressed the need to exchange experiences on how to attract more workforce to regions that are largely rural.
This action could be developed within the context of the working group on business and SMEs.

The 2020 Spring plenaries in Covasna would have specifically look at territorial approaches and the ways in which regions address challenges linked to regional development, innovation and rurality. Instead content was shared via the AER website and the article by Committee 3 President on a Regional Approach to reduce Brain Drain provides a number of proposals in that respect. Hrvoje Kovač, Chair of the Subcommittee on Youth also prepared a very clear video on the topic.

Effective legislative frameworks: cancelled

Tulcea would like to collaborate with other regions to elaborate good legislative frameworks for tourism, business, industry, research. The goal would be a simplification of administration and the reduction of red tape. No activity was developed on this topic, however, the topic of cutting red tape is the kind of topics which will be addressed by the AER civil servants exchange programme as the programme will aim at facilitating experience exchange on efficient public administrations.

Energy efficiency: planned

Good practice sharing on stimulating energy efficiency, for instance, competition between organizations and OECD. Indicators on energy efficiency and EC energy efficiency directive.

Advocacy/Lobbying

Building a Network of Intercultural Regions: ongoing

The Bureau Task Force on migration organized a Breakfast debate on the occasion of the General Assembly in Larnaca to examine the possibility of creating an intercultural regions programme, similar to the existing Council of Europe Intercultural Cities Programme. The network will support regions for the design and implementation of diversity and inclusion strategies. The Intercultural Regions Network was launched on 5th November 2019. The process to develop this network requires intense dialogue with institutions.

AER and the Council of Europe are now planning activities for the coming months, a first meeting was organised in 16 March. The Intercultural Regions Network is closely involved in activities carried out in the context of the Includ-EU project (see above)

Mobility: engagement in the EIP-SCC: ongoing

AER is involved in the European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities and Communities (EIP-SCC). This framework is an opportunity for strategic intelligence, state of the art information, partnership building and influence.

Protection of Romanian forests: finished

Primary forests are rare in Europe and the ones in Romania are threatened by excessive logging. AER members, therefore, agreed at the Committee 1 Spring plenary meeting in Örebro, to support Romanian regions to protect this invaluable natural heritage.
At the AER Autumn Committee Plenaries on 26 September, the AER Working Group on Rural Development hosted a Breakfast Debate on European Biodiversity: Protecting Primary Forests. AER was pleased to be joined by some external experts on this topic, among them, Shiroma Sathyapala, Forestry Officer, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia

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.

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 & Institutional Relations Vania Freitas

-Task Force on Food Security

-Task Force on Cohesion Policy

-Task Force on Digitalisation

-Task Force on Migration

-Task Force on Sustainable Development Goals

The Committees’ work programmes and the AER action Plan

The development of the Action Plan is a collective process to enable all participants to specify needs and decide to initiate activities that add value to 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 Committee’s work programmes. The work programmes are developed in spring each year and the 2019/2020 work programme is available here.

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 the year, these are then approved by the Executive Board and included in the Committee’s work programmes and the AER action plan. The action plan for 2019/2020 is available here.

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Committee 2 Annual Report June 2019 – November 2020

3 November, 2020 By Johanna Pacevicius

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 implemented within Committee 2 between the 2019 General Assembly in Larnaka (CY) and the 2020 online General Assembly.

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic the AER Executive Board decided to prolong the validity of the AER Action Plan in order to allow the continuation of knowledge sharing between regions in a structured way.

AER had to define ways to maintain planned activities and offer new opportunities for mutual learning in a radically different and uncertain context, where face-to-face meetings are not possible and all regional stakeholders are focused on fighting the pandemic.

Activities are organised in 3 categories:

  • Projects
  • Good practice sharing
  • Advocacy/ Lobbying

Projects

In terms of knowledge sharing, the idea with projects is to provide a framework, where regions can go deeper in mutual learning and good practices exchange, while being co-financed by the EU. AER always negotiates its implication in projects in a way that will benefit all AER members. In the current situation where face to face events are cancelled, projects offer unparalleled opportunities for online knowledge and experience exchange.

SCIROCCO Exchange project – Personalised knowledge transfer and access to tailored evidence-based assets on integrated care: ongoing

The SCIROCCO Exchange project, under the EU Health Programme, is based on the SCIROCCO project, which resulted in the development of an online self-assessment tool for integrated care. The project runs from January 2019 to August 2021. It supports regions, mainly health and social care authorities for the adoption and the scaling-up of integrated care. The Maturity Model, 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 strength and also gaps in their capability managing the many activities needed in order to deliver integrated care.

The lead partner is the Scottish Government. The consortium is composed of 14 organizations.

AER is leading the Working Package on knowledge transfer which started in autumn 2019, helping the regions in preparing the local environment for implementation and scaling-up integrated care.

The Institute of Social and Behavioural Medicine of Pavol Jozef Safarik University in Kosice in Slovakia, one of SCIROCCO Exchange consortium partners, organized a local conference “Integrated care for people with chronic diseases” on 15 May 2019. The conference was organized as part of the European Public Health Week “Care4Care”. The objective of the conference was to raise awareness about the importance of integrated health and social care for people suffering from multiple chronic conditions. The conference was particularly useful to review the current progress with the adoption of integrated and long-term care in Slovakia and highlight the existing challenges such as change of culture, stakeholder engagement or political commitment

The project was presented at the Smart City Expo, which was held between 19 to 21st November 2019.
The project was also represented in the European Parliament at a debate, “EU 2019-2024: Health Champions Wanted”, held on 9 October 2019.

The SCIROCCO Exchange provides the opportunity to detail the methodologies and mutual learning approaches, which have developed by AER in over 3 decades of interregional cooperation.

The SCIROCCO Exchange also allows reaching some of the objectives set within the AER Digital Health Network.

Together for Cohesion: let’s rEUnite! finished

“Together for Cohesion: let’s rEUnite!” is a project submitted under a call launched by DG REGIO. This project raised awareness on the importance of programmes, projects, and services funded by the cohesion policy funds. It also encouraged the participation of citizens and stakeholders to become active players in the dialogue on cohesion policy. AER coordinated the project and collected experiences on cohesion policy together with regions.

This project was officially launched during the 2019 General Assembly in Larnaca (CY). Six AER member regions were partners in this project: Varazdin (HR), Csongrád (HU), Trentino (IT), Timis and Alba (RO), and Catalonia (ES). The project also had an information stall dedicated to the Together for Cohesion project at 2019 Autumn Committee Plenaries.

Partner regions have organized several local events to raise awareness on Cohesion policy among EU citizens:

The first event of Together for Cohesion held, the “Apulum Agraria” Fair in Alba (RO) held from 20-22nd September 2019, promoting agriculture, the economy of Alba and local farmers and members of professional associations.

The project was also represented at the 37th session of the Local and Regional Authorities Congress, led by the Council of Europe between the 28-31st October 2019.

The project contributed to the organisation of a Career management fair in Alba (RO), which raised awareness on the use and benefits of the EU cohesion policy and funds – with a special focus on how to find employment opportunities and how to receive the appropriate career guidance.

The Forum for Mayors, on the 11th of December, in Szeged, Hungary, by the General Assembly of Csongrand County was an opportunity to learn more about why cohesion policy and funds are crucial for the social and economic development of the cities and towns led by the Mayors taking part in the Csongrad Forum

Regions have also prepared several trainings focused on developing communication skills and understanding of European cohesion policies. The first training, on Together4Cohesion: how to use social media to better communicate the EU cohesion policy took place on the 23rd of January, in Trentino, Italy.

In Varaždin (HR), the annual Gala Ball of Varaždin County on 24 January 2020 was an opportunity to promote the project. On 13 February 2020, Varaždin also hosted an event in the context of the Together4Cohesion Project called “ESI Funds beyond 2020”. On 5 March a third event will be organised, with a contribution by South Ostrobothnia on entrepreneurship education. It is connected with Cohesion Policy since schools will also present how they develop new curricula with the help of EU funds. The recommendations will be sent to AER and be at disposal for all interested members

More events organised in the context of the project can be found on the Together4Cohesion website

AMiD project for the inclusion of migrants with disabilities: finished

This project was led by the European Association of Service Providers for Persons with Disabilities and aimed to improve the access to services for migrants with disabilities. AER was a partner and Valencia, Timis and Värmland were all members of the Advisory Board. The AMiD project provided opportunities for experience sharing and capacity building in this area for all AER members.

During the 2019 Summer Academy in Novi Sad, Vojvodina (RS), a workshop on AMiD was organized. Participants were invited to reflect on the challenges that migrants with disabilities face on a daily basis.

The final conference of the AMiD project was held on 5th November 2019 in Brussels. After a wave of presentations and questions, participants split into three groups to discuss and agree on recommendations. They concluded:

  • Improving capacity for CSOs – Civil Society Organisations working in the sector.
  • To set and spread the multi-stakeholder approach to inclusion.
  • Engagement to raise the topic of migrants with disabilities in the next Disability Strategy 2020-2030

Includ-EU: Regional and local expertise, exchange and engagement for enhanced social cohesion in Europe ongoing

AER and the International Organisation for Migration, together with several regional and local authorities have joined forces in the Includ-EU project. This project will improve transnational knowledge and experience sharing, cooperation and partnerships to build a more inclusive and cohesive Europe.

AER will organise 5 workshops to facilitate knowledge and experience sharing as well as to support the implementation of pilot activities around the 5 key priorities of the EU action plan: post-arrival support, education, labour market integration, access to services, citizen participation & inclusion.

In the context of the pandemic, AER anticipated the organisation of the webinars, which were normally planned for later. A first webinar was organised in collaboration with the Intercultural Regions Network, The Council of Europe and the International Organisation for Migration, to share experiences on access to services, especially health services.

The second webinar will take place on 10 November and will be focused on Labour Market Inclusion, with good practices from Greece and the Netherlands and a presentation by the European Commission on upcoming changes in funding for activities on integration.

E-health in rural areas: finished

Members discussed the possibility to develop a pan-AER regional e-health rural project based on innovation and digitalisation. This idea was not followed up by the development of a project.

As the topic is still relevant for many AER members, members were invited to participate in a webinar on integrated care in remote and rural areas, an activity organised in the context of the SCIROCCO Exchange project (see above)

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Good Practice Exchange

Autumn Committee Plenaries – Podčetrtek (SI): finished

The annual Autumn Committee Plenaries of the Assembly of European Regions took place on September 24-26 2019, in Podčetrtek, Slovenia.

The topic of the thematic event of the plenaries was Cohesion & Contrasted Regional Realities, and the aim was to identify strategies and actions to boost regional development and innovation in the face of contrasting realities.

2020 Spring Committee Plenaries – Covasna (RO): cancelled

The main focus of the AER 2020 Spring Committee Plenaries in Covasna County (RO) between 10-12 March was to be territorial approaches. Urban-rural divides within regions were going to be in the spotlight.

While the Autumn 2019 plenaries “Territorial cohesion and Contrasted Realities” looked at how regions address territorial differences, this spring’s plenary should have been about taking stock of the situation in Europe. How to bridge the gap between theories on place-based policies and the actual implementation of effective and participative policies?

Members should have discussed the state of play of smart specialization strategies in Europe, health innovation and wellbeing, as well as brain drain vs brain gain.

In the context of the cancellation of face to face activities, AER tried to ensure that the content, which would normally have been shared at the plenaries, was still shared via the AER website. A series of articles was therefore published, featuring the speakers on the programme of the Covasna events, both from AER regions and from external experts with examples challenges and good practices: https://aer.eu/tag/event-2020-spring-plenaries/

While reading articles about a region don’t replace actually visiting it, special visibility was given to Covasna and the good practices to be presented on the spot on the AER website.

The topic of wellbeing and smart specialisation was addressed in two articles on the natural assets in Covasna (RO) and the smart specialisation strategy of Värmland (SE).

The topic of smart specialisation for inclusion and wellbeing will be further developed in the context of the webinar of the Digital Health network on 18 November 2020

Mutual learning event on economy 4.0: finished

On 4 December 2019, AER, the Brussels Capital Region and the Government of Catalonia organized a mutual learning event on economy 4.0. Economy 4.0 describes a new era of productive, industrial and economic development characterized by the implementation of big-scale automatization, artificial intelligence (AI) robotic instruments, computational big data analytics software, and high tech infrastructure. It aims to gather experiences from all three AER Committees and regions who are welcomed to share inputs and regional examples.
The report on the event can be found here.

Workshop of the AER e-health network (now known as “Digital Health Network”): finished

The AER e-health network has achieved the objectives it had set at its creation. It is time now to revamp the network, explore synergies with other initiatives and fellow networks around Europe. On the occasion of the Autumn Committee Plenaries the AER e-health network under the leadership of Donna Henderson, Scotland (GB), planned to hold a workshop to reinvent its way of working and set new goals.

While a discussion did take place on this occasion, only few members were able to attend, because of the exceptional circumstances in Slovenia, were Adria Airlines stopped activities during the AER plenaries. The group decided to change the name to “Digital Health network” and to cooperate more with other networks as well as with the European Commission. The SCIROCCO Exchange project is instrumental in this respect, as it positions AER on a very important topic.

Increasing collaboration on Digital Health between European Regions: ongoing

The Digital Health Network provides a platform for AER regions to share their experiences, knowledge, and resources that support the effective deployment of digital health solutions within their regional healthcare systems. The digital transformation of health and care requires further action in these areas:

  • citizen’s secure access to and sharing of health data across borders;
  • better data to advance research, disease prevention and personalised health and care;
  • digital tools for citizen empowerment and person-centred care.

 The Digital Health Network will:

  • Provide knowledge exchange opportunities for AER regions working to implement digital health.
  • Promote relevant policies to advance the implementation of digital health for all citizens.
  • Share good practices in the use of digital health in response to key health and care challenges for regions. 
  • Recognise the diversity of regions and identify key lessons from their different approaches to digital health.
  • Develop our shared understanding of how digital health can support increased citizen participation in and self-management of their own health and wellbeing.

Identify key events, in which members of the Digital Health Network will participate, to promote and raise awareness of the Network’s activities.

The activities planned for the Network in 2020 – 2021 are outlined in the roadmap below:

It is possible to join the Digital Health Network by filling this (

Webinar on Digital Health, Wellbeing and Smart Specialisation: ongoing

The webinar is organised by the Digital Health Network and will present the experiences of two AER regions on 18 November on :

  • supporting the development of digital solutions that support healthy living.
  • fostering collaboration between the public sector, universities; civil organisations, entrepreneurs, and businesses.
  • how we intend to achieve business growth and efficiency in public health services.
  • how digital health innovation fits with our regions’ smart specialisation strategies.

Breakfast seminar on innovation in healthcare design: finished

Värmland (SE), Scotland (GB) and AER organized a Breakfast Seminar on health innovation on 10 September 2019 in Brussels. The event looked at Health Innovation and User-centric Design and Digital Innovation in health and care. Kenneth Johannesson, Committee 2 Vice President for Health Innovation and Donna Henderson, Chair of AER eHealth Network, opened the event and provided background to it.

Sharing experiences on integrated care at Smart City Expo World Congress: finished

AER facilitated a 1h discussion in the Agora of Smart City Expo World Congress on the topic of mutual learning & international cooperation for the deployment of integrated care systems in Europe.

Through this session, attendees explored the regional perspective of integrated care systems and the related challenges and benefits, high-level speakers showcased the latest solutions from West Slovenia, Catalonia and Scotland. At the same time, it was presented the Scirocco Exchange Project, a pillar project for AER, which embodies our values as it aims to transfer good practices in integrated care across European regions.

AER Delegation at Smart City Expo World Congress: finished

AER took part in SCEWC19. The 3-day conference confirmed its role as the world’s greatest meeting point for cities and companies sharing the same goals as regards the future of cities. Different stakeholders gathered together in Barcelona and explored new innovative ways to make cities inclusive, efficient and sustainable.

All member regions and partners interested in attending the next iteration of SCEWC 2020 as speakers can submit an application here

Elderly care homes in rural areas: planned

Exchange experiences and identify solutions around the issue of isolated elderly people in rural areas

  • Regions interested in working on this topic should share their idea with the Secretariat in order to start developing this initiative.

Advocacy/Lobbying

Building a Network of Intercultural Regions: ongoing

The Bureau Task Force on migration organized a Breakfast debate on the occasion of the General Assembly in Larnaca to examine the possibility of creating an intercultural regions programme, similar to the existing Council of Europe Intercultural Cities Programme. The network will support regions for the design and implementation of diversity and inclusion strategies. The Intercultural Regions Network was launched on 5th November 2019.

The process to develop this network requires intense dialogue with institutions.

AER and the Council of Europe are now planning activities for the coming months, a first meeting is foreseen on 16 March. This meeting will be followed by a public presentation of the Network, and a training on tactics and strategies for effective intercultural messaging by Nigel Smith, media and communication expert at the Council of Europe. Regions interested to participate in the public meeting and the training should contact Gisela Guari Cañada

Engagement in the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP-AHA)

AER is a member of the B3 Group for integrated care in the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing. Its contribution to the work is done via the SCIROCCO Exchange project and the AER Digital health network.

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 the existing legal framework and identify relevant actions, target institutions. The AER Secretariat will also organize Breakfast Briefings to help regions organize their advocacy activities.

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 & Institutional Relations Gisela Guari Cañada

-Task Force on Food Security

-Task Force on Cohesion Policy

-Task Force on Digitalisation

-Task Force on Migration

-Task Force on Sustainable Development Goals

The Committees’ work programmes and the AER action Plan

The development of the Action Plan is a collective process to enable all participants to specify needs and decide to initiate activities that add value to 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 Committee’s work programmes. The work programmes are developed in spring each year and the 2019/2020 work programme is available here.

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 the year, these are then approved by the Executive Board and included in the Committee’s work programmes and the AER action plan. The action plan for 2019/2020 is available here.

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Digital Health, Wellbeing and Smart Specialisation

27 October, 2020 By Valeria Simonte

The AER Digital Health Network is pleased to invite you to a webinar on

“Digital Health, Wellbeing and Smart Specialisation”

In partnership with Region Värmland, Scottish Government, Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre

The rapidly evolving digitalisation of health and wellbeing requires new knowledge and collaboration models to accelerate growth globally. Small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) need to increase their business development expertise and capabilities in the field of digital health. Health care providers need to speed up their adoption of digital innovations and assess the impact of digital solutions on healthcare processes. New collaborative action models at the European level will speed up this development and knowledge building.

Objective

The webinar will present the experiences of two AER regions on:

  • supporting the development of digital solutions that support healthy living.
  • fostering collaboration between the public sector, universities; civil organisations, entrepreneurs, and businesses.
  • how we intend to achieve business growth and efficiency in public health services.
  • how digital health innovation fits with our regions’ smart specialisation strategies.

 

Programme

10.00 – 10.05: Welcome and introductions:

  • Kenneth Johannesson, AER Committee on Social Policy and Public Health, Vice President for Health Innovation / Councillor Region Värmland
  • Donna Henderson, Chair of AER Digital Health Network / Head of International Engagement, TEC & Digital Healthcare Innovation, Scottish Government

10.05 – 10.35: Setting the Scene – Smart Specialisation in Värmland and Scotland

  • Anders Olsson, Manager of Research and Innovation,  Värmland Dept of Regional Growth
  • Linda Murray, Director of Strategy, Scottish Enterprise

10.35 – 11.15: Creating an ecosystem for digital health and wellness

  • Magnus Bårdén, Process Leader, DigitalWell Arena, (Region Värmland, Sweden)
  • Prof George Crooks, Chief Executive, Digital Health and Care Innovation Centre. (Scotland, UK)

11.15 – 11.30:  Q&A and discussion: about common approaches, opportunities for collaboration, etc

 

Watch back Click here
Agenda Click here to download
Contact [email protected]

 


 

 

 

Join the Digital Health Network!

3 September, 2020 By Johanna Pacevicius

The Digital Health Network provides a platform for AER regions to learn from each other on this very current topic. It is open to all regions willing to improve their digital health strategies. Regions will share their experiences, knowledge, and resources that support the effective deployment of digital health solutions within their regional healthcare systems. The Digital Health Network is chaired by Scotland.

Transforming health & care

The digital transformation of health and care requires further action in these areas:

  • citizen’s secure access to and sharing of health data across borders;
  • better data to advance research, disease prevention and personalised health and care;
  • digital tools for citizen empowerment and person-centred care.

Exchange of knowledge & experiences

The exchange of knowledge is crucial to support the implementation and sustainable transformation of digitally enabled health and care services.  The Digital Health Network will:

  • Provide knowledge exchange opportunities for AER regions working to implement digital health.
  • Promote relevant policies to advance the implementation of digital health for all citizens.
  • Share good practices in the use of digital health in response to key health and care challenges for regions. 
  • Recognise the diversity of regions and identify key lessons from their different approaches to digital health.
  • Develop our shared understanding of how digital health can support increased citizen participation in and self-management of their own health and wellbeing.
  • Identify key events, in which members of the Digital Health Network will participate, to promote and raise awareness of the Network’s activities.

Network Activities for 2020-21

After the success of events such as the breakfast seminar on innovation in healthcare design, and the mutual learning event on ‘Digital Transformation in Healthcare: Regional Perspective for Integrated Care’ at Smart City Expo in 2019, The Digital Health Network is organising a series of new activities for 2020-21

The proposed activities being planned for the Network in 2020 – 2021 are outlined in the roadmap below. These activities will be a blend of online and in-person events and will be planned and coordinated with the full participation and support from AER regions.

Proposed knowledge exchange topics for 2020-21

  • Digital health tools in the response to COVID-19: lessons learned from AER regions and plans for the future
    • digital health tools to support recovery and rehabilitation: focus on physical rehabilitation
    • digital health tools to support recovery: focus on mental health and well being
  • Regions experience in citizen participation approaches to deliver sustainable digital health services
  • Capacity building to support the implementation of digital health

For more information on the upcoming activities of the AER Digital Health Network and to join the network, visit the Digital Health Network’s webpage

Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

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Webinar: integrated care in remote and rural areas

3 September, 2020 By Johanna Pacevicius

The AER Digital Health Network is pleased to invite you to a webinar organised on 8 September 2020 14:00-15:00 CET in the context of the Scirocco Exchange project Delivering integrated care in remote and rural areas: Sharing the experience

Acknowledging differences between regions

The significance of integrated care as a means for improving health outcomes, effectiveness and sustainability of health and care systems is widely acknowledged. It is a central element in many on-going or planned healthcare system reforms, however, it is important to recognise that the regions and countries in Europe are experiencing different progress and levels of maturity for integration. This is particularly the case of delivering integrated health and care services in remote and rural areas.

Sharing experiences: Slovenia & the Basque Country

The objective of this webinar is to learn and exchange experience of two European regions Basque country and Slovenia in delivering integrated care services in remote and rural areas. It will be a practical opportunity to discuss what innovative actions and activities should be prioritised in these regions in order to improve their capacities for delivering the integrated care services in these areas. 

A tool to assess the situation in any territory

In addition, the webinar will feature how SCIROCCO Exchange tool* for integrated care as one of the capacity-building tools can help to facilitate learning and understanding of organisational maturity and readiness for integration. The Tool helps users to identify the maturity and local context enabling the adoption of integrated care. The Tool has been validate through EU Health Programme funded project SCIROCCO (www.scirocco-project.eu) and further refined and improved in SCIROCCO Exchange project (www.sciroccoexchange.com). 

The outcomes of this webinar will inform us about the existing opportunities and tools supporting the capacity of health and social care authorities for integrated care.  

* To access SCIROCCO Exchange tool for integrated care: https://scirocco-exchange-tool.inf.ed.ac.uk/en_gb/

Preliminary agenda

14.00 Welcome and Introduction Nessa Barry, Scottish Government
14.05xxxxxxxxxMaturity assessment for integrated care Dr Andrea Pavlickova, Scottish Government
14.15Delivering integrated health and care services in remote and rural areas in the Basque Country Jon Txarramendieta, Kronikgune, Basque Country
14.30Delivering integrated health and care services in remote and rural areas in Slovenia Andreja Rafaelič, Social Protection Institute of the Republic of Slovenia (IRSSV)
14.45Facilitated discussion Nessa Barry, Scottish Government
14.55Conclusive remarks Nessa Barry, Scottish Government Dr Andrea Pavlickova, Scottish Government

Registration

The webinar is open to all and free of charge, please register here: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/sciroccoexchange/411924

Photo by Damien DUFOUR Photographie on Unsplash

Disclaimer
“The content of this Webinar represents the views of the author only and is his/her sole responsibility; it cannot be considered to reflect the views of the European Commission and/or the Consumers, Health, Agriculture and Food Executive Agency or any other body of the European Union. The European Commission and the Agency do not accept any responsibility for use that may be made of the information it contains.”

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Committee 1 progress Report Spring 2020

25 February, 2020 By Shubhaangi Srivastava

Twice a year the members of the AER Committee on Regional Development and Economy gather in plenary meetings. This is the opportunity to set goals for cooperation through the elaboration of a joint work programme and to evaluate progress every six months.

On the occasion of the Spring 2019 Committees’ plenaries in Örebro, AER members identified joint actions they wanted to implement with fellow regions. A year later it is time to evaluate progress, celebrate achievements and share experiences!

Evaluating progress

During the elaboration of the work programme in Örebro, planned activities were organized in 3 categories:
Projects
Good practice sharing
Lobbying

The below progress report was compiled for the spring 2020 plenary meeting in Covasna. It gives an overview of the situation, a year after the adoption of the work programme.

Projects

Together for Cohesion: let’s rEUnite! ongoing

“Together for Cohesion: let’s rEUnite!” is a project submitted under a call launched by DG REGIO. This project raises awareness on the importance of programmes, projects, and services funded by the cohesion policy funds. It also encourages the participation of citizens and stakeholders to become active players in the dialogue on cohesion policy. AER coordinates the project and has collected experiences on cohesion policy together with regions.

This project was officially launched during the 2019 General Assembly in Larnaca (CY). Six AER member regions are partners in this project: Varazdin (HR), Csongrád (HU), Trentino (IT), Timis and Alba (RO), and Catalonia (ES). The project also had an information stall dedicated to the Together for Cohesion project at 2019 Autumn Committee Plenaries.

Partner regions have organized several local events to raise awareness on Cohesion policy among EU citizens:

The first event of Together for Cohesion held, the “Apulum Agraria” Fair in Alba (RO) held from 20-22nd September 2019, promoting agriculture, the economy of Alba and local farmers and members of professional associations.

The project was also represented at the 37th session of the Local and Regional Authorities Congress, led by the Council of Europe between the 28-31st October 2019.

The project contributed to the organisation of a Career management fair in Alba (RO), which raised awareness on the use and benefits of the EU cohesion policy and funds – with a special focus on how to find employment opportunities and how to receive the appropriate career guidance.

The Forum for Mayors, on the 11th of December, in Szeged, Hungary, by the General Assembly of Csongrand County was an opportunity to learn more about why cohesion policy and funds are crucial for the social and economic development of the cities and towns led by the Mayors taking part in the Csongrad Forum

Regions have also prepared several trainings focused on developing communication skills and understanding of European cohesion policies. The first training, on Together4Cohesion: how to use social media to better communicate the EU cohesion policy took place on the 23rd of January, in Trentino, Italy.

In Varazdin (HR), the annual Gala Ball of Varaždin County on 24 January 2020 was an opportunity to promote the project.

CUBES: Cultural Administration Boosting with the Engagement of Sustainability for Local Communities ongoing

The CUBES project was developed to create a bridge between cultural heritage, administrative bodies, and digitalization. The project will:

  • raise awareness
  • emphasizing the importance of culture
  • increase competitiveness and economic growth.

Target: local communities, public authorities, NGOs and CSOs. The kick-off of the CUBES project took place on the 25th of October 2019 in Lisbon, the project will end in April 2020

The experience of the CUBES project on grassroots approaches for sustainable regional development will also inform the discussions at the conference “Territorial Approaches to Regional Development” in Covasna on 11 March 2020.

Includ-EU: Regional and local expertise, exchange and engagement for enhanced social cohesion in Europe ongoing

AER and the International Organisation for Migration, together with several regional and local authorities have joined forces in the Includ-EU project. This project will improve transnational knowledge and experience sharing, cooperation and partnerships to build a more inclusive and cohesive Europe.

AER will organise 5 workshops to facilitate knowledge and experience sharing as well as to support the implementation of pilot activities around the 5 key priorities of the EU action plan: post-arrival support, education, labour market integration, access to services, citizen participation & inclusion. AER will also organise 5 webinars on these topics, to share experiences regarding practical aspects such as housing, health services or the integration of services especially regarding the access to the labour market. These activities will be open to AER members, especially regions in the Intercultural Regions Network (see below “Lobbying”)

E-health in rural areas: planned

Members discussed the possibility to develop a pan-AER regional e-health rural project based on innovation and digitalization.

  • Regions interested in developing such a project should share their idea during the development of the 2020-2021 work programme on 12 March in order to find regions who want to cooperate on this and start developing this initiative.

Project development on farming, rural planning, and infrastructure: planned

Members of the AER working group on rural development would like to develop a project to compare and incorporate good practices in farming (cattle, dairy) and infrastructure.

  • Regions interested in developing such a project should share their idea during the development of the 2020-2021 work programme on 12 March in order to find regions who want to cooperate on this and start developing this initiative.

Project on rural development: planned

Members of the AER working group on rural development would like to develop a project on how to invest and develop basic infrastructure in rural areas. For example, water, waste, gas, roads, education, health care.

  • Regions interested in developing such a project should share their idea during the development of the 2020-2021 work programme on 12 March in order to find regions who want to cooperate on this and start developing this initiative.

Good Practice Exchange

Breakfast seminar “Sustainable Development Goals and regional growth”: finished

On 15 May 2019, a breakfast seminar was organized by Oppland (NO) on how to integrate the SDGs in regional planning. This event which gathered speakers from the region and from the OECD revolved around the question of whether it is possible to reach the SDGs and have economic regional development, or if they are mutually exclusive? The Powerpoint presentations and videos are available on the AER event page.

2019 AER Autumn Committee Plenaries – Podčetrtek (SI): finished

The annual Autumn Committee Plenaries of the Assembly of European Regions took place on September 24-26 2019, in Podčetrtek, Slovenia.

The topic of the thematic event of the plenaries was Cohesion & Contrasted Regional Realities. The thematic event consisted of discussions with perspectives from all of Europe, with a special focus on Ireland and Slovenia. Despite the varying experiences and realities in the regions represented, it was agreed that a holistic approach to regional development is necessary

The aim was to share experiences, especially from regions with considerable disparities within their territories to learn about different strategies and practices as well as enablers and barriers to more cohesive regional development.

2020 AER Spring Committee Plenaries – Covasna: ongoing

The main focus of the AER 2020 Spring Committee Plenaries in Covasna County (RO) between 10-12 March will be territorial approaches. Urban-rural divides within regions will be in the spotlight.

While the Autumn 2019 plenaries “Territorial cohesion and Contrasted Realities” looked at how regions address territorial differences, this spring’s plenary will take stock of the situation in Europe. How to bridge the gap between theories on place-based policies and the actual implementation of effective and participative policies?

Members will, in particular, discuss the state of play of smart specialization strategies in Europe, health innovation and wellbeing, as well as brain drain vs brain gain.

Supporting members to use the TAIEX-Environmental Implementation Review: ongoing

The AER Secretariat disseminated information about the TAIEX-EIR peer to peer learning program and is supporting members to use this program to gain or provide knowledge on environmental policies on topics as diverse as air quality, waste management, water management, the circular economy. This program which is relatively easy and quick to access is a good complement to activities carried out within AER and an opportunity to access support from the Commission to carry out exchanges with other regions.

Gelderland (NL) and the European Commission organized a TAIEX-EIR workshop on “Maintaining and Enhancing Ecosystem Services in Urban Regions” on 4 and 5 July 2019.

In the context of the joint action to protect Romanian forests, the AER Secretariat has been in touch with DG Environment, to identify ways to use the TAIEX-EIR program. This should help improve legislation and practices for the protection of primary forests and biodiversity in Romania.

Mutual learning event on economy 4.0: Finished

On 4 December 2019, AER, the Brussels Capital Region and the Government of Catalonia organized a mutual learning event on economy 4.0. Economy 4.0 describes a new era of productive, industrial and economic development characterized by the implementation of big-scale automatization, artificial intelligence (AI) robotic instruments, computational big data analytics software, and high tech infrastructure. It aims to gather experiences from all three AER Committees and regions who are welcomed to share inputs and regional examples.
The report on the event can be found here.

Workshop ” connectivity vs sustainability?”: finished

On the occasion of the Autumn plenary meeting in Podčetrtek (SI), the working group on transports & mobility chaired by Martin Tollén organised a workshop on connectivity and sustainability. Speakers featured Matej Gojčič from the Regional Development Agency of the Ljubljana Urban Region and Sergi Alegre, President of the Airport Regions Conference.

New mobility services: ongoing

Good practices exchange on electric cars and infrastructure both at AER meetings and in events of the European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities and Communities (EIP-SCC), where Östergötland (SE) is representing AER.

Workshop on sustainable transport and mobility: canceled

AER member regions Gelderland (NL) and Östergötland (SE) planned a workshop on sustainable transport and mobility during the European Sustainability Energy Week on Clean Energy from 18-20 June in the House of Dutch Provinces in Brussels.

Lowering emissions in transport: planned

AER member region Norrboten (SE) would like to organize good practice exchange on identifying how to lower emissions in transports within the Working group on Energy and Climate Change.

  • Regions interested in developing such a project should share their idea during the development of the 2020-2021 work programme on 12 March in order to find regions who want to cooperate on this and start developing this initiative

Waste collection in rural areas: planned

Within the working group on rural development, members would like to have an exchange of good practices on how to raise awareness of recycling and waste collection in rural areas.
This topic could be addressed either in the context of a meeting of the working group on rural development or in separate events, such as Breakfast seminars in Brussels.

  • Regions interested in developing such a project should share their idea during the development of the 2020-2021 work programme on 12 March in order to find regions who want to cooperate on this and start developing this initiative

AER Delegation at Smart City Expo World Congress: finished

AER took part in SCEWC19. The 3-day conference confirmed its role as the world’s greatest meeting point for cities and companies sharing the same goals as regards the future of cities. Different stakeholders gathered together in Barcelona and explored new innovative ways to make cities inclusive, efficient and sustainable.

All member regions and partners interested in attending the next iteration of SCEWC 2020 as speakers can submit an application here

Small hydropower plants: planned

Exchange of good practice on noise reduction with (small) hydro powerplants (finding a suitable location also from an environmental point of view). Lobbying and advocacy with NGOs and governments about the environmental point of view, partnership, and exchange of good practice. National stimulations for developing projects on national tourism strategy on a local and regional level.

  • Regions interested in developing an activity on this topic should share their idea during the development of the 2020-2021 work programme on 12 March in order to find regions who want to cooperate on this and start developing this initiative

Creation of a working group on how to attract more workforce: planned

Several regions in AER have expressed the need to exchange experiences on how to attract more workforce to regions that are largely rural.
This action could be developed within the context of the working group on business and SMEs.

The 2020 Spring plenaries in Covasna will specifically look at territorial approaches and the ways in which regions address challenges linked to regional development, innovation and rurality.

  • Regions interested in developing an activity on this topic should share their idea during the development of the 2020-2021 work programme on 12 March in order to find regions who want to cooperate on this and start developing this initiative

Effective legislative frameworks: planned

Tulcea would like to collaborate with other regions to elaborate good legislative frameworks for tourism, business, industry, research. The goal would be a simplification of administration and the reduction of red tape.

  • Regions interested in developing an activity on this topic should share their idea during the development of the 2020-2021 work programme on 12 March in order to find regions who want to cooperate on this and start developing this initiative

Energy efficiency: planned

Good practice sharing on stimulating energy efficiency, for instance, competition between organizations and OECD. Indicators on energy efficiency and EC energy efficiency directive.

  • Regions interested in developing an activity on this topic should share their idea during the development of the 2020-2021 work programme on 12 March in order to find regions who want to cooperate on this and start developing this initiative

Advocacy/Lobbying

Building a Network of Intercultural Regions: ongoing

The Bureau Task Force on migration organized a Breakfast debate on the occasion of the General Assembly in Larnaca to examine the possibility of creating an intercultural regions programme, similar to the existing Council of Europe Intercultural Cities Programme. The network will support regions for the design and implementation of diversity and inclusion strategies. The Intercultural Regions Network was launched on 5th November 2019.

The process to develop this network requires intense dialogue with institutions.

AER and the Council of Europe are now planning activities for the coming months, a first meeting is foreseen on 16 March. This meeting will be followed by a public presentation of the Network, and a training on tactics and strategies for effective intercultural messaging by Nigel Smith, media and communication expert at the Council of Europe. Regions interested to participate in the public meeting and the training should contact Gisela Guari Cañada

European Week of Regions and Cities: ongoing

The European Week of Regions and Cities (EWRC) is an annual four-day event during which cities and regions showcase their capacity to create growth and jobs, implement European Union cohesion policy, and prove the importance of the local and regional level for good European governance. It took place from 7-10 October 2019 in Brussels.

As part of the European Week of Regions and Cities, AER hosted an event entitled “REGIONerating Europe” on the 8th of October 2019, focusing on the role regions can play in regenerating the European Project as well as how citizens in the regions of Europe benefit from EU membership through Cohesion Policy, structural and development funds.
AER is preparing for the next European Week of Regions and Cities 2020.

The call is now open for regions to apply to become a partner at the European Week of Regions & Cities 2020, that will take place from 12-15th October 2020 in Brussels

Mobility: engagement in the EIP-SCC: ongoing

AER is involved in the European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities and Communities (EIP-SCC). This framework is an opportunity for strategic intelligence, state of the art information, partnership building and influence.

Protection of Romanian forests: ongoing

Primary forests are rare in Europe and the ones in Romania are threatened by excessive logging. AER members, therefore, agreed at the Committee 1 Spring plenary meeting in Örebro, to support Romanian regions to protect this invaluable natural heritage.
At the AER Autumn Committee Plenaries on 26 September, the AER Working Group on Rural Development hosted a Breakfast Debate on European Biodiversity: Protecting Primary Forests. AER was pleased to be joined by some external experts on this topic, among them, Shiroma Sathyapala, Forestry Officer, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia

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 the existing legal framework and identify relevant actions and target institutions. The AER Secretariat will also organize Breakfast Briefings to help regions organize their advocacy activities.

Cohesion meeting with members of the European Parliament: finished

An AER delegation led by President Magnus Berntsson met a large number of Members of the European Parliament, including the Chair of the REGI Committee, to discuss the future of Cohesion Policy and the upcoming EU Budget for 2021-2027.

AER Bureau Task Forces

The 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 & Institutional Relations Vania Freitas.

-Task Force on Food Security

-Task Force on Cohesion Policy

-Task Force on Digitalisation

-Task Force on Migration

-Task Force on Sustainable Development Goals

The Committees’ work programs and the AER Action Plan

The development of the Action Plan is a collective process to enable all participants to specify needs and decide to initiate activities that add value to 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 Committee’s work programs. The Committees’ work programs are developed in spring each year.

The AER action plan is the consolidation of the three Committees’ work programs 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 the year, these are then approved by the Executive Board and included in the Committee’s work programs and the AER action plan.

Photo by Sergey Shmidt on Unsplash

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Committee 2 Progress Report Spring 2020

25 February, 2020 By Shubhaangi Srivastava

Twice a year the members of the AER Committee on Social Policy and Public Health gather in plenary meetings. This is the opportunity to set goals for cooperation through the elaboration of a joint work programme and to evaluate progress every six months.

On the occasion of the Spring 2019 Committees’ plenaries in Örebro, AER members identified joint actions they wanted to implement with fellow regions. A year later it is time to evaluate progress, celebrate achievements and share experiences!

Evaluating progress

During the elaboration of the work programme in Örebro, planned activities were organized in 3 categories:

Projects
Good practice sharing
Lobbying

The below progress report was compiled for the spring 2020 plenary meeting in Covasna. It gives an overview of the situation, 1 year after the adoption of the work programme.

Projects

SCIROCCO Exchange project – Personalised knowledge transfer and access to tailored evidence-based assets on integrated care: ongoing

The SCIROCCO Exchange project, under the EU Health Programme, is based on the SCIROCCO project, which resulted in the development of an online self-assessment tool for integrated care. The project runs from January 2019 to August 2021. It supports regions, mainly health and social care authorities for the adoption and the scaling-up of integrated care. The Maturity Model, 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 strength and also gaps in their capability managing the many activities needed in order to deliver integrated care.

The lead partner is the Scottish Government, a recent AER member. The consortium is composed of 14 organizations.

AER is leading the Working Package on knowledge transfer, helping the regions in preparing the local environment for implementation and scaling-up integrated care.

The Institute of Social and Behavioural Medicine of Pavol Jozef Safarik University in Kosice in Slovakia, one of SCIROCCO Exchange consortium partners, organized a local conference “Integrated care for people with chronic diseases” on 15 May 2019. The conference was organized as part of the European Public Health Week “Care4Care”. The objective of the conference was to raise awareness about the importance of integrated health and social care for people suffering from multiple chronic conditions. The conference was particularly useful to review the current progress with the adoption of integrated and long-term care in Slovakia and highlight the existing challenges such as change of culture, stakeholder engagement or political commitment

The project was presented at the Smart City Expo, which was held between 19 to 21st November 2019.
The project was also represented in the European Parliament at a debate, “EU 2019-2024: Health Champions Wanted”, held on 9 October 2019.

Together for Cohesion: let’s rEUnite! ongoing

“Together for Cohesion: let’s rEUnite!” is a project submitted under a call launched by DG REGIO. This project raises awareness on the importance of programmes, projects, and services funded by the cohesion policy funds. It also encourages the participation of citizens and stakeholders to become active players in the dialogue on cohesion policy. AER coordinates the project and has collected experiences on cohesion policy together with regions.

This project was officially launched during the 2019 General Assembly in Larnaca (CY). Six AER member regions are partners in this project: Varazdin (HR), Csongrád (HU), Trentino (IT), Timis and Alba (RO), and Catalonia (ES). The project also had an information stall dedicated to the Together for Cohesion project at 2019 Autumn Committee Plenaries.

Partner regions have organized several local events to raise awareness on Cohesion policy among EU citizens:

The first event of Together for Cohesion held, the “Apulum Agraria” Fair in Alba (RO) held from 20-22nd September 2019, promoting agriculture, the economy of Alba and local farmers and members of professional associations.

The project was also represented at the 37th session of the Local and Regional Authorities Congress, led by the Council of Europe between the 28-31st October 2019.

The project contributed to the organisation of a Career management fair in Alba (RO), which raised awareness on the use and benefits of the EU cohesion policy and funds – with a special focus on how to find employment opportunities and how to receive the appropriate career guidance.

The Forum for Mayors, on the 11th of December, in Szeged, Hungary, by the General Assembly of Csongrand County was an opportunity to learn more about why cohesion policy and funds are crucial for the social and economic development of the cities and towns led by the Mayors taking part in the Csongrad Forum

Regions have also prepared several trainings focused on developing communication skills and understanding of European cohesion policies. The first training, on Together4Cohesion: how to use social media to better communicate the EU cohesion policy took place on the 23rd of January, in Trentino, Italy.

In Varazdin (HR), the annual Gala Ball of Varaždin County on 24 January 2020 was an opportunity to promote the project.

AMiD project for the inclusion of migrants with disabilities: finished

This project was led by the European Association of Service Providers for Persons with Disabilities and aimed to improve the access to services for migrants with disabilities. AER was a partner and Valencia, Timis and Värmland were all members of the Advisory Board. The AMiD project provided opportunities for experience sharing and capacity building in this area for all AER members.

During the 2019 Summer Academy in Novi Sad, Vojvodina (RS), a workshop on AMiD was organized. Participants were invited to reflect on the challenges that migrants with disabilities face on a daily basis.

The final conference of the AMiD project was held on 5th November 2019 in Brussels. After a wave of presentations and questions, participants split into three groups to discuss and agree on recommendations. They concluded:

  • Improving capacity for CSOs – Civil Society Organisations working in the sector.
  • To set and spread the multi-stakeholder approach to inclusion.
  • Engagement to raise the topic of migrants with disabilities in the next Disability Strategy 2020-2030

Includ-EU: Regional and local expertise, exchange and engagement for enhanced social cohesion in Europe ongoing

AER and the International Organisation for Migration, together with several regional and local authorities have joined forces in the Includ-EU project. This project will improve transnational knowledge and experience sharing, cooperation and partnerships to build a more inclusive and cohesive Europe.

AER will organise 5 workshops to facilitate knowledge and experience sharing as well as to support the implementation of pilot activities around the 5 key priorities of the EU action plan: post-arrival support, education, labour market integration, access to services, citizen participation & inclusion. AER will also organise 5 webinars on these topics, to share experiences regarding practical aspects such as housing, health services or the integration of services especially regarding the access to the labour market. These activities will be open to AER members, especially regions in the Intercultural Regions Network (see below “Lobbying”)

E-health in rural areas: planned

Members discussed the possibility to develop a pan-AER regional e-health rural project based on innovation and digitalization.

  • Regions interested in developing such a project should share their idea with the Secretariat in order to start developing this initiative.
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Good Practice Exchange

Autumn Committee Plenaries – Podčetrtek (SI): finished

The annual Autumn Committee Plenaries of the Assembly of European Regions took place on September 24-26 2019, in Podčetrtek, Slovenia.

The topic of the thematic event of the plenaries was Cohesion & Contrasted Regional Realities, and the aim was to identify strategies and actions to boost regional development and innovation in the face of contrasting realities.

2020 Spring Committee Plenaries – Covasna (RO): ongoing

The main focus of the AER 2020 Spring Committee Plenaries in Covasna County (RO) between 10-12 March will be territorial approaches. Urban-rural divides within regions will be in the spotlight.

While the Autumn 2019 plenaries “Territorial cohesion and Contrasted Realities” looked at how regions address territorial differences, this spring’s plenary will take stock of the situation in Europe. How to bridge the gap between theories on place-based policies and the actual implementation of effective and participative policies?

Members will, in particular, discuss the state of play of smart specialization strategies in Europe, health innovation and wellbeing, as well as brain drain vs brain gain.

Mutual learning event on economy 4.0: finished

On 4 December 2019, AER, the Brussels Capital Region and the Government of Catalonia organized a mutual learning event on economy 4.0. Economy 4.0 describes a new era of productive, industrial and economic development characterized by the implementation of big-scale automatization, artificial intelligence (AI) robotic instruments, computational big data analytics software, and high tech infrastructure. It aims to gather experiences from all three AER Committees and regions who are welcomed to share inputs and regional examples.
The report on the event can be found here.

Workshop of the AER e-health network: ongoing

The AER e-health network has achieved the objectives it had set at its creation. It is time now to revamp the network, explore synergies with other initiatives and fellow networks around Europe. On the occasion of the Autumn Committee Plenaries the AER e-health network under the leadership of Donna Henderson, Scotland (GB), planned to hold a workshop to reinvent its way of working and set new goals.

While a discussion did take place on this occasion, only few members were able to attend, because of the exceptional circumstances in Slovenia, were Adria Airlines stopped activities during the AER plenaries. The group decided to change the name to “Digital Health network” and to cooperate more with other networks as well as with the European Commission. The SCIROCCO Exchange project is instrumental in this respect, as it positions AER on a very important topic.

Breakfast seminar on innovation in healthcare design: finished

Värmland (SE), Scotland (GB) and AER organized a Breakfast Seminar on health innovation on 10 September 2019 in Brussels. The event looked at Health Innovation and User-centric Design and Digital Innovation in health and care. Kenneth Johannesson, Committee 2 Vice President for Health Innovation and Donna Henderson, Chair of AER eHealth Network, opened the event and provided background to it.

Sharing experiences on integrated care at Smart City Expo World Congress: finished

AER facilitated a 1h discussion in the Agora of Smart City Expo World Congress on the topic of mutual learning & international cooperation for the deployment of integrated care systems in Europe.

Through this session, attendees explored the regional perspective of integrated care systems and the related challenges and benefits, high-level speakers showcased the latest solutions from West Slovenia, Catalonia and Scotland. At the same time, it was presented the Scirocco Exchange Project, a pillar project for AER, which embodies our values as it aims to transfer good practices in integrated care across European regions.

AER Delegation at Smart City Expo World Congress: finished

AER took part in SCEWC19. The 3-day conference confirmed its role as the world’s greatest meeting point for cities and companies sharing the same goals as regards the future of cities. Different stakeholders gathered together in Barcelona and explored new innovative ways to make cities inclusive, efficient and sustainable.

All member regions and partners interested in attending the next iteration of SCEWC 2020 as speakers can submit an application here

Elderly care homes in rural areas: planned

Exchange experiences and identify solutions around the issue of isolated elderly people in rural areas

  • Regions interested in working on this topic should share their idea with the Secretariat in order to start developing this initiative.

Advocacy/Lobbying

Building a Network of Intercultural Regions: ongoing

The Bureau Task Force on migration organized a Breakfast debate on the occasion of the General Assembly in Larnaca to examine the possibility of creating an intercultural regions programme, similar to the existing Council of Europe Intercultural Cities Programme. The network will support regions for the design and implementation of diversity and inclusion strategies. The Intercultural Regions Network was launched on 5th November 2019.

The process to develop this network requires intense dialogue with institutions.

AER and the Council of Europe are now planning activities for the coming months, a first meeting is foreseen on 16 March. This meeting will be followed by a public presentation of the Network, and a training on tactics and strategies for effective intercultural messaging by Nigel Smith, media and communication expert at the Council of Europe. Regions interested to participate in the public meeting and the training should contact Gisela Guari Cañada

Engagement in the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP-AHA)

AER is a member of the B3 Group for integrated care in the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing. Its contribution to the work is done via the SCIROCCO Exchange project and the AER e-health network.

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 the existing legal framework and identify relevant actions, target institutions. The AER Secretariat will also organize Breakfast Briefings to help regions organize their advocacy activities.

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 & Institutional Relations Gisela Guari Cañada

-Task Force on Food Security

-Task Force on Cohesion Policy

-Task Force on Digitalisation

-Task Force on Migration

-Task Force on Sustainable Development Goals

The Committees’ work programmes and the AER action Plan

The development of the Action Plan is a collective process to enable all participants to specify needs and decide to initiate activities that add value to 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 Committee’s work programmes. The work programmes are developed in spring each year and the 2019/2020 work programme is available here.

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 the year, these are then approved by the Executive Board and included in the Committee’s work programmes and the AER action plan. The action plan for 2019/2020 is available here.

Photo by Katherine McCormack on Unsplash

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AER at Smart City Expo World Congress 2019

29 November, 2019 By Editor

From 19 to 21 November, AER took part in the Smart City Expo World Congress (SCEWC) in Barcelona (Spain). The 9th edition of the largest international event dedicated to smart urban solutions provided a great opportunity to all levels of governments, companies and various stakeholders to learn about sustainable cities and share their solutions for a smarter future.

Global Debate Starting at the Local Level

This year’s edition gathered 24,399 visitors who had the chance to explore 3 areas of the SCEWC: Congress, Expo and Side Events & Activities. The Congress Area focussed on 5 themes dedicated to the most critical issues faced by cities today: Digital Transformation, Urban Environment, Mobility, Governance & Finance, Inclusive & Sharing Cities. Most of the topics mentioned above are on the agenda of AER member regions, in line with this, Lilijana Madjar – Director of the Regional Development Agency of the Ljubljana Urban Region in Slovenia – was invited to share Ljubljana’s experience as regard innovative urban actions at the Congress session ‘Sustainable Mobility: Active and Micro-mobility to Achieve Low-carbon Cities’. Western Slovenia, and in particular Ljubljana Urban Region, is increasingly aware of the challenges that the region is facing, and for this reason, joint efforts and cooperation with multiple stakeholders are essential in ensuring a comfortable living and a sustainable future. In this context, AER recognises the importance of new mobility solutions at the local and regional level and our member region in Slovenia embedded AER’s values and exchanged their good practices with participants coming from all over the world. 

Lilijana Madjar – Director of the Regional Development Agency of the Ljubljana Urban Region

Smart Networking

The world’s biggest event for cities had an area completely devoted to networking, 1,010 exhibitors, including governments, institutions, startups, etc, had the chance to present their innovative and sustainable solutions in the exhibition area. Although it is called Smart City Expo, regions were present too. AER member regions such as Catalonia (hosting region of the event), Wallonia and Brussels-Capital Region, had their own stand and their most efficient and smart solutions were presented to the participants. Taking into consideration AER’s commitment in promoting digital transformation among its regions, the Expo area has been an arena for meetings and knowledge transfer, at the same time it was a good opportunity to invite different stakeholders such as private companies to our Innovation Conference – Economy 4.0 which will take place next week in Brussels. 

Mutual Learning Events

Last but not least, the third part of the SCEWC was dedicated to Side Events & Activities. In line with one of the themes of the Congress (Digital Transformation), AER organised a mutual learning event about ‘Digital Transformation in Healthcare: Regional Perspective for Integrated Care’. Through this session, attendees explored the regional perspective of integrated care systems and the related challenges and benefits, high-level speakers showcased the latest solutions from West Slovenia, Catalonia and Scotland. At the same time, it was presented the Scirocco Exchange Project, a pillar project for AER, which embodies our values as it aims to transfer good practices in integrated care across European regions. 

The 3-day conference confirmed its role as the world’s greatest meeting point for cities and companies sharing the same goals as regards the future of cities. Different stakeholders gathered together in Barcelona and explored new innovative ways to make cities inclusive, efficient and sustainable. 

SCEWC19 has just finished, but we are already looking forward to the next (10th!) edition. AER would like to invite all member regions and partners interested in attending the next edition as speakers to submit an application here.

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Plenaries in Podčetrtek

27 September, 2019 By Erica Lee

The Autumn Committee Plenaries of the Assembly of European Regions took place on 24-26 September 2019, in Podčetrtek, Slovenia.

The three thematic committees (Economy & Regional Development, Social Policy & Public Health, and Culture, Education and Youth) are at the heart of AER’s work on territorial innovation, policy learning and interregional cooperation.

The Committees are a lab for innovation, a trusted space where policymakers interact with peers from all over wider Europe. It is the place where knowledge and experience exchange happens and where new forms of collaboration are shaped.

Olimje Monastery

On Tuesday 24 September, the event kicked off with a study tour of the Eastern Slovenia cohesion region.

The tour, a highlight for many participants, included a visit to the Olimje Monastery, an antique pharmacy, an artisan chocolaterie and a deer farm where they dined on local specialities in a traditional eastern Slovenian haystack.

This was followed in the afternoon by a timely conference: Cohesion & Contrasted Regional Realities. Read more by clicking on this link.

Cohesion & Contrasted Regional Realities

The Committees were in full swing on 25 September. In plenary, approximately 100 AER members, from more than 50 regions across Europe, came together to learn from each other on matters including economy & regional development, social policy & public health, as well as culture, education and youth affairs.

Alongside the individual Committees and Joint Plenary session, the Autumn Plenaries included a number of workshops organised by AER member regions, the Committees’ working groups and subcommittees.

They included:

  • Workshop of the Working Group on Transports & Mobility: Connectivity vs Sustainability?
  • Workshop of the Subcommittee on Culture: Supporting and Promoting Arts in Rural Settlements of Europe (SPARSE)
  • Workshop of the AER Subcommittee on Youth: Youth participation in regional policy-making
  • Workshop of the AER E-health Network: Revamping the AER E-health network
  • Breakfast Debate of the AER Working Group on Rural Development: European Biodiversity: Protecting Primary Forests
    • Read more on the Breakfast Debate here
  • Breakfast Debate on Biodiversity
  • Committee 1
  • Together4Cohesion project
  • Joint Plenary
  • SG Mathieu Mori
  • Update from Bureau

The next AER Committee Plenaries will take place in Covasna County, Romania, from 10 – 12 March 2020.

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An Injection of Reality at AER Breakfast Seminar on Digital and Healthcare Innovation

24 September, 2019 By Editor

Innovating is always an ambitious goal but there is much to be learned from one another. The Breakfast Seminar on “Innovation in Healthcare Design – what have we learned?” is a perfect example of mutual learning. On Tuesday 10 September, AER hosted an insightful seminar organised in partnership with its members, Region Värmland (SE) and the Scottish Government TEC and Digital Healthcare Innovation Division.  

The breakfast seminar was an opportunity to highlight a European perspective on digital healthcare innovation and subsequently, look more specifically at the Swedish and Scottish experiences. The seminar gave all participants the opportunity to discuss this relevant and ever-present issue and to interact with regions who have already made strides in digital transformation.

A nutritious Nordic breakfast marked the beginning of the event as Kenneth Johannesson, AER Committee on Social Policy and Public Health and Councillor from the Region Värmland and Donna Henderson from the Scottish Government gave a warm introduction to the topic at hand and the invited expert speakers.

In Integration We Trust

Filip Domanski, from the European Commission, was first to take the floor as he explained the EU strategy for digital and healthcare innovation. He emphasised that joint action is needed in order to transform healthcare and that an exchange of failures is as useful as the exchange of good practices. Integration and digitisation are at the heart of the Commission’s strategy, he highlighted the importance of two projects co-financed by the European Commission: SCIROCCO and VIGOUR. Both projects will support health and social care authorities to improve the patient’s experience by improving the integration of health and care services. AER’s involvement in the SCIROCCO project is to be commended.

Ever Heard of “Service Logic”?

By entering the core of the topic, Tomas Edman, Coordinator of the Experio Lab Sweden, shifted the attention to the approach adopted in Sweden. He introduced the concept of ‘Service Logic’, which means that value is created in the meeting between the patient and the healthcare services. Patients, therefore, are an important resource for the development and use of healthcare services. He argued that this kind of systematic shift is essential to really transform healthcare services instead of merely digitising it. According to Edman, the only thing that has to be contagious is a user-centric approach – involving citizens will help to build an effective and replicable prototype.

Care 4.0 – Let’s Think Digital

With the contribution of George Crooks, Professor and CEO at the Digital Health and Care Institute from Scotland, the debate moved to the Scottish approach for digital health. Professor Crooks stressed that an effective transformation in the health sector requires, obviously, more time than a Parliamentary mandate, therefore, it is fundamental to achieve a citizen-driven method. Reflecting on the practices employed around the EU, Scotland has managed to design an effective strategy to improve their health system and guarantee safe, effective and patient-centred services.

The Breakfast Seminar gave participants the opportunity to broaden their horizons and learn more about their counterparts’ strategies as regards healthcare. The key takeaway was that a patient-centred method might be the best, but in order to improve the overall situation, all public services have to change their approach, not solely the healthcare system. 

Thanks to the input of the Region Värmland and the Scottish Government TEC and Digital Health Care Innovation Division, we can say that the Breakfast Seminar was successful, AER’s aim, however, is to organise more events similar to this one and to involve more and more policymakers, civil servants and experts with the intention of creating not only seminars but fruitful meetings of minds. 

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Committee 2 Progress Report Autumn 2019

10 September, 2019 By Norina Haubold

Twice a year the members of the AER Committee on Social Policy and Public Health gather in plenary meeting. This is the opportunity to set goals for cooperation through the development of a joint work programme and to evaluate progress every six months.

During the AER Spring Committee Plenaries 2019 in Örebro (SE), AER members identified joint actions they wanted to implement with fellow regions and came up with a work programme for 2019-2020 which was integrated in the AER Action Plan. Six months later it is time to evaluate progress, celebrate achievements and share experiences!

The progress report below is organised into 3 categories and gives an overview of the current situation and progress of the different activities going on within AER.

Projects
Good practice sharing
Lobbying

Projects

SCIROCCO Exchange project – Personalised knowledge transfer and access to tailored evidence-based assets on integrated care: ongoing

The SCIROCCO Exchange project, under the EU Health Programme, is based on the SCIROCCO project, which resulted in the development of an online self-assessment tool for integrated care. The project runs from January 2019 to August 2021. It supports regions, mainly health and social care authorities for the adoption and the scaling-up of integrated care. The Maturity Model, 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 strength and also gaps in their capability managing the many activities needed in order to deliver integrated care.

The lead partner is the Scottish Government, a recent AER member. The consortium is composed of 14 organisations.

AER is leading the Working Package on knowledge transfer, helping the regions in preparing the local environment for implementation and scaling-up integrated care.

Together for Cohesion: let’s rEUnite! project: ongoing

“Together for Cohesion: let’s rEUnite!” is a project submitted under a call launched by DG REGIO. On the one hand, this project aims at raising awareness on the importance of programmes, projects, and services funded by the cohesion policy funds. On the other hand, the project will encourage the participation of citizens and stakeholders to turn them into active players in the dialogue on cohesion policy. AER coordinates the project and it will collect experiences on cohesion policy together with regions.

Within AER this project was officially launched during the General Assembly in Larnaca (CY) in June 2019. With the project partner mc Group, also six AER member regions have taken up the challenge of becoming core partners: Varazdin (HR), Csongrád (HU), Trentino (IT), Timis and Alba (RO), and Catalonia (ES).

During the Autumn Committee Plenaries there will be an information stall dedicated to the Together for Cohesion project.

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.

During the 2019 Summer Academy in Novi Sad, Vojvodina (RS), a workshop on AMiD was organised. Participants were invited to reflect on the challenges that migrants with disabilities face on a daily basis.

E-health in rural areas: planned

Members discussed the possibility to develop a pan-AER regional e-health rural project based on innovation and digitalisation.

  • Regions interested in developping such a project should share their idea with the Secretariat in order to start developping this initiative.
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Good Practice Exchange

Autumn Committee Plenaries – Podčetrtek (SI): ongoing

The annual Autumn Committee Plenaries of the Assembly of European Regions will take place on September 24-26 2019, in Podčetrtek, Slovenia.

The topic of the thematic event of the plenaries will be Cohesion & Contrasted Regional Realities, and the aim will be to identify strategies and actions to boost regional development and innovation in the face of contrasted realities.

Mutual learning event on economy 4.0: ongoing

Each year Brussels Capital proposes a mutual learning event on a current and transversal topic. On 4 December 2019, Brussels Capital will organise a mutual learning event on economy 4.0. Economy 4.0 describes a new era of productive, industrial and economic development characterized by the implementation of big-scale automatization, artificial intelligence (AI) robotic instruments, computational big data analytics software, and high tech infrastructure. It aims to gather experiences from all three AER Committees and regions who will be welcome to share inputs and regional examples.

Workshop of the AER e-health network: ongoing

The AER e-health network has achieved the objectives it had set at its creation. It is time now to revamp the network, explore synergies with other initiatives and fellow networks around Europe. On the occasion of the Autumn Committee Plenaries the AER e-health network under the leadership of Donna Hendersson, Scotland (GB), will organise a workshop to reinvent its way of working and set new goals.

Breakfast seminar on innovation in healthcare design: finished

Värmland (SE), Scotland (GB) and AER organised a Breakfast Seminar on health innovation on 10 September 2019 in Brussels. The event looked at Health Innovation and User-centric Design and Digital Innovation in health and care. Kenneth Johannesson, Committee 2 Vice President for Health Innovation and Donna Henderson, Chair of AER eHealth Network, opened the event and provided background to it.

Sharing experiences on integrated care at Smart City Expo World Congress: ongoing

AER will facilitate a 1h discussion in the Agora of Smart City Expo World Congress on the topic of mutual learning & international cooperation for the deployment of integrated care systems in Europe. The panel will gather the following speakers:

  • Liljana Madjar, President of the West Slovenia Cohesion region and
  • Stuart Anderson, Personal Chair in Dependable Systems at the University of Edinburgh and a partner of the SCIRROCCO Exchange project
  • Representative of Friuli Venezia Giulia

This event will be accessible for members who have an Expo pass

AER Delegation at Smart City Expo World Congress: ongoing

AER will again be taking part in the Smart City Expo World Congress (SCEWC) from 19-21 November in Barcelona (ES). This 2019 edition aims to be the meeting point to encourage all stakeholders (from technology industries to policy-makers and entrepreneurs) to engage in dynamic action to enable a sustainable and inclusive future.

  • Members interested in attending should contact Tina Wu. AER has received 10 free Expo passes and a 25% discount on the 3 day congress pass.

Elderly care homes in rural areas: planned

Exchange experiences and identify solutions around the issue of isolated elderly people in rural areas

  • Regions interested in working on this topic should share their idea with the Secretariat in order to start developping this initiative.
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2. Advocacy/Lobbying

Contributing to a Network of Intercultural Regions: ongoing

The Bureau Task Force on migration organised a Breakfast debate on the occasion of the General Assembly in Larnaca to examine the possibility of creating an intercultural regions programme, similar to the existing Council of Europe Intercultural Cities Programme. The network will support regions for the design and implementation of diversity and inclusion strategies. The process to develop this programme requires intense dialogue with institutions. Regions interested to participate in network of intercultural regions should contact Vania Freitas

Engagement in the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP-AHA)

AER is a member of the B3 Group for integrated care in the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing. Its contribution to the work is done via the SCIRROCCO Exchange project and the AER e-health network.

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.

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 & Institutional Relations Vania Freitas.

-Task Force on Food Security

-Task Force on Cohesion Policy

-Task Force on Digitalisation

-Task Force on Migration

-Task Force on Sustainable Development Goals

The Committees’ work programmes and the AER action Plan

The development of the Action Plan is a collective process to enable all participants to specify needs and decide to initiate activities that add value to 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 Committee’s work programmes. The work programmes are developed in spring each year and the 2019/2020 work programme is available here.

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 the year, these are then approved by the Executive Board and included in the Committee’s work programmes and the AER action plan. The action plan for 2019/2020 is available here.

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AER Projects

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