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Active and Healthy Ageing: a major concern for the AER and CORAL

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On 20 September, invited to the Coral Meeting hosted in Brussels by the Region of Valencia, a Policy Officer from DG CONNECT talked about the approach taken by the European Commission with regard to health policies. Based on the EU focus on elderly people and digitalisation, the officer emphasised the need for a better exploitation of tools which are there, in order for EU investments and policies to be more result-oriented.

CORAL and AER

The Community of Regions for Assisted Living – CORAL is “a European Network of Regions collaborating in the field of Ambient Assisted Living and Active and Healthy Ageing”. This important regional network is shaped as “a learning community working on the implementation and upscaling of innovative solutions for Active and Healthy Ageing”. Given its long-standing involvement in Health and Ageing-related projects, and its commitment to involve member regions in concrete projects , AER sees great potential in the cooperation with the Coral Network.

Examples of  good cooperation can be identified in the past. Given the coherence of our objectives and the regional focus of both organisations, such a cooperation helps regions gain “a position in the fast growing European community of innovators in the field of Active and Healthy Ageing“.

Silver Europe and Digital Europe

“Europe is ageing fast”. The White Paper on the Future of Europe recognises this reality, while taking a wider picture of an evolving job market. This awareness is coupled by the need for the social protection system “to be significantly modernised to remain affordable and to keep pace with new demographic and working life realities”. Similar concerns are put forward also in the European Commission Communication A Digital Single Market Strategy for Europe. This document stresses digital economy’s great potential as a leverage of social qnd economic progress, and highlights how such potential still remains largely unexploited. The main goal of the Commission in this respect is to build a Digital Single Market “on reliable, trustworthy, high-speed, affordable networks and services that safeguard consumers’ fundamental right to privacy and data protection while also encouraging innovation”.

Keeping in mind these final objectives, “the Commission aims to support an inclusive Digital Single Market in which citizens qnd businesses have the necessary skills and can benefit from interlinked and multilingual e-services, from e-government, e-justice, e-health, e-energy or e-transport”. However, for now digital technology has not impacted heavily the field of health and ageing. According to a recent Eurobarometer on the use of data in the healthcare field, people are still afraid of allowing their data being circulated on the internet, and only 5% of EU hospitals allow access to digital data. Against this background, the European Commission focuses on three main objectives:

  • Communication
  • Prevention of chronic deseases
  • create the condition for favourable healthy ageing

For these purposes, the European Commission aims at guaranteeing a more direct access to online data via pooling together national and local sources. The role of doctors also needs to be reconsidered, especially with regard to feedback given to patients: good e-health practices have to be improved and shared all around Europe. Likewise, changing responsibilities among existing healthcare organisations must be considered, skills and competences must be diffused as much as possible in order to give birth to a real person-centred health service. At the same time, law harmonisation and new financing seem to be essential preconditions to meet these challenges.

ESI Funds and the “Value of Death”

With the Investment Plan for Europe – Juncker Plan, the EU plans to help digitalisation and healthcare work together, in order to guarantee healthy ageing to its population. European Structural and Investment Funds should be used to leverage investments in this field. Indeed, given the conditionalities that come with ESIF, the EU aims to push national and local authorities to invest on coherent projects and initiatives. In particular, the EU values those project ideas having great potential for upscaling. Good examples of pilots that have upscaled can be found in Ireland, Estonia, in the Lazio Region, and in Porto.

The main targets of the Commission investments are therefore those kind of projects which help minimise the “value of death” in the EU, i.e. projects reducing the costs of illness for healthcare systems and societies in general. The lower the economic impact of diseases on the healthcare systems qnd societies, the lower the “value of death”. In order for investments to be significant enough as to reduce the “value of death”, political commitment at the national level and involvement of local authorities are essential. In order to have local and national authorities, as well as project promoters, support and embark on new pilot initiatives, it is crucial that they be confident on the security of their investment and property of the outcomes. To this end, certifications could be very helpful.

Actions and Targets of the Commission

In order to achieve these goals, the European Commission is actively engaged in:

  • spreading a common vision and raising commitment to meet the challenges of an ageing population
  • encouraging networking and collaboration among leading actors in both the healthcare and digital sector
  • encouraging innovation and standardisation in both sectors in order to secure innovative investments and keep the momentum
  • implementing its Engagement Strategy, also making use of public consultation on Healthcare’s state of play

Photo credits: @ visualhunt; @ silver economy awards 

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Silver Economy Awards support Talents, Contributions and Participation of Older Persons in Society

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Tuesday, September 26, 2017 – 14:26

The 2017 theme of the International Day of Older Persons is crucial to build an inclusive, fair, and sustainable future for us all. The Silver Economy Awards are meant to support this call, by tapping of talents, contributions and participation of older persons in society.

As outlined by the United Nations, “preparing for an ageing population is vital to the achievement of the integrated 2030 Agenda (for Sustainable Development), with ageing cutting across the goals on poverty eradication, good health, gender equality, economic growth, reduced inequalities and sustainable cities”.

The Silver Economy Awards will contribute to these efforts by promoting & rewarding innovative solutions led by public authorities, businesses, and civil society organisations from across Europe. Applications are welcomed from the broad spectrum of areas that make up the European Silver Economy including those supporting older persons’ civic and social participation.

Ensuring that everyone, regardless of age, can participate in the society is not only essential to older persons’ well-being, but also imperative for building a more sustainable and fair society. We look forward to receiving applications showcasing innovative ICT-based products and services supporting this pledge.

Online submissions are open until 15 November 2017. More information, including details of the application process, criteria and support webinars is available at www.silvereconomyawards.eu.

Contact: [email protected]

More information here

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Nancy workshops: targeted experience exchange

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The value of data, smart green and integrated transport systems, regions and culture,  youth mental health and life-cycle approaches: the workshops organised on the occasion of the Nancy plenary meetings were an opportunity to exchange experiences on a series of topics close to regions’ heart.

Data, the world’s most valuable resource

We generate quantities of data each day said Agneta Granström, Chair of the AER e-health Network and Committee 2 Vice President for Health Innovation, and know only part of how this data is used and by whom. Yet data may be referred to as the new oil: complex to collect, expensive to transform, central to the economy and with endless potential.

In healthcare applications include a variety of aspects including the patient’s records, healthcare management, and the aggregation of medical information to support diagnosis and treatment.

Guy Mangin, coordinator of the NENObase big data project at the Technical University of Nancy and Marilyne Vô, collaborator to the NENObase explained how their project started from the needs of neurologists and involves doctors, hospital managers, students in an effort to offer support to neurologists for diagnosis and treatment.

The strength of the project resides in it involving different stakeholders in the co-creation of the tool. Because brain tumours are very rare and extremely diverse, neurologists often find themselves in a difficult place when they have to propose the best treatment. Moreover the treatment involves a team of different specialists ranging from radiologists to anatomopathologists. The NENObase allows to pool the knowledge of hundreds of specialists and provide patients with better quality of healthcare.

As Kenneth Johannesson, Committee 2 Representative for Equal Opportunities underlined, big data tools like the NENObase have tremendous potential to provide citizens in rural areas with better healthcare and give doctors  with access to existing knowledge.

Data and data treatment are a game changer too. They are re-organising power between stakeholders. Policy-makers therefore need to concentrate considerable efforts on the development of health innovation ecosystems. This relates also to the topics which will be discussed at the Artificial intelligence: are regions up to the challenge? event on November 30th in Brussels.

Transports: smart green and integrated

The AER working group on Transports and Mobility, which is led by Martin Tollén looked into the opportunities for members to get involved in the European Strategy on Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS). AER Coordinator for Institutional Relations & Advocacy Vania Freitas provided an update on the EC Strategy and informed about the ways she can offer members support.

Matthieu Jacquot, Director of COVIVO, a Grand Est (FR) example of shared mobility solutions offering carpooling for companies and communities, explained how public and private transport solutions complement each others. The futur of mobility is facilitated by IT applications.

Discussions included questions of access to transport solutions, inter-modality and shifting habits. The working group will continue to focus on these topics and the ways regions can promote sustainable mobility services. A recurrent topic for this group is also the support to regional airports (as opposed to larger airports), which continue to be an essential part of the connectivity of territories. Roger Estefors, the group’s expert on regional airports provided an update on the situation.

Regions for culture and vice-versa

The breakfast briefing on culture was an opportunity to reflect about the role of regions for the development of culture and the role of culture in regional development. Grand Est Vice President in charge of Culture Pascal Mangin provided insights on the region’s role and action in this field. Magnus Berntsson, in his quality of President of the Regional Council of Västra Götaland (SE) shared an example of how the region’s support in the film industry enabled to propulse the sector and get significant returns on investments, in terms of quality, international recognition and regional development. Katarina Tolgfors, County Councillor from Örebrö, shared the experience of the theatre where she also works as a communication professional and Alf Norberg, County Councillor from Gävleborg provided more insights on his region’s action in the framework of the 2018 European Year for Cultural Heritage.

AER Coordinator for Finance of European Projects Luca Magri updated members on opportunities which will be available for regions in the context of the European Year for Cultural Heritage. 2018 will see activities and initiatives all around Europe to get people interested and involved in cultural heritage. The calls for projects were published after the Breakfast Briefing and are now available on the European Commission’s webpage. The deadline is 22/11.

Youth mental health: creating real added value

Any project proposal should always aim to create useful outputs for stakeholders. Linda Moestam explained how the SAM project in Norrbotten (SE) has been able to engage all interested parties in a co-creation process on good mental health. They jointly developed an toolbox to promote good mental health at all stages of life. Participants identified jointly the stakeholders they would like to benefit with this project and then worked together to define outputs which would actually be efficient.

The AER Subcommittee on Youth led by Marta Vilalta has been working on the identification of needs for regional action in the field of youth since November 2016 in Izmir. The group identified the difficulty for young people to relate to others as a shared concern across wider Europe. This led to the idea to developing a joint initiative involving Committee 2 and Committee 3 members. A preparatory meeting took place on the occasion of the AER General Assembly and resulted in the decision to develop an EU-funded project.

Life-cycle approaches

The last workshop of the week was the one led by Fritz Balkau on life-cycle approaches for regional development. This approach which takes into account all the steps of elaboration of products and services is useful for regional development planning and blends well with AER activities on the circular economy such as the 2016 Regional Innovation Award.

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The AER Committee Plenaries –  Thank you for an eventful week!

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The AER Autumn committee plenary week was very busy indeed.

Hosted by the city of Nancy and the region of Grand Est, we were pleased to welcome our members in the grand setting of Nancy town hall (Grand Est-FR).

As the week went by, we covered an incredible range of topics and gave concrete tips and cooperation opportunities to our members.

Many things were accomplished during the week. The Executive Board (EB) gathered and decided on the Vice Presidents’ portfolios. Their action plan will be discussed at the next October EB meeting.

Another gathering occurred: the renewed AER team comprised of the Strasbourg and Brussels staff and the Seconded officers team. This was quintessential to align working methods, and ensure great cooperation in the months to come.

Committee meetings shined a light AER’s services on European projects and advocacy as well as how to use the Interreg Europe policy learning platform, of which AER is a key leader for the next 8 years.

To list only a few of the topics of the week in Nancy:

  • A debate on culture in the digital age in presence of the director on culture and creativity of the European Commission;
  • next steps on cohesion policy;
  • e-health and the value of data;
  • the latest innovation on carpooling and sustainable mobility solutions;
  • our next advocacy actions on regional airports;
  • next steps on our European project on youth mental health;
  • an introduction to the lifecycle for renewable energy.

It was quite impossible to leave Nancy without at least one cooperation opportunity!

Finally, please see below a few words from AER President Magnus Berntsson, who offered words of summary during the Committee Plenaries last week.

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AER Committee Plenaries – 12/14 September – Relive the week here!

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#AERCP2017

From 12 to 14 September, AER was in Nancy, France for their Autumn Committee Plenaries.

The programme focused on the following topics:
For presentations, please visit the event’s webpage. >>HERE<<

As the autumn committees’ plenaries have come to an end, we look back on three very interesting and intense days, gathering more than 130 people from approximately 50 regions.

The theme for the plenaries was “Is there a future for culture in the digital age? The rhetorical question was vividly discussed the first day by the moderators as well as by our member regions. Several regions shared their experiences and best practices, and many good examples on how to make culture more accessible and how to empower the citizens were given. The regions also got an update on the European Year for Cultural Heritage 2018 and projects to come.

The Culture debate was followed by an update on AER’s task force work on the Cohesion Policy paper, which is one of the main advocacy works done by AER this year. This discussion brought many members into the task force, which shows the importance of advocacy. In addition to the task force’s work, a recently launched call for proposal for a project regarding Cohesion Policy was presented. The call was launched by DG Regio and the objective of the call is clear: to produce and disseminate information and content linked to EU Cohesion policy.

These engaging topics were followed by the three Committees’ Plenaries.

Committee 1

Jean-Luc Vanraes, Committee 1 President, opened his Committee’s session describing the status of their activity plan. It was followed by a debate on Artificial Intelligence (AI), and if the regions are up to the challenge. The participants were divided into groups to discuss the following AI in the following areas, education, jobs and innovation, health and citizen’s engagement.

The outcome will serve as a base for the event on Artificial Intelligence the 30th of November in Brussels organised by AER’s member, Brussels Capital.

Committee 2

Mihai Ritivoiu, Committee 2 President, opened the Committee 2 session with a current state of the Committee 2 Action Plan. After that a debate was held around inclusion and what the regions are working on and what their focus is. Groups were formed to exchange ideas and good practices on senior citizens, young people, immigrants and minorities. The result of the discussions will lay ground for potential joint projects on inclusion, to share good practices from all over Europe and try to define a general approach to inclusion.

Committee 3

Dag Rønning, Committee 3 President, started by giving a view on the action plan, then Mr Rønning presented a proposal of a cultural cooperation between AER and The Norwegian Youth Festivals of Art, UKM.

The objective of UKM is to stimulate young people’s creativity and make their cultural activity visible. The UKM is designed to be flexible and informal; it aims at tickling the participants’ curiosity and broaden their cultural horizon. The UKM is rooted in the regions in Norway and it’s therefore natural to use the regional level as a basis for developing international cooperation. The Assembly of European Regions (AER) with its Youth Regional Network could to be an ideal structure to realise this.

Several regions expressed their interest in the presentation and discussions will follow on how to realise this project starting in 2018.

During the day, Shine Bright recognitions, were given to 6 regions for their excellent work, engagement in the network and work to promote interregional cooperation. The regions were as following; Upper Austria (AT), Izmir (TR), Örebro (SE), Abruzzo (IT), Covasna (RO) and Grand Est (FR).

The following day, regions got the opportunity to debate and discuss around several interesting topics, the role of regions in culture, E-health network and the role of data, transport and mobility, smart and integrated, Youth Mental Health and Sustainable Development. The regions shared best practices and exchanged information on the various subjects, and the day also served as an arena for our members to meet and discuss potential cooperations and joint projects. Many new ideas were born and several regions learnt that they were sharing the same challenges. The challenges and the opportunities that follows will help to create better interregional cooperation and a stronger Europe.

 

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Committee 1 debates artificial intelligence

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On the occasion of AER 2017 Autumn Plenaries, Committee 1 will host a debate on Artificial Intelligence. Proposed by Jean-Luc Vanraes, President of the AER Committee on Regional Developpement and Economy, the debate will aim to capture needs, challenges and remarquable practices from the regions. This will help to prepare the “Artificial intelligence: are regions up to the challenge?” event hosted by Brussels capital on 30 November.

After e-everything comes #AI

The AER Committee on Economy and Regional Development is a space for exchange of experiences where members discuss policy innovation and engage in interregional cooperation. The cooperation with the AER Committee on Social Policy and Public health, which has been working on e-health for over 10 years led to a joint stakeholder mapping for the development of health innovation ecosystems and in december 2015 the organisation of a multistakeholder event “E-health: let’s find a common language“. This event brought together regional policy makers, SMEs, universities, NGOs to explore challenges and share experience about barriers and enablers for the deployment of e-health.

Topics discussed ranged from innovation procurement to stakeholder engagement and the connection between universities and the industry. But innovation goes fast and discussing e-health and the digitalisation of most policy areas without looking at artificial intelligence would simply not be fair.

#AI, why all this fuzz?

The 2016 OECD Technology Foresight report on AI reveals that “a number of leading artificial intelligence experts warn that the likely impact of artificial intelligence in the years ahead is still underappreciated by policymakers and the public at large”.

This is why AER is organising the “Artificial intelligence: are regions up to the challenge?” event on 30 November. The event will bring together experts from all fields, we’ll hear about state of the art technologies, new perspectives. But here’s the deal: AER is not just organising nice events, we care about mutual learning. AER is all about experience exchange, policy learning, territorial innovation.

To prepare for this event we want to ensure discussions will actually answer regional needs. Discussions should provide valuable inputs for policy makers from across Europe. This is  why we’re organising a debate this wednesday 13 September in Nancy. We’re interested to hear about regional outstanding examples, companies that make your region thrive, the stakeholders which are true changemakers, but also the failures you wish you’d not been through. Be bold, share your experience, your worries and hopes!

 

Photo of Pepper, the first humanoid robot capable of recognising the principal human emotions and adapting his behaviour to the mood of his interlocutor, mostly used in E-health. By Alex Knight on Unsplash

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Friendlier Healthcare for all regions? We’re working on it!

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Have you ever found yourself stuck for hours in your doctor’s waiting room, waiting for a consultation that turns out to be useless, or leading to further, more stressful examinations? If the answer is “yes”, you share this with many others from all around Central Europe. DH-SMART is here to help everyone overcome similar issues, once and for all, and is seeking partners to join in!

Want to know more?

As Europe grows old, healthcare services are under increasing pressure, and a conceptual revolution is needed. AER is well aware of this need, and is answering a call for proposals from INTERREG Central Europe, together with LHA Bologna and CUP2000. This project seeks to provide general practitioners with an information exchange platform, enabling them to seek help from a specialist when dealing with patients’ examinations. Such a platform could enable doctors to provide their patients with more tailored diagnosis and prescriptions based on the advise of specialists. Specialists will be contacted directly by general practitioners and be given some time to give their advise when the case is simple enough, thereby avoiding waste of time and money for both central healthcare service and end users.

Join the club!

Does all this sound interesting to you? Project initiators are currently looking for partners, and you would be most welcome to join the club! If you are

  • a doctor 
  • a central European healthcare organisation willing to develop a small pilot action and learning activities to promote equal access to healthcare
  • if you have expertise on impact evaluation or could provide innovative technical support and improve already existing platforms…

The project and your region need you!

What’s in it for Regions?

In a nutshell, the project aims at setting up smart practices in the healthcare field through the use of digital services, to promote an integrated person-centred healthcare system, to improve the resilience of healthcare systems, train professionals and make the most out of their competences. To achieve this goal, backing from local administrations is fundamental, both for making local needs known and providing other partners with the best environment to ensure follow-up to their pilots.

How do I get involved?

If this idea is of any interest to you, if you want to become partner and start a pilot, or if you believe that your region should support this project, please do contact Mr. Luca Magri at his email address [email protected] , or call the AER secretariat at the +32 (0)2 400 10 53. Do not miss the opportunity; the opening date for application is approaching fast! Applications welcome from September 21st! Please check the main website for more information.

Photo credit: @visualhunt: https://visualhunt.com/photo/8839/stethoscope-and-ballpen-on-prescription/

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Committee 3 Progress report 2017

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Twice a year the members of the AER Committee on Culture, Education and Youth gather in plenary meeting. This is the opportunity to set goals for cooperation through the elaboration of a joint work programme. Progress is evaluated, achievements are celebrated and experiences shared.

Evaluating progress

During the elaboration of the work programme in London, planned activities were organised in 3 categories:

The below progress report was compiled for the autumn 2017 plenary meeting in Nancy. It gives an overview of the situation, 6 months after the adoption of the work programme.

Projects

  • Involvement of YRN in AER projects: ongoing

AER is supporting the YRN’s participation in European Projects in 2 main aspects:

  1. support in the development of own projects, as in the case of the development of an environment project based on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). YRN representatives met with AER Coordinator for European Projects & Private Partnerships Agnese Pantaloni to learn about project development steps and potential funding opportunities. The YRN will work on the definition of an EU project.
  2. Systematically think of including the YRN when AER is invited to join a consortium

  • Project development, Youth Mental Health: ongoing

On the occasion of the Nancy plenary meeting a project development workshop on youth mental health will be held. All regions are welcome to join!
During the Committees Plenary meetings in London, Committee 2 and Committee 3 decided to join forces for the development of a European project on youth mental health. This is the follow-up of a workshop which was held in Izmir and which identified the difficulty for young people to relate to others as a shared challenge for many very diverse regions in Europe. During the AER General Assembly a first project development meeting was held to discuss the type of focus and funding programmes.

In the context of this project development the AER Secretariat also engaged with diverse experts from organisations working on mental health and held a meeting with DG EAC on youth mental health.

  • Silver Economy Awards (SEED): ongoing

The Silver Economy Awards aim to catalyse a sustainable European digital Silver Economy movement by promoting and rewarding innovative solutions to improve the quality of life for over 50s. The Silver Economy is a topic which is relevant for all 3 AER Committees. This market is growing even faster than the Green Economy, which means new and different jobs and therefore adequate education and training. The Silver Economy also includes culture for people of 50+ years.

The Awards are the perfect opportunity to raise awareness around the lesser-known notion of the Silver Economy. They will illustrate the breadth of the consumer markets and the public spending involved and the size of the opportunities available for entrepreneurs, investors, public authorities and civil society.

This year the Silver Economy Awards replace the traditional AER Regional Innovation Award. Regions are invited to submit their innovative solutions for active healthy and happy ageing until 15 November 2017 on the SEED website. SEED runs regular webinars.

  • Youth Caravan: ongoing

This interregional project was developed to follow-up on the workshop organised by Harghita at the 2016 EWCR. It aims to foster the dialogue between youth and policy makers. The YRN will have the possibility to participate to the main project meetings (mainly the youth consultations and the final conference) having travel & accommodation costs covered, will have the possibility to contribute to the elaboration of the joint action plan as well as to be involved in the other project activities. This is a 3 years project which, if approved, will start in autumn 2017.

  • Project development, Cultural Heritage: ongoing

On the occasion of the Plenary meetings in London a project development workshop was organised on the topic of cultural heritage. Several topics were suggested for project development, such as cultural heritage routes and digitalisation. The region of Nordland presented their project proposal, Via Querinissima, which was also presented on the AER website. The AER Secretariat supported the region for the consortium building.

AER regularly receives invitations to join projects or requests for support to consortium building. These are generally shared on the AER website.

Other regions regions discussed potential areas for collaboration. Regions willing to get support for the development of a project can contact the AER Secretariat.

 

 

Good Practice Sharing

  • Committees Autumn Plenaries in Nancy: ongoing

This Autumn’s committees’ plenary will take place in Nancy, France, from the 12th to the 14th of September. The events will feature a debate on culture in the digital age, a breakfast briefing on regional culture strategies, a workshop for the development of a project on youth mental health,  and the Committees Plenary meetings.

A discussion on Cohesion Policy and its the issues at stake will also take place in Nancy.

  • INTERREG Europe Policy Learning Platform (IEPLP): ongoing

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

  • Event on a current transversal topic: ongoing

Jean-Luc Vanraes, President of the AER Committee on Regional Development and Economy is inviting all AER members to contribute to the preparation of an event on artificial intelligence to be held in Brussels, on November 30th 2017. A debate at the Committee 1 Plenary meeting will pave the way for this event. This event, “Artificial Intelligence: are regions up to the challenge” will be organised on the same format as the event “E-health let’s find a common language” which took place in December 2016 with the contribution of very diverse stakeholders.

  • Cultural heritage: ongoing

On the occasion of the workshop on cultural heritage, AER members shared their experiences, challenges and good practices. Another means of sharing good practices is via the AER website. The region of Gävleborg for instance shared their vision and activities in the context of the European Year for Cultural Heritage

  • AER Most Youth Friendly European Region: finished

The MYFER award ceremony took place on the occasion of the AER GA in Lower Austria and recognised the particularly impressive achievements of Vojvodina and Catalonia. The evaluation and selection of the projects was carried out together with representatives from the AER Youth Regional Network, Eurochild, the European Youth Forum (EYF), the European Youth Parliament (EYP), and the Advisory Council on Youth of the Council of Europe Youth Department. Each of the projects submitted received a detailed evaluation and advice for improvements. The youth-friendly initiatives shared were highlighted in a series of #shinebright articles on the AER website in order to inspire other regions.

  • Awareness-raising & engagement about Eurodyssey: ongoing

While Eurodyssey is the oldest AER programme its achievements and the way it works are not always well known to AER members. Eurodyssey provides young Europeans a work experience abroad. This has proven to be extremely positive in increasing employment perspectives for young people. The programme is for youth 18 to 30, unemployed or recently qualified, living in a participating region. The work placements are organised and financed by the host regions. Since its creation, over 10,000 young people have benefited from Eurodyssey work placements. New regions can join and benefit from the programme. The feedback from the last Eurodyssey Forum can be found on the AER website and the next Eurodyssey Forum will take place in Croatia from 3-5 October.

  • Par/Tea, culture and inclusion: ongoing

This initiatives aims to integrate migrant people by organising cultural events. The exchange of cultural values and learning by dialogue are the 2 main objectives. It will be organised as non-formal gathering of people on a weekly basis and more formal workshops.
Vojvodina will organise a “PARtea” seminar end 2017 and discuss results with AER members. Interested members can join this initiative.

  •  Culture & Health: tbc

Follow-up on previous actions and conferences in Istanbul & Västerbotten on topics such as culture on prescription, culture and sports. After the workshop on culture and health in Nordjylland an AER handbook on Culture and Health was published in 2015. Regions willing to engage in further policy learning on this topic can contact the Secretariat to define activities they can lead within the AER network.

  • Compilation of good practices on school dropouts: finished

The region of Västernorrland brought together regions to share good practices to combat early school leaving through the AER working group on school dropouts. They set up an Erasmus+ project to further develop the exchanges and mutual learning. They finalised the work with a very useful handbook which brings together good practices from 11 regions in wider Europe.

  • Awareness raising on YRN activities: ongoing

Awareness raising on YRN activities is carried out through:

  1. information on the AER website
  2. communication around YRN activities, such as high-level meetings, conferences or capacity building activities
  3. inclusion of YRN representatives in the AER slack teams for online collaboration
  4. invitation of YRN representatives to AER activities, partnership development, and plenary meetings

  • Training on European regional affairs: ongoing

AER is a partner of the European College of Cluny, a new training offer 100% dedicated to local democracy, territorial engineering and innovation in Europe. An AER delegation participated in the Cluny Summer School to further develop the collaboration for the training as well as for the AER Summer Academy.

AER AT THE EUROPEAN WEEK OF CITIES AND REGIONS

  • Workshop on the Silver Economy: ongoing

Led by the SEED consortium. This workshop will take its participants through four inspiring examples of how a Silver Economy can help regions and cities to better match the needs of their ageing population while supporting local businesses and solution providers. It will be the opportunity to discuss the complementarity between these examples and the initiatives at EU level. The networking session that follows will bring together potential partners around issues related to the Silver Economy.

  • Workshop of the INTERREG Europe Policy Learning Platform: ongoing

Looking for new solutions for regional policy? 2000+ institutions have already exchanged experiences through interregional cooperation. You can learn from other cities and regions and their tried-and-tested solutions. The Interreg Europe Policy Learning Platform is launching an expert-validated Good Practice Database. Visit our show-case corner, learn more and get inspired!

Lobbying

  • Cohesion Policy Activities: ongoing

The Assembly of European Regions (AER) is closely following the ongoing European debates on cohesion policy, whose future is uncertain. Aiming at defending regions’ interests in this field and make their voices heard, AER has been and will continue to work intensively on this issue. The next Bureau Meeting will be held in Maastricht.

  • AER Report on Regionalisation: ongoing

More than 40 academic experts accepted to give their contribution to this work, by delivering detailed reports about the state of regionalisation and multilevel governance in chosen European countries. The study covers 41 countries, and each country report is based on a similar structure, thereby allowing a comparative approach among all studied countries.national Climate Fund to finance climate projects in European regions. In August AER met the European Investment Bank to pursue negociations.

  • 33rd Session of the Congress Local and Regional Authorities: ongoing

AER has a partnership status with the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe. It sends high-level representatives to the meetings of the Congress and sits in the Chamber of Regions Bureau.

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Committee 2 Progress report 2017

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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 elaboration of a joint work programme. Progress is evaluated, achievements are celebrated and experiences shared.

Evaluating progress

During the elaboration of the work programme in London, planned activities were organised in 3 categories:

The below progress report was compiled for the autumn 2017 plenary meeting in Nancy. It gives an overview of the situation, 6 months after the adoption of the work programme.

Projects

  • Brokerage event in Partnership with ERRIN on health innovation: ongoing

After the success of the brokerage event on the green economy and innovation, we are this time proposing a new type of event in collaboration with ERRIN to stimulate project development: the Horizon 2020 Project Development Week. This 5 days event replaces the half day brokerage event on e-health initially foreseen. It will bring together 400 different regional stakeholders around a series of selected EU calls to initiate project partnerships. These events are open to your regional stakeholders, don’t hesitate to invite them to join and share project ideas!

  • Project development, Youth Mental Health: ongoing

On the occasion of the Nancy plenary meeting a project development workshop on youth mental health will be held. All regions are welcome to join!
During the Committees Plenary meetings in London, Committee 2 and Committee 3 decided to join forces for the development of a European project on youth mental health. This is the follow-up of a workshop which was held in Izmir and which identified the difficulty for young people to relate to others as a shared challenge for many very diverse regions in Europe. During the AER General Assembly a first project development meeting was held to discuss the type of focus and funding programmes.

In the context of this project development the AER Secretariat also engaged with diverse experts from organisations working on mental health and held a meeting with DG EAC on youth mental health.

  • Silver Economy Awards (SEED): ongoing

The Silver Economy Awards aim to catalyse a sustainable European digital Silver Economy movement by promoting and rewarding innovative solutions to improve the quality of life for over 50s. The Awards are the perfect opportunity to raise awareness around the lesser-known notion of the Silver Economy. They will illustrate the breadth of the consumer markets and the public spending involved and the size of the opportunities available for entrepreneurs, investors, public authorities and civil society.

This year the Silver Economy Awards replace the traditional AER Regional Innovation Award. Regions are invited to submit their innovative solutions for active healthy and happy ageing until 15 November 2017 on the SEED website. SEED runs regular webinars.

  • Models of Child Health Appraised (MOCHA): ongoing

The MOCHA team is led by the Imperial College London and involves 19 scientific partners from ten European countries and 30 country agents from each European Member State and EEA country. MOCHA appraises the differing models of child health that are used across Europe. The project identified gaps in knowledge, on surveillance of children’s primary care and children’s specific needs in primary care, lack of coordination of care, models of care that are not based on current child health epidemiology, and low prioritisation of children’s needs in e-health strategies. AER is a member of the Advisory Board. AER is benefitting from the connection with the MOCHA experts, which have been invited at AER events (workshop on health innovation ecosystems in Izmir, workshop on social capital for integrated care in Norrbotten) and recently shared expertise and advice for the development of the project on youth mental health led by Catalonia and Norrbotten.

  • Active and Healthy Ageing Network AHA-NET: project on reserve list

The project proposal aimed to implement a Leadership programme for the coaching and training of future reference sites. The development of a Leadership Programme for e-health innovation was agreed on by Committee 2 in 2012. Since then the methodology has been developped and ad-hoc training academies have taken place on the Silver Economy and integrated care systems. This project would have provided an ideal framework for the deployment at larger scale of this programme.

  • ACT2Bridge: project on reserve list

This project proposal aimed at facilitating knowledge flow for health research and innovation activities between EU regions. One of the main aspects was the support to health innovation ecosystems. The aims and activities of this project corresponded to needs expressed by AER members and would have offered AER regions a set of useful services.

  •  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 project is will provide opportunities for experience sharing and capacity building in this area for all AER members.

  • European network for harmonising self, society, and systems to facilitate integrated care, COST action proposal: project was not accepted

This project led by partners we have been working with previously aimed at pursuing the work of AER in the field of integrated care systems.

  • Project development, Social inclusion of vulnerable groups: ongoing

With views to the preparation of a project gathering regional good practices on inclusion a debate will take place on the occasion of the Committee 2 Plenary meeting. The idea with this project is to define a general approach to inclusion, helping policy makers appraise their policies and develop effective policies for inclusion.

  • Project development, Combatting isolation and social exclusion: ongoing

The region of Timis would like to develop a project to address the isolation of 2 social groups:
-orphans, who at the age of 18 find themselves without support and homeless because orphanages do not support youth after their 18th birthday.

-elderly people, who often live on their own and would need minimal support and company.

The idea is to gather good practices which have been implemented in similar contexts and to look at transferability and adaptation of such good practices.

  • Project development, Public-private cooperation for social inclusion: ongoing

In order to initiate a project  for good practices exchanges on the collaboration between regional governments and the private sector for the social inclusion of vulnerable groups, AER published an article outlining the different issues at stake. Following the publication of this article several regions have expressed interest in developping a project. In order to move ahead with the project development, a lead partner willing to take a leading role in the proposal writing needs to be identified.

  • Project development, Equal Health: tbc

Possible project (seek funding opportunities). Exchange of experiences from different programs offering parental support. At the moment this project idea would need to be further specified.

 

Good Practice Sharing

  • Committees Autumn Plenaries in Nancy: ongoing

This Autumn’s committees’ plenary will take place in Nancy, France, from the 12th to the 14th of September. The events will feature a debate on culture in the digital age, a workshop on the value of data, a workshop for the development of a project on youth mental health,  and the Committees Plenary meetings.

A discussion on Cohesion Policy and its advantages will also take place in Nancy.

  • INTERREG Europe Policy Learning Platform (IEPLP): ongoing

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

  • Event on a current transversal topic: ongoing

Jean-Luc Vanraes, President of the AER Committee on Regional Development and Economy is inviting all AER members to contribute to the preparation of an event on artificial intelligence to be held in Brussels, on November 30th 2017. A debate at the Committee 1 Plenary meeting will pave the way for this event. This event, “Artificial Intelligence: are regions up to the challenge” will be organised on the same format as the event “E-health let’s find a common language” which took place in December 2016 with the contribution of very diverse stakeholders.

  • Follow up on ALEC: ongoing

The Arctic Light E-health conference is an emblematic example of a succesful cooperation between an AER member region and the AER network. The workshop on data of the AER e-health network will follow-up on issues addressed during the conference. Articles elaborating on topics of the ALEC conference, which are of specific interest to AER members will be published in the coming months.

  • Healthcare without harm: tbc

The idea which was presented on the occasion of the Committe 2 Plenary meeting was to combine the topics of healthcare and environment. Activities have not yet been specified and can range from the publication of articles on the AER website showcasing good practices to the organisation of a mutual learning event (online webinar, workshop in Brussels or on the occasion of another AER event). Any such activity needs to be lead by an AER region and supported by a few others.

  • Equal opportunities: tbc

Members were interested in sharing experience through articles on the AER website, exchange of good practices, and the sharing of regional data. Members interested in doing so can get support from the AER Secretariat.

AER AT THE EUROPEAN WEEK OF CITIES AND REGIONS

  • Workshop on the Silver Economy: ongoing

Led by the SEED consortium. This workshop will take its participants through four inspiring examples of how a Silver Economy can help regions and cities to better match the needs of their ageing population while supporting local businesses and solution providers. It will be the opportunity to discuss the complementarity between these examples and the initiatives at EU level. The networking session that follows will bring together potential partners around issues related to the Silver Economy.

  • Workshop of the INTERREG Europe Policy Learning Platform: ongoing

Looking for new solutions for regional policy? 2000+ institutions have already exchanged experiences through interregional cooperation. You can learn from other cities and regions and their tried-and-tested solutions. The Interreg Europe Policy Learning Platform is launching an expert-validated Good Practice Database. Visit our show-case corner, learn more and get inspired!

Lobbying

  • Cohesion Policy Activities: ongoing

The Assembly of European Regions (AER) is closely following the ongoing European debates on cohesion policy, whose future is uncertain. Aiming at defending regions’ interests in this field and make their voices heard, AER has been and will continue to work intensively on this issue. The next Bureau Meeting will be held in Maastricht.

  • AER Report on Regionalisation: ongoing

More than 40 academic experts accepted to give their contribution to this work, by delivering detailed reports about the state of regionalisation and multilevel governance in chosen European countries. The study covers 41 countries, and each country report is based on a similar structure, thereby allowing a comparative approach among all studied countries.national Climate Fund to finance climate projects in European regions. In August AER met the European Investment Bank to pursue negociations.

  • AER participation in the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing: ongoing

AER is a member of the B3 Action Group on integrated care systems. In this framework AER has a commitment towards raising awareness & building capacities for integrated care systems. Participating in the EIP-AHA enables AER to connect with the right stakeholders, provide state of the art knowledge on health innovation and raise the voice of regions in European discussions on health innovation.

  • 33rd Session of the Congress Local and Regional Authorities: ongoing

AER has a partnership status with the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe. It sends high-level representatives to the meetings of the Congress and sits in the Chamber of Regions Bureau.

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AER E-health journey

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With its many years working on e-health and social innovation technologies, AER is recognised as leader in the field. Today, let’s go a few years back and look at everything AER has achieved from the creation of its E-health network in 2006 to its longstanding cooperation with ALEC.

E-health political breakthroughs

E-health can be defined as a set of IT tools used to meet the needs of citizens and patients as well as healthcare professionals, service providers, local authorities and national governments in the field of health.

It is of great political interest as it represents an innovative way to deliver health services, in particular in remote rural areas and to people with mobility difficulties. E-health is seen as an alternative in order to release scarce labour and infrastructure resources. Nowadays, 80% of financing in the health sector is assigned to human resources with around 75% coming directly from public funding. According to the European Commission, 17,5 million people are employed as administrative staff in the medical field, representing 9,3% workers in Europe. In that sense, e-health is determinant to optimise health administration and increase productivity in the sector.

Moreover, E-health is an essential tool for the modernisation of health services in Europe. This, in light of ever-decreasing health budgets and the increasing demands on health systems resulting from demographic changes. Innovation in the health system will with no doubt improve the exchange of information and good practice among healthcare actors and raise awareness on health widely! E-health services are particularly compelling to its usage in preventive health care as well as distance mental health treatments. Thanks to all the above, e-health is a major instrument in improving the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare services for patients.

Regarding economics and businesses, e-health is a sector with a significant growth potential: touching up-and-coming areas such as technologies, engineering and innovation. Besides, ICT research and development can effectively contribute to regional and EU economic growth.

E-health Network, a life story

AER E-health network was created in 2006. Its meaning was first to identify priority political areas in e-health and to develop joint cooperation projects for regions. The exchange of experience and good practice between regions is also a clear focus for the group.

Therefore, the aim of the network is to create a platform where regions can engage in interregional cooperation projects to develop e-health tools and where they can contribute to European policies on e-health. It brings together member regions interested in developing policies in this field, but also external organisations who focus on the development of e-health technologies. The network is fully open to AER member regions that are either already active in e-health or want to develop e-health policies and tools.

Focus areas include: e-diagnosis, research for available e-health resources, record keeping systems, distance planning, active and independent living for the elderly, mental health and e-health as a planning tool  for health and social systems.

The network especially works on:

  • Raising awareness and disseminating knowledge on the potential of e-health
  • Gathering information on existing tools, funding and policies and carry out studies
  • Together with other regions and partners in coordinating our e-health tools and strategies
  • Stimulating the development of products and services for the commercial market
  • Encouraging research and education in the e-health sector

It organises thematic meetings and several conferences a year to make sure regions fully benefit from other’s experience and good practice to learn everything there is to know about e-health and improve regional systems.

First round for the E-health network

From 2006, the network organised several seminars to exchange experience and start discussing potential interregional cooperation projects. Later that year, the ‘E-health: around the clock care for everyone, everywhere‘ conference was launched in Norbotten. It was the occasion to sharpen key fields of action, choosing to especially discuss e-health as a tool for service delivery, sharing patient information, prevention and dissemination of information. The harmonisation of regional systems and infrastructures as well as creating partnerships with other sectors were also a fundamental feature of the conference.

Following the conference, the network made it its priority to improve the delivery of health services, modernise these services in order to make them financially sustainable and improve access to health services, in particular in rural or remote areas.

In 2007, during a seminar held in Brussels region made their first proposals for e-health cooperation project. AER also actively participated in ‘The World of IT Health’ Conference, in Vienna to exchange observations on interoperable health systems as well as the legal and regulatory framework for e-health in Europe.

2008 was under the sign of promoting cross-border cooperation in e-health and facilitating exchange of e-health professionals. With the hit of the financial crisis, the group profoundly discussed european developments and funding opportunities. New focus subjects were brought to the table such as medical data privacy & protection as well as chronic disease management.

Building a strong link with e-health businesses

AER plays an active part in bringing together SMEs active in ehealth, regional authorities and the end users (patients’, youth and seniors’ associations). The aim is to bring all actors in the ehealth chain together to identify the future priorities in ehealth and to create synergies between them for the development and implementation of the necessary tools and policies.

Different approaches were tested to create a discussion forum for eHealth end users, buyers and developers. Finally a slack channel was successfully developed where all members are free to join. AER also help in facilitating the creation of a regional SMEs network on ehealth across Europe while encouraging the creation of strong trans-border partnerships between businesses involved in the health services.

A multi-stakeholder approach in need of clear leadership

In that sense, AER has always promoted a multi-stakeholder approach to develop innovation in the health sector, involving healthcare professionals, patients, end-users, businesses and industry. The network strongly encourages the exchange of knowledge and experience between all actors as well as e-awareness. This perspective was reinforced from 2010, with AER collaboration with EHTEL to stimulate crossborder cooperation in e-health.

From there, the e-health network recognized that e-health was not only a matter of technology and technics but lacks a clear leadership in the field. Since then, it has hardly worked to highlight the valuable role of regions in maintaining their citizens health. AER worked close with ETHEL in order to develop a programme to train regional representatives to the high stakes of e-health. AER’s strategy was to build capacity and leadership by following the “Learning by doing” principle and develop interregional cooperation projects through the INTERREG agenda. That way building relations to voice the regions’ demands. Such a project is still under development, identifying challenges, targeting sustainable investments and working to change mentalities.

 

AER representing member regions interest through the European Commission

AER launched several partnerships with the European Commission. Together, they organised several events, along with the support of the committee of regions.

One of the most significant collaboration involves the AHAIP initiatives in 2011, the “Active and Healthy Ageing Innovation Partnership“. The programme results in a pilot action designed to improve patients’ health and quality of life and the health administration’s efficiency, as well as supporting the elderly by granting them better quality services. The aim is to bring together actors at all levels and sectors to mobilise available resources and expertise. Once again, it encourages variety of stakeholders to work together while stimulating innovation and capacity. AER wants to make Europe a global leader in e-health, that according to her should be sustainable, an integral part of regional planning process and a priority among regional politicians.

Invited by the European Commission, the AER E-health network organised a workshop to showcase regional expertise in the e-health field. This event took place in the framework of the e-health week in Budapest, a major conference that gathered politicians, health administrators, researchers and industries in order to discuss future priorities for e-health. The forum’s participants emphasised the major role played by regions in the deployment of personal e-health solutions by highlighting the progress achieved for chronic pathologies such as diabetes, cardio-vascular and obstructive pulmonary diseases. The aim of this session was to identify the steps that need to be taken to link the various regional initiatives across Europe today and achieve the AER e- [email protected] network’s vision: dropping the ‘e’ from ‘e-health’, plus,  what needs to be done to achieve Europe-wide deployment of e-health.

Longstanding partnership – ALEC

Since 2010, AER developed strong links with the Artic Light E-health Conference. ALEC is a captivating event uniting digital health professionals from across the globe meet in the arctic region of Norrbotten for two days of inspiration, networking and skill development. The event is hosted by the President of AER Committee 2, Ms Agneta Granström who is also the Chair of the AER e-health network.

Each year AER members are invited to participate in a great panel of events on e-health, including study visits. ALEC enables all stakeholders discuss digital’s potential to bridge health gaps, and develop tools to design better health for all. Past conferences have included key aspects of e-health sought to address both the technical and organisational aspects affecting the patient’s experience. Participants discuss sustainable e-health (social, environmental & economical),independent living and prevention. Together they exchange on european perspectives, best practices, cross border services and identify challenges.

Last year the 5th Arctic Light e-Health Conference  was held in Sweden.

Speeding up actions

From 2016, AER became a true leader in E-health good practice event, multiplying opportunities for its regions.

AER members met with Representatives from the industry, academy and institution will meet up in Budapest (HU)  for the international 360° Summit on eHealth. Together they discussed quality healthcare provisioning in Europe, a major issue for the EU healthcare systems. In deed, the population growth and the increasing number of chronic patients is creating a strong budgetary pressure on governments. AER provided concrete actions to face this challenge within its Committees, favouring a dialogue among health, innovation, enterprises and social policies.

Besides, AER actively joined in “E-health: let’s find a common language” event hosted by Brussels Capital at the Committee of the Regions. The event aimed at providing participants with information on funding opportunities in the field of healthcare,  new connections, tested ideas to improve communication between stakeholders, inspiration and mutual understanding. AER wants to show increase collaboration and improve communication among stakeholders, beginning at the regional level.  This event successfully managed to bring together companies and organisations working on e-health via group discussions, enhancing the participation and the exchange of ideas.

Finally AER participated in a session organised by ECHAlliance on a new “Coalition of the Willing” at the 2016 e-health week. This digital health journey across Europe aims at speeding up the deployment of e-health in regions. Agneta Granström presented the issues faced by europeans regions. When it comes to using e-health to build a new, sustainable and patient-centered health system, which supports health innovation, leadership is key. Ms. Granström emphasized the need for change management, change leadership and an increased focus on improving digital literacy among leaders.

+ Related articles

Photo by jesse orrico on Unsplash

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Committee 1 Progress report 2017

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Twice a year the members of the AER Committee on Regional Development and Economy gather in plenary meeting. This is the opportunity to set goals for cooperation through the elaboration of a joint work programme. Progress is evaluated, achievements are celebrated and experiences shared.

Evaluating progress

During the elaboration of the work programme in London, planned activities were organised in 3 categories:

The below progress report was compiled for the autumn 2017 plenary meeting in Nancy. It gives an overview of the situation, 6 months after the adoption of the work programme.

Projects

  • Silver Economy Awards (SEED): ongoing

The Silver Economy Awards aim to catalyse a sustainable European digital Silver Economy movement by promoting and rewarding innovative solutions to improve the quality of life for over 50s. The Awards are the perfect opportunity to raise awareness around the lesser-known notion of the Silver Economy. They will illustrate the breadth of the consumer markets and the public spending involved and the size of the opportunities available for entrepreneurs, investors, public authorities and civil society.

This year the Silver Economy Awards replace the traditional AER Regional Innovation Award. Regions are invited to submit their innovative solutions for active healthy and happy ageing until 15 November 2017 on the SEED website. SEED runs regular webinars.

  • Brokerage event in Partnership with ERRIN on health innovation: ongoing

After the success of the brokerage event on the green economy and innovation, we are this time proposing a new type of event in collaboration with ERRIN to stimulate project development: the Horizon 2020 Project Development Week. This 5 days event will bring together 400 different regional stakeholders around a series of selected EU calls to initiate project partnerships. These events are open to your regional stakeholders, don’t hesitate to invite them to join and share project ideas!

  • Development of an environment project based on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): in progress

YRN representatives met with AER Coordinator for European Projects & Private Partnerships Agnese Pantaloni to learn about project development steps and potential funding opportunities. The YRN will work on the definition of an EU project.

  • Migrant Entrepreneur Support Scheme Against Gap of Economic System: project proposal not accepted

This project proposal aimed to share approaches and lessons learnt for migrant entrepreneurship support schemes. Migrant entrepreneurship had been raised in specific during the 2016 Spring plenary meetings in Timis. The proposal brought together public administrations, business support organizations, non-profit organisations and NGOs, educational institutions and other organisations active in the field across cities, regions and countries.

 

Good Practice Sharing

  • Committees Autumn Plenaries in Nancy: ongoing

This Autumn’s committees’ plenary will take place in Nancy, France, from the 12th to the 14th of September. The events will feature a debate on culture in the digital age, a workshop on the value of data, a workshop on transport & mobility, a workshop on life-cycle approaches and the Committees Plenary meetings.

A discussion on Cohesion Policy and its advantages will also take place in Nancy.

  • INTERREG Europe Policy Learning Platform (IEPLP): ongoing

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

  • Study visit on the Energy transition: ongoing

The main focus of the study visit, which will be organised in cooperation with other interregional networks, will be the Gelders’ Energy agreement (GEA). This collaboration between local and regional industries, governments and NGOs’ in the province of Gelderland, Netherlands, has pledged for the province to become energy-neutral by 2050. It facilitates a co-creative process where initiatives, actors, and energy are integrated into society. See the event page.

  • Event on a current transversal topic: ongoing

Jean-Luc Vanraes, President of the AER Committee on Regional Development and Economy is inviting AER members to contribute to the organisation of an event on artificial intelligence to be held in Brussels, on November 30th 2017. A debate at the Committee 1 Plenary meeting will pave the way for this event. This event, “Artificial Intelligence: are regions up to the challenge” will be organised on the same format as the event “E-health let’s find a common language” which took place in December 2016 with the contribution of very diverse stakeholders.

  • Follow up on photonics: finished

On the occasion of the Timis Spring Plenaries Professor Hugo Thienpont presented the ACTPHAST programme on photonics innovation for SMEs. The information and opportunities regarding this European programme were further disseminated via the AER website. The ACTPHAST programme for photonics. See the results as at September 2017.

  • Conference on biomass: in progress

In London AER members agreed to collaborate for the organisation of a conference on Biomass in Vojvodina. The objective is to share practices and expert lectures to show the practical possibilities of production and usage of biomass in Europe, with a preview insight in the production in Vojvodina. The event also aims to awaken the interest of individual agricultural farms, agricultural cooperatives and clusters and regional and local governments.

  • Cooperation with the World Sustainable Energy Day: ongoing

On the occasion of the AER Committees plenary meetings in London, members highlighted their interest in participating to the World Sustainable Energy Days in a meaningful way. A delegation of 4 politicians from across Europe will be able to attend the World Sustainable Energy days for free on behalf of AER. This delegation will have an active representation role and is expected to participate in meetings on the spot too. How to get involved!

  • AER event on EFSI: finished

AER organised a conference on sustainable financing for regions, which presented political issues related to impact investments, green investments and long term investments. These strategic aspects of regional development are not mere tools but are part of a regional development plan, which looks at private funding to leverage public resources.  AER series on investments – Episode 1, AER series on investments – Episode 2

  • Nudging: finished

The “Towards New Urban Mobility” paper presented on the occasion of the AER Breakfast Briefing on Urban mobility in London adresses the ways in which policies are set up to change behaviour. This report argues that policy interventions sensitive to group attitudes are more likely to result in behavioural change towards transport alternatives. This includes understanding which transport alternatives are more acceptable to each group and how best to target communication.

  • Awareness raising on sustainable mobility: ongoing

AER is continuing to highlight regional good practices on sustainable mobility. In this context an AER article will be published in the Autumn 2017 edition of Revolve Magazine

  • Meeting of the AER working group on transports and mobility in Nancy: ongoing

Good practices from the host region will be presented on smart mobility and policies aimed at supporting green innovation in the field of transports. Discussion about regulatory framework, challenges for regions and opportunities for cooperation

  • Digitalisation of transports: ongoing

Promote digitalisation of transports networks both in urban and rural areas.

  • Promotion of knowledge about innovative technologies: ongoing

  • High Speed Rail: tbc

 

AER AT THE EUROPEAN WEEK OF CITIES AND REGIONS

  • Workshop on climate and energy transition: ongoing

Led by the region of Abruzzo, AER is co-organising a climate side-event during the European Week of Regions and Cities 2017.

  • Side-event on Public procurement for green innovation: tbc

How to use innovative public procurement as a tool and a changemaker in regional development towards a greener future.

  • Workshop on the Silver Economy: ongoing

Led by the SEED consortium. This workshop will take its participants through four inspiring examples of how a Silver Economy can help regions and cities to better match the needs of their ageing population while supporting local businesses and solution providers. It will be the opportunity to discuss the complementarity between these examples and the initiatives at EU level. The networking session that follows will bring together potential partners around issues related to the Silver Economy.

  • Workshop of the INTERREG Europe Policy Learning Platform: ongoing

Looking for new solutions for regional policy? 2000+ institutions have already exchanged experiences through interregional cooperation. You can learn from other cities and regions and their tried-and-tested solutions. The Interreg Europe Policy Learning Platform is launching an expert-validated Good Practice Database. Visit our show-case corner, learn more and get inspired!

Lobbying

  • Cohesion Policy Activities: ongoing

The Assembly of European Regions (AER) is closely following the ongoing European debates on cohesion policy, whose future is uncertain. Aiming at defending regions’ interests in this field and make their voices heard, AER has been and will continue to work intensively on this issue. The next Bureau Meeting will be held in Maastricht.

  • AER Report on Regionalisation: ongoing

More than 40 academic experts accepted to give their contribution to this work, by delivering detailed reports about the state of regionalisation and multilevel governance in chosen European countries. The study covers 41 countries, and each country report is based on a similar structure, thereby allowing a comparative approach among all studied countries.

  • COP23 Local and Regional governments Leaders´ Summit: ongoing

The Conference of the Parties (COP23) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will take place in Bonn on 6-17 November 2017, under the presidency of the Fiji government and hosted by the UN Climate Change Secretariat. AER will actively contribute to the agenda of local and regional governments at the Conference, including the Leaders´ Summit on 12 November and associated events.

  • R20 Summit: finished

In presence of AER and R20 President, Magnus Berntsson, R20 founding chair, Arnold Schwarzenegger and all key people playing a part in climate change (private partners, NGOs, officials). R20 is a winning alliance for AER, but where do we stand?

  • Financing climate action: ongoing

AER works alongside R20, Blue Orchard and Leonardo Di Caprio Foundation to set up a 350 million $ Subnational Climate Fund to finance climate projects in European regions. In August AER met the European Investment Bank to pursue negociations.

  • 33rd Session of the Congress Local and Regional Authorities: ongoing

AER has a partnership status with the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe. It sends high-level representatives to the meetings of the Congress and sits in the Chamber of Regions Bureau.

  • ERDF Funding for Regional Airports & State Aid for regional airports: ongoing

AER members get regular updates from the Working Group on transports and mobility’s Regional Airports expert Roger Estefors at meetings of the group. The Nancy meeting will feature an update on the topic too.

  • Sustainable biofuels: tbc

Promote 2nd generation sustainable biofuels, for example from waste and forest resources.

  • Legislation on biogas: finished

The AER secretariat connected regions which were interested in initiating a lobbying action. Regions had diverging priorities, the connection therefore did not result in a joint action.

 

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Join the Committees’ Presidiums!

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

What’s a Committee Presidium?

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

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

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

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

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

Open for candidacies:

Committee 1 on Regional Development & Economy

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

The following positions are open for candidacies:

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

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

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

Mandates last 2 years and are renewable

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

Committee 2 on Social Policy & Public Health

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

The following positions are open for candidacies:

  • Vice President for Inclusion & Social entrepreneurship

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

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

Mandates last 2 years and are renewable

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

Committee 3 on Culture, Education and Youth

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

All positions are fill

Photo by Quino Al on Unsplash

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Take part in the Horizon 2020 Project Development Week! (Deadlines Extended!)

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Do you have a project idea but are looking for good partners to build a consortium and get Horizon 2020 funding? Do you have skills and capacity to offer but have not any project ideas to submit for funding?

Then the ERRIN Project Development Week is your chance!

What is it about?

After the success of the brokerage event on the green economy and innovation, we are this time proposing a new type of event in collaboration with ERRIN to stimulate project development: the Horizon 2020 Project Development Week. This 5-day event replaces the half day brokerage event on e-health initially foreseen. It will bring together over 400 different regional stakeholders around a series of selected EU calls to initiate project partnerships.

The aim is no other than to promote the exchange of knowledge in a wide range of relevant topics, such as health, energy, ICT, smart cities, opening science, blue innovative growth and transport, among others. Participants will therefore have the chance to share project ideas and innovative solutions as well as getting sound expert advices to submit successful proposals and thus get Horizon 2020 funding.

Four reasons to attend the event

By attending any of the proposed sessions within the ERRIN Project Development Week you will be able to:

  • Obtain detailed information on the Horizon 2020 2018-2020 Work Programs;
  • Expand your network, set up consortia, and build new partnerships;
  • Get sound expert advices on concrete project ideas;
  • Increase the chances to submit a successful proposal and be funded!

How to get involved?

The event is free of charge and open to everyone but participation is upon selection.

Have a look at the deadlines, consider the type of involvement, register on the website, and decide on how you can contribute to the sessions by contacting ERRIN at the following e-mail address: [email protected]

You can also contact them by phone dialing: +32 2 503 35 54

Save the dates!

Such event, which expects to bring together 400 participants to discuss about 60 project ideas in 8 sessions, will take place from 20th to 24th November at multiple venues in Brussels.

These events are open to your regional stakeholders, so do not hesitate to invite them to join and share project ideas!

Please, note that the deadline to register as a participant has been extended to October 30th.

 

And AER regions…

The AER, as a supporting partner of ERRIN in this event, would like to take the opportunity to invite all member regions either to engage in the different sessions or to present their proposals before the 20th of September. This event can provide regions with valuable inputs regarding EU research and innovation policy and can contribute significantly to helping them develop successful projects and thus raise their profile at the EU level.

 

Please, note that both deadlines (projects submission and participant registration) might be closed ahead due to capacity constraints.

 

Check the official website to get more info: http://www.errinh2020pdw.eu/node/35

 

Photo credits: @ERRIN http://www.errinh2020pdw.eu/node/35

 

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Artificial intelligence: are regions up to the challenge?

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This event brought together politicians, civil servants, entrepreneurs, academics and stakeholder groups in genuine exchange. The objective was to share experiences, stories, to understand each others’ challenges and to identify fields for action which can start now. Last year’s event focused on finding a common language for the deployment of e-health. 2017 was all about the artificial intelligence disruption and its impacts at regional level.

See the participants list here.

See the presentations here:

Nathanael Ackerman – Towards a European Alliance on AI

Cécile Huet – AI & Robotics in Europe How could the EC help European society and economy to make the best of this revolution? 

 

Participants:

  • Shared regional experiences on the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and how this is impacting areas as diverse as employment, education, culture or health
  • Heared from different stakeholders what they see as threats and opportunities of artificial intelligence
  • Examined if and how regions can be on top of this new wave
  • Discussed social and economic impacts, needs in terms of policy making and fields for cooperation
  • Learned about funding opportunities for regional stakeholders
  • Discovered State of the Art innovation

Draft Agenda

08:45

  Registrations & Coffee

09:15

  Welcome

Magnus Berntsson, President AER
Jean Luc Vanraes, President AER Committee 1, Chair Working Group SMEs & Investments

09:30

  Opening: Inspiration

Nathanaël Ackerman, Founder & Managing Director @Hub France Intelligence Artificielle

10:00

  Sharing experiences: Who is afraid of the big bad #AI?

Parallel discussion groups

  • Supporting innovation, attracting innovators

    How do you stimulate the emergence of valuable innovation in artificial intelligence? What are the areas where artificial intelligence would be best used? How should/ can regions attract innovators? How can start-ups and regional SMEs even have a chance to stand out on a market dominated by GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon)?
    Why should regions bother to step on AI train if others are already making giant steps? Is this of any use for regional job markets?
    This roundtable focuses on the tools to support AI innovation & the purpose of doing so

Contributors:
-Jean-Luc Vanraes, President AER Committee 1, Chair Working Group SMEs & Investments
-Marie-Josée Blais – Assistant Deputy Minister, Science and Innovation Sector, Québec
-Pierre Cherelle, Spin-off Axiles Bionics of Brussels Human Robotics Research Centers
–Edwin Mermans, New Mobility Services initiative of the EIP-SCC Action Cluster Sustainable Urban Mobility
Moderator: Jonathan Duplicy, Innoviris, the Brussels Institute for Research and Innovation

 

  • The health revolution

    Health is a sector witnessing major changes which not only disrupt how healthcare is delivered but also the whole organisation of healthcare. The role of patients becomes increasingly important in the era of the quantified self. Medical jobs are changing and hierarchy is re-organised. While artificial intelligence still seems science fiction to many, several applications are already on the market, often beating specialists in terms of diagnosis and treatment. Do we still need doctors? Is Big Brother watching our health data, and if so what are the risks? Will humanoid companions soon be gentler carers than humans? How are regions integrating artificial intelligence in their health and wellbeing policies? What can we expect in the coming years in terms of health innovation?

Contributors:
-Maria Merce Rovira Regas, Member of the Board, European Institute of Women’s Health
-Paul de Raeve, Secretary General European Federation of Nurses
-Robert Winroth, County Commissioner for Innovation, Västerbotten
-Luis Marco, Norwegian Centre for E-health Research and ITACA, Universitat Politècnica de València
-Iva Tasheva, Privacy and Security Policy Manager, Digital Europe
Moderator: Tanya Znamenski, Public Health Analyst at PatientsTalk

 

  • Culture in the digital age

    While computer-generated art has been going for over 40 years it is getting new momentum with the increased capacities of modern processors and the artificial-intelligence hype. Artificial Intelligence creates paintings, poems, music and videos. It can even learn to analyse and evaluate art. Will AIs sweep the Oscars any time soon? If a work of art is created by something non-human, is it art? Is there any good in artificial intelligence for culture? Culture often represents a key element of regional development policies. Should policy makers anticipate the AI disruption in culture and if so, how?

Contributors:
-Katherine Heid, Acting Secretary General, Culture Action Europe
-Regional policy makers
-Artists collaborating with Gluon
Moderator: Christophe De Jaeger, Gluon

 

  • Skills & competences: racing with machines

    By one popular estimate, 65% of children entering primary school today will ultimately end up working in completely new job types that don’t yet exist. How do we ensure we are not creating obsolete workers? What are the skills and competences with high added value in tomorrow’s AI-pervaded society? Are we racing with or against machines? Where should the focus be in terms of education? Is it possible to mitigate the effects of massive job-losses via life-long learning? If so how should regions support workers in building salutary skills and competences?

Contributors:
-Paulo Bresciani, Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Trentino
-Sanna Parkkinen, County Councilor, North Karelia
-Leonardo Lorusso, Head of Education and Culture, Lombardy

Moderator: Ann Nowe VUB Artificial Intelligence lab

  • AI: towards a soulless world?

    What is the future of humanity in a world where robots are better at empathy than humans? What is the future of work and the relationship between humans and machines? Will we need to have our brains hacked and evolve as transhumans to keep up to speed with robots? Are we cyborgs already? What about social justice in a world where the wealthy will be able to enhance their bodies and brains? What about geopolitical consequences linked to new technologies & warfare, as well as the correlated race for energy & natural resources?

Contributors:
-Nilofar Niazi, Founder & CEO TRAINM Neuro Rehabilitation Center
-Benoît Vidal, Co-founder at Dataveyes
-Eva Hallström, County Councillor, Värmland
Moderator: Diane Whitehouse, Principal eHealth Policy Analyst – EHTEL

 11:00

   Coffee Break

 11:45

   Let it grow!

Reports from the discussion groups: findings and proposals for action

 12:20

   Funding #AI innovation: opportunities for business

Cécile Huet, Deputy Head of Unit A2 Robotics and Artificial Intelligence of DG Connect

 13:00

   Working and Networking Lunch

 15:00

   #AI in practice: real people meet real innovation

Study Visit to VUB Artificial Intelligence lab

 16:30

   End of the event

18:00

   AER End of Year Reception & #AI Art exhibition

   (follow link for more information)

 

Registration is closed

 

The day before we will be in Maastricht for the AER Autumn Bureau Meeting 2017 (More information on this shortly)

To make the most of these events we strongly recommend that you fly to Brussels, as it will facilitate the logistics of your trip.

We encourage to register for both events as they encompass important milestones for regional interests.

Data is the world’s most valuable resource

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According to the magazine The Economist, data is becoming the world’s most valuable resource.

Data more valuable than oil?

So why is information more valuable than oil or gold? Let me share an example on how even small bits of data can create valuable insights given by Peter Sondergaard, global head of research at Gartner Inc.

Consider this example: An elevator company packages and sells the data it collects to landlords. An elevator company? Collecting data? Selling it? Talk about thinking outside the box (sorry I couldn’t resist)!
Think about it. The elevator company tracks how many people access each company on every floor in the office buildings it services. Once it pairs that information with publicly available financial data for those companies, the elevator company can then advise landlords on which companies will likely require additional floor space due to growth. On the flip side, the elevator company can alert the landlord about declining traffic to a particular office. If that information correlates with a decline in financial performance for that firm, it provides a warning signal that the tenant might be at risk of defaulting on or not renewing their lease. Insight like this is worth a lot of money to landlords.

Data & healthcare

If such a small bit of information can generate value for an elevator company. Imagine the enormous opportunities that we can find in the vast quantities of health data generated in society each day. Personalized medicine, healthier populations, a more efficient healthcare system, innovative new businesses, it can all become reality through smarter use of data.

How can policy-makers take action?

For healthcare to be able to seize this opportunity there is a lot of work to be done. Here policy makers have a significant role to play:

  • You need to make sure that your regions support and develop data infrastructure to advance research
  • data needs to be open and shared between stakeholders to boost innovation
  • at the same time the integrity and security of citizens’ data need to be protected

These are major challenges, but definitely doable if we continue to band together exchanging experiences, sharing practices and providing mutual capacity building. By working as one AER we can drive smart policies that benefits our regions and support a European Digital Single Market.

Get on the train!

If you are curious about the future of healthcare and the role of Big data we would like you to join this AER ehealth network workshop to explore how we together can lay the foundation for smarter use of data, that can boost citizens health, improve the sustainability of the healthcare system and accelerate innovation and growth in your region.

Welcome to the AER eHealth networks workshop during the fall plenaries in Nancy

When? September 14th, 10.00-11.00
Where? Place Stanislas – Hotel de Ville – Ground Floor Room, Nancy, France

 

Gustav Söderlund is the Coordinator of the AER e-health network chaired by Agneta Granström. He is E-health Strategic Officer at the Department of Research & Innovation of the Region of Norrbotten. Gustav also organised the ALEC conference which brought together 300 participants from 16 countries in the world this year around the themes of digital transformation & health equity.

 

Photo via Visualhunt.com

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