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Committee 2 Progress Report Spring 2019

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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 and to evaluate progress every six months.

On the occasion of the Spring 2018 Committees’ plenaries in Arad, AER members identified joint actions they wanted to implement with fellow regions. A year later it is time to evaluate progress, celebrate achievements and share experiences!

Evaluating progress

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

Projects
Good practice sharing
Lobbying

The below progress report was compiled for the spring 2019 plenary meeting in Örebro. It gives an overview of the situation, 1 year after the adoption of the work programme.

Projects

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

The SCIROCCO Exchange project, under the 3rd Health Programme, is based on the SCIROCCO project, which has resulted in the development of an online self-assessment tool for integrated care. The project will run from end 2018 to end 2020. It will support regions, mainly health and social care authorities for the adoption and the scaling-up of integrated care. The maturity matrix, at the core of the project, offers a tool for regions to better deliver integrated care for their citizens while at the same time empowering citizens. With this tool regions can assess their current status, revealing areas of strengths and also gaps in their capability managing the many activities needed in order to deliver integrated care.

The lead partner is the Scottish Government Health Agency Service, a new AER member. The consortium is composed by 14 organisations.

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

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

The project will launch an integrated campaign “Together for Cohesion: let’s rEUnite!” with ongoing press functions and an activity mix which will allow us to achieve indirect and direct reach of the target audience.
The campaign centers on the stories of locals in regions in each of the five selected countries (Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Italy and Spain), as a highly-relatable focal points to convey the positive impact of Cohesion policy in people’s everyday lives.

The project is led by AER with the international communication agency MC Group (DE). The application was submitted to the DG Regio on the media calls for proposals.

The project is part of AER’s work on Cohesion Policy.

AMiD project for the inclusion of migrants with disabilities: ongoing

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

Silver Economy Awards (SEED): finished

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 an opportunity to raise awareness around the lesser-known notion of the Silver Economy. They 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.

Last year the Silver Economy Awards replaced the traditional AER Regional Innovation Award. The first Awards Ceremony took place on May 2018 in Brussels.

SEED is a two-year project: 10/2016 to 09/2018.
After two years of dedicated work, the SEED project has met its objectives and is wrapping up its activities.

Models of Child Health Appraised (MOCHA): finished

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 also shared expertise and advice for the development of the project on youth mental health led by Catalonia and Norrbotten. The project is now in the final year where results will be published. The final conference took place on 15-16 November in The Hague.

Event: EU funding for Croatian & Albanian regions: finished

The event on EU funding for Croatian regions, hosted by Varaždin (HR) and Committee 3 President Radimir Čačić, and the event on EU funding for Albanian regions, hosted by Korcë (AL) and MEG member Ana Verushi brought together about 70 participants, both members and non members of AER to:

-hear about AER’s activities
-learn more on AER services for projects and services
-obtain information on the areas of cooperation with EU
-get a relevant update on the current and forthcoming EU funding opportunities
-become aware of the successful experiences of project applicants

HOME4LIFE – Certified smart and integrated living environments for ageing well: pending approval

AER joined this project as supporting partner, upon the request of AGE Platform which is partner in the consortium. No budget or specific tasks assigned.

This project has been submitted within Horizon 2020 – CSA on “Supporting investment in smart living environments for ageing well through certification” and aims at the development of a European certification scheme fostering safe investments and supporting physical and technological retrofitting for what concerns age-friendly environments and accomodation.

The results of the evaluation should be known in 2018.

INTEGRATE PERMED project – The inter-regional linking infrastructure for implementation in personalised medicine:project rejected

The INTEGRATE PERMED has been submitted under the Horizon 2020 Programme. It aims at linking the efforts in personalised medicine across European Regions by mapping them and then exchange of experiences between selected regions. The project will focus on breast cancer as a launching pathology to maintain focus. After validation, the approach will be replicated to other pathologies.

PATHWAY project – Pathway to social entrepreneurship: project rejected

The PATHWAY project, under the Erasmus+ Programme, aims at providing learners with a training programme which meet their needs in the sector of social entrepreneurship. It also aims to raise awareness on the role social entrepreneurship can play in local development, fostering also be the establishment of links and cooperation between different stakeholders.

The multiplier event will be a collateral activity of the AER Summer Academy

Submitted within the Erasmus+ Programme, the Social Entrepreneurship Key competences (SEK) project strives for providing learners with specialized training in the sector of social entrepreneurship with a special focus on tourism.

Social Entrepreneur Key competencies – SEK project: project rejected

Within this project, AER is in charge of organising an international information day, which will be the opportunity to share the project outcomes and to foster networking. AER is also in charge of a training session to test training course for social entrepreneurs. On top of that, AER will perform advocacy work in order to raise the attention on the project findings at regional and EU level.

The activities realised by the AER will take place in the scope of the Eurodyssey and the AER Youth Regional Network.

PIKTOGRAMA project – Visual thinking for social innovation: project rejected

PIKTOGRAMA is a project submitted within Erasmus+ Programme. It focuses on design thinking approach as a method to empower non-profit organisation and implement original visual thinking tools to face new EU societal challenges (e.g. climate change). The project aims at raising awareness on this approach and the advantages it has in the social innovation context as well as stimulating its use by training the youths.

The project will provide regions with recommendations regarding design thinking, which can be an interesting method for non-profit organisations to approach social challenges.

The multiplier event will be a collateral activity within the Youth Regional Network General Assembly, thus creating synergies between AER programmes and the project.


Good Practice Sharing

Equal access to healthcare: ongoing

The AER Group on Equal Opportunities has identified equal access to health as the main topic to be addressed in Committee 2. This includes:

-vulnerable groups: meet them where they are & help them
– exchange good practices on reducing barriers to care & access to servicesThe AER Transversal Group on Equal Opportunities held regular phone calls to identify joint actions on the topics identified by the Group.

Autumn Plenary, Vojvodina: finished

The 2018 Autumn Committee Plenaries were hosted by the region of Vojvodina in Serbia from 25 – 27 September 2018. A detailed recap of all the meetings that took place is available here.

Breakfast Briefing on welcoming unaccompanied migrant children: finished

Committee 2 members decided to share experiences on welcoming unaccompanied migrant children. In this context a Breakfast Briefing was organised on welcoming unaccompanied migrant children in Novi Sad on 27 September 2018, which was led by the European Programme for Integration and Migration, an initiative of currently 25 private foundations, which has the goal of strengthening the role played by civil society in advocating for constructive approaches to migration in Europe.
A background article on youth on the move was published by the AER Secretariat.

Plenary meeting: Committee for Social Policy and Public Health: finished

On the occasion of the 2018 Autumn the Committees Plenary meetings in Vojvodina, the Committee on Social Policy and Public Health members said farewell to Agneta Granström, Vice President of the Committee and Chair of the AER e-Health network. Albert Castellanos, Catalonia (ES) was elected Vice-President for Health Innovation, other positions were left open for future candidacies.
On the occasion of Committee 2 plenary meeting in Novi Sad, Vojvodina (RS), members decide to focus on social entrepreneurship & inclusion
Good practices from Umbria (IT) and Maramures (RO) were presented.

Panel discussion at the Vojvodina plenaries on Open data for regional development: finished

On the occasion of the Autumn plenaries in Vojvodina, the panel discussion “Open data for regional development: governance, start-ups and innovation” took place.

The discussion focused on how public institutions collect and generate enormous quantities of data in areas as varied as unemployment, air pollution, hospital consultations etc and how this data can best be re-used to create or improve both public and private services. There is a need to change the political perception of Open Data and instead view it as opportunity for policy-making.

Meeting of the Working Group for Equal Opportunities: finished

The AER Group on Equal opportunities has regular phone meetings and met as well in Novi Sad to discuss the development of a Code of Conduct for AER.

Mutual learning event on the Sharing Economy: finished

Each year Brussels Capital proposes a mutual learning event on a current and transversal topic. On December 4th 2018, Brussels Capital organised a mutual learning event on the sharing Economy together with Catalonia, in Brussels, Brussels Capital Region (BE). This event organised upon the invitation of Committee 1 President Jean Luc Vanraes, aimed to gather experiences from all three AER Committees and regions were welcome to share inputs and regional examples.

The event brought together policymakers, entrepreneurs, academics and representatives of the third sector for vivid exchanges. A follow up article with updates on what happened in Brussels was published.

International Migrants Day: Promoting Diversity in Regions: finished

The three AER committees and the AER Task Force on Migration worked closely together to develop messaging ahead of the International Migrants Day: Promoting Diversity in Regions event in Barcelona on Tuesday 18 December 2018.
Participants shared their experiences and good practices in diversity management at regional level, including examples of policies, programmes and projects promoting inclusion, participation in civic, economic and political life, positive intercultural interaction and the sense of belonging.

AER e-health network activities: planned

The AER e-health network has achieved the objectives it had set at its creation. The plenary meeting in Arad was the opportunity to set new objectives. These include good practice sharing on

-risks of digital exclusion
-business models
-data protection, profiling & mass surveillance
-Artificial intelligence, bots
After the 2018 Spring plenaries, no concrete initiatives were identified. This was mainly due to the fact the AER e-health network didn’t have a chair to give impulse to its activities. At the Spring 2019 Committee 2 plenary meeting, members will elect a new chair and get an opportunity to define new actions they would like to implement jointly.

Leadership programme for policymakers on e-health, integrated care systems and health innovation: cancelled

The AER e-health network wants to share good practices on leadership for the deployment of integrated care systems. After the 2018 Spring plenaries, no concrete initiatives were identified. New opportunities may arise with the implementation of the Scirocco Exchange knowledge hub which will be developed and will also provide tools to improve readiness to change, leadership and governance in general.

Advocacy/ Lobbying

Cohesion Policy Activities: ongoing

Members agreed in September 2018 that the Task Force on Cohesion will now be under the responsibility of the Bureau, which is also in charge of the other Task Forces. Joint actions include:
– Convene joint advocacy: Bureau Members adopted an updated position on the European Commission legislative proposals for the future EU cohesion policy, setting out the specific changes European regions propose to make to the new framework.
– Advocate towards the European Union and Member States
– Work in alliance with other relevant stakeholders and European associations
Flevoland (NL) is coordinating the implementation of the action and the cohesion policy task force help implement the action.

AER Bureau Task Forces

The 2018 Spring Bureau established the creation of Task Forces on dedicated topics. These Task Forces will gather examples, identify and formulate policy messages which will be brought together in position papers which will then be used for advocacy. Members who would like to contribute to one of the below Task Forces should contact AER Coordinator for Advocacy & Institutionnal Relations Vania Freitas

-Task Force on Food

-Task force on Digitalisation

-Task Force on Migration

-Task Force on Social Innovation

Joint initiatives for advocacy

Member regions can decide to initiate joint actions and find partners among AER members. Regions can get support from the Secretariat to connect with other regions, get an overview of existing legal framework and identify relevant actions, target institutions. The AER Secretariat will also organise Breakfast Briefings to help regions organise their advocacy activities.

The Committees’ work programmes and the AER action Plan

The developement of the Action Plan is a collective process to enable all participants to specify needs and decide to initiate activities which add value for their region. The principle is the following: as long as an action fits with the AER values, is in line with the AER priorities and has support from other regions, it can be included in the Committees work programmes. The work programmes are developped in Spring each year.

The AER action plan is the consolidation of the three Committees’ work programmes with all other activities led by the Bureau and the Executive Board. It is adopted at the General Assembly.

Members can propose new joint initiatives at any time during the year, these are then approved by the Executive Board and included in the Committees work programmes and the AER action plan.

Photo by sergee bee on Unsplash

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New rules, new roles for governments in a Sharing Economy

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The Sharing Economy is disrupting not only transports and tourism, it may soon drastically change the way we envision public services, raising new questions for policymakers. On 4 December 2018 the “The Sharing Economy: Reshaping the way we do business” event, co-organised by AER, Brussels Capital and Catalonia brought together policymakers, entrepreneurs, academics and representatives of the third sector for vivid exchanges.

Governments in the Digital Age

The digital transformation changes the way institutions work, share information and organise power. This is why the topic is recurring in different AER thematic activities be it e-health, transports, food… Indeed it touches upon governance and multistakeholder cooperation.

With views to the sharing or collaborative economy, it poses new challenges to governments in terms of taxation but also for the protection of citizens, security of users and workers, or with respect to the support to innovation and SMEs.  As Lluís Juncà, General Director for Economic Promotion, Competence and Regulation at the Generalitat de Catalunya, explained, this raises the question as to what governments  should support and how. How should they regulate to the benefit of citizens? Different governments have taken steps to, at the same time provide protection to workers, and impose taxes. The disruption however goes further than taxes and insurances and involves changes in the very role of governments. This regards the way governments:

  • ask for data (for instance from shared mobility or hospitality stakeholders)
  • share the data they generate or collect
  • collaborate with other entities to provide the seamless services citizens want to access at the tip of their fingers.

These questions were specifically addressed in the discussion group moderated by Anna Merino Castelló, who is an economist, expert in competition, better regulation and digital markets and has worked extensively with the Catalan government to define their sharing economy policy. This group included François Gerard, Managing Director at Helpper, an interface which connects people who need help, for instance for the groceries, with people who can help and would like to sell such services. A cooperation has already started in Flanders with a local government in order to help people with low incomes to access services via Helpper. Yves Muyters, is Project Manager at KlaarIsKees, a similar company, which allows individuals to either propose their paid services or, at the end-user level, to ask for support for a task. Mayo Fuster, Director of research on the collaborative economy at the Dimmons Research Group of the Open University of Catalonia, is well known for crowdsourcing the Barcelona policies on the sharing economy. She provided numerous examples on collaborations between the public sector and the entrepreneurs from the Sharing Econonmy in Catalonia. Èlia Ferrer, Public Affairs Manager at mytaxi The Taxi App, explained how for citizens what matters is the easy access to a service and its capacity to answer a specific need.

Business in a changing world

The group moderated by Aurora Sanz, Lawyer  at Grant Thornton, focused on the support to entrepreneurs. The sharing economy representing a wide span of very different types of businesses, it can be difficult for governments to navigate. Jean-Luc Vanraes, President of the AER Committee on Economy and Regional Development highlighted the difficulty to decide how to tax new services in the context of a new economy. A harmonised tax on digital services at global level in 2020 will simplify the situation. Mar Alarcón, CEO of SocialCar, a car sharing company explained how close contact with the Catalan government when developping the company, enabled them to provide feedback on existing legislation and advise on needed changes. This contact also ensured the company was gathering right type of data, regarding mobility and usages, to inform the government. Camille Lepinay shared experiences from the EU-Give project, a pilot project on the sharing economy initiated by the European Parliament, while Philippe Eiselein from the Chair on Social Entrepreneurship at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel presented elements of success for social entrepreneurs. Together the group agreed that key success factors were:

  • people: A team can change the business plan along the way, ideas do evolve. Investors are very serious about people and teams.
  • space for interaction between peers: to achieve this, some would recomend the support and creation of incubators while others thought there were actually too many incubators
  • a clear vision

Skills and Competences

Governments also face challenges in the field of education and training, as it is likely that children and students today will have jobs which don’t even yet exist. In this context David Vuylsteke, founder of PiggyBee, a crowdshipping company and Lieza Dessein, Project manager at SMart, a cooperative supporting freelancers and empowering enrepreneurs, insisted on the need for peer learning, ceativity from an early age and acceptance of failure. The sharing economy is rarely adressed in economy lessons and more contacts and cooperations with entrepreneurs can be very beneficial for students. The digital transformation is not only about digital skills, it is also very much about interpersonnal skills, the ability to build connections and networks, to engage others. Creative hubs are a powerful tool in that respect as they provide a space where entrepreneurs meet others in a more engaging and facilitated way than mere co-working spaces.

Ethics: what is good, what should be supported?

The founder of Consumo Colaborativo, a Spanish language blog dedicated to exploring the trend of collaborative consumption Albert Cañigueral, facilitated a discussion around ethics, inclusion and how to define what is good and should be suported in the sharing economy. He reminded participants that technology doesn’t exist in the void, it exists in a legal and cultural context. The discussion brought together Víctor Moyano, a Project Manager at the Fundación Creafutur, a public-private initiative which identifies business opportunities with positive social and environmental impact, raises awareness and advises stakeholders, Xavier Marichal, the CEO of USITOO, a platform where users can borrow “things” instead of buying them and Dimitri Berliner, cofounder of Communa, an organisation which develops shared spaces in empty buildings. Contributors found that the platform economy intersects with several aspects: legal, social, taxation. More people are willing to share and provide services and while platforms are providing massive opportunities, key questions to be addressed to know what kind of stakeholders should b supported by governments could be:

-how to ensure these services are accessible?

-What about decent working conditions?

-How is the value generated by those activities shared?

-What is the model of governance of the business?

In general there is a need to make a difference between the many types of stakeholders of the sharing economy who can have diverging purposes. As Lieza Dessein mentioned in her keynote address, the narrative of the original sharing economy has been adopted by companies from the platform economy, which do not share collaborative values. This has created confusion both for users and for governments. Lieza Dessein proposed that the cooperative and sharing economy stakeholders reinvent a new narrative to be able to differentiate themselves from the other platforms.

Contributors in the discussion group on ethics, inclusion and social cohesion also suggested that “frictions” be potentially created to slow dow the pace of the sharing economy to adjust and make improvements on access, benefits, etc. The codes of conducts and guidelines adopted by some regions could be replicated in other regions and combined across different levels of governance (national, regional, local). At the moment regulation across Europe is uneven, which is why contributors in this groups advocated for harmonised rules.

Mutual learning for policy innovation

This was the third year in a row that AER organised this special kind of mutual learning event on a current and transversal topic together with Brussels Capital. Previous events focused on “E-health: let’s find a common language” and “Artificial Intelligence: are regions up to the challenge?“. Stakeholders from the private and public sector, industry specialists, entrepreneurs, and policy makers engaged in genuine exchange. The idea being to share and discuss initiatives which can be implemented right away, not to develop an official declaration. This contributes to creating an environment of trust and free speech.

A major asset of these events is also to discover initiatives and hear of stories first hand. Entrepreneurs presented their work in the afternoon, which prove both exciting and interesting. Moreover, participants also had the opportunity to test Scooty’s shared electric scooters during the break, which was very entertaining.

In a setting where each participant is a contributor, this event aimed to generate new ideas, challenge people to think further and inspire policymaking.

Presentations,  pictures and the list of participants are available on the event webpage.

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Fund your project in the 2nd call of the Black Sea Basin Programme 2014-2020

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The Black Sea Basin Programme 2014-2020 is back with a second call for project proposals. In September, panels at the AER 7th Black Sea Summit discussed topics closely related to the programme’s focus on business development and environmental protection. This call is a great opportunity for AER members to translate the ideas discussed in Odessa (UA) into concrete action.

As part of the European Union’s Cross-Border Cooperation (CBC) under the European Neighborhood Instrument (ENI), the programme makes funding available to applicants from regions in Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Turkey, and Ukraine as well as to applicants throughout all of Armenia, Georgia, and Moldova. A list of all eligible regions can be found here.

Grants between 300.000 and 1.500.000 EUR will be rewarded to partnerships of  3 to 6 public authorities, bodies governed by public law, and non-profit organizations. The projects must last between 18 and 30 months and cover at least 8% of eligible costs with national co-financing.

Find a topic

Projects should address the programme’s overarching objectives and priorities:

  1. Promote business and entrepreneurship within the Black Sea Basin
    • Priority 1.1. Jointly promote business and entrepreneurship in the tourism and cultural sectors
    • Priority 1.2. Increase cross-border trade opportunities and modernisation in the agricultural and connected sectors
  1. Promote coordination of environmental protection and joint reduction of marine litter in the Black Sea Basin
    • Priority 2.1. Improve joint environmental monitoring
    • Priority 2.2. Promote common awareness-raising and joint actions to reduce river and marine litter

Dig deeper into expectations for project topics and gain a more detailed understanding of the call by reading the Applicants Pack. The Black Sea Basin Programme also has a very thorough FAQ section on their website to help you navigate the application process.

Strengthen your application

As you develop your idea, read through projects that have already been awarded through the programme. This will allow you to make sure that someone else has not already carried out your idea. Meanwhile, you can note the characteristics of the kinds of projects that tend to get funding and begin to imagine new avenues for action.

Keep in mind that the project applications will be evaluated on the basis of the project’s cross-border added value, sustainability, and capacity to enhance knowledge and skills. When looking for partners, be sure of their relevance to the project’s aims. A strong application will clearly communicate these characteristics of the project and the partnership corresponding to the call.

Get started!

The call opened on 1 October 2018, and applicants can request clarifications from the Joint Technical Secretariat until 17 January 2019. To be considered for selection, submit your project proposal online by 31 January 2019 at 14:00  (GMT+2).

We encourage you to get in touch with the AER Project Unit if you have any questions or would like to find potential partners to join your application.

European Projects

Agnese Pantaloni

Phone: +32 2 400 10 52
E-mail: a.pantaloni(at)aer.eu
Skype ID: agnesepanta
Languages: it, en, pt

Articles by Agnese


  • EU funding
  • Calls for projects and tenders
  • Partner search

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Need funds? Answer Interreg Alpine Space’s 4th call for project proposals

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We have good news for Alpine regions looking for access to project funding. Interreg Alpine Space has opened its fourth call for proposals. Eligible public and private organisations must belong to the Alpine Space, which covers all of Austria, Liechtenstein, Slovenia, and Switzerland, as well as several regions in France, Germany, and Italy.

This call follows a two-step application that will end in September 2019, when the Interreg Alpine Space committee will select the projects funded. These projects must involve partners from at least four different countries and may run for a maximum of 33.5 months.

Find a topic

To get a chunk of the call’s  24,8 million EUR of project funding, submit project ideas that match the programme’s four priorities:

1) Innovative Alpine Space

2) Low carbon Alpine Space

3) Liveable Alpine Space

4) Well-governed Alpine Space

Projects that get the green light will engage with digitalisation, shifts in lifestyle, demographic change, the implementation of environmental policy, participative governance, or social innovation. AER members will already be well acquainted with these issues given the emphasis placed on them recently in the committees and in projects pursued by AER.

You can find a more detailed list of favoured topics in the call’s Terms of reference.

Strengthen your application

When you are developing your proposal, keep in mind that the programme will avoid funding projects that replicate the work of those that have come before. Check the list of projects funded in the first three calls to make sure your proposal is original. You may even be inspired to build upon the successes of past Interreg Alpine Space projects or take an old idea in a new direction.

Also be sure to take full advantage of the many opportunities offered by Interreg Alpine Space to learn about the programme’s expectations and bounce your ideas off other applicants. The programme will hold various national info days  through mid-October, including several in AER member regions. Then from 23-24 October the MEET and MATCH Forum in Salzburg (AT) will allow applicants to make face-to-face connections with potential partners.

Is online feedback and collaboration more your speed? Join the project idea community to get the ball rolling.

Get started!

If you are interested in developing a project, there is little time to waste. Applicants must submit an Expression of Interest (EoI) via this online tool by 1:00 pm, 12 December 2018. Then, the expressions of interest selected can submit the full application forms by 1:00 pm, 5 June 2019.

As always, AER Project Unit is here to answer any questions you may have and is happy to put you in touch with partners from our member regions.

European Projects

Agnese Pantaloni

Phone: +32 2 400 10 52
E-mail: a.pantaloni(at)aer.eu
Skype ID: agnesepanta
Languages: it, en, pt

Articles by Agnese


  • EU funding
  • Calls for projects and tenders
  • Partner search

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Umbria and Maramures: the power of social entrepreneurship

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The AER Committees are a space for experience exchange, which enable mutual learning and regional policy innovation. During the 2018 Spring plenary of the AER Committee on Social Policy and Public Health, members identified social entrepreneurship as a topic of high interest. This is why the President of the Committee  on Social Policy & Public Health, Mihai Ritivoiu invited Umbria (IT) and Maramures (RO) to share their experience on social entrpreneurship and initiate a discussion among members.

Pioneering social change

A social entrepreneurship does business focusing on a social purpose trying to bring a social change in the society. The Business encyclopedia says that the “social entrepreneurs combine commerce and social issues in a way that improves the lives of people connected to the cause. They don’t measure their success in terms of profit alone – success to social entrepreneurs means that they have improved the world, however they define that.”  Indeed, the main aim of social entrepreneurship is to bring a positive change in the society. After recognizing the social problems, the entrepreneurs achieve their objectives by using market-based strategies. At the European level, the definition of a social enterprise is built along three dimensions: an entrepreneurial dimension (with earned income generated by the sale of goods and services on the market, including through public contracting); a social dimension (the pursuit of an explicit social aim and delivery of products and services with a social connotation); a governance dimension (accountability, participation and transparency).

A diverse reality

Many commercial businesses would consider themselves to have social objectives, but social enterprises are distinctive because their social or environmental purpose remains central to their operation. The following examples show the wide spectrum covered by social entreprises:

  • Meet My Mama is a French foodtech startup that helps women with different cultural backgrounds to share their traditional dishes by cooking in events, organizing caterings or delivering food;
  • Soma Water creates a home water filtration solution that use the proceeds of the sales to bring safe drinking water to over 663 million people who don’t have access to water;
  • CO2 online is a German social enterprise focused on the environmental benefits. This enterprise assists private households in decreasing their consumption of energy and with this lower their CO2 emissions. At the same time, consumers benefit from lower energy bills;
  • Le Mat is a social franchise system of social entrepreneurs operating in tourism, hospitality and local development through the creation of hotels, hostels, and bed and breakfasts, as well as other tourism services. A specific feature of this social franchise is that it allows social franchisees to adapt their model to the local context, in terms of culture, geography, architecture, production of goods and social aspects.

In these examples is highlighted the rich variety of missions carried out by social entrepreneurs. Moreover, companies could have as goal to solve problems, hire people in need or both, open schools in far-flung areas, educate women in need, allow farmers and poor individuals to access low-interest credits, establish plants for waste treatment, plant trees and so on.

Social entrepreneurship: the driving force of regional development

According to OECD European Commission, Social entrepreneurship plays an important role in addressing social, economic, and environmental challenges while fostering inclusive growth, shared prosperity, and social inclusion. In response to the crisis and austerity, social enterprise demonstrates the ability to address societal needs and build social cohesion. Moreover, social entrepreneurship contributes to job creation, especially at local level, as well as to democratic participation and improvement of welfare services delivery.

Discussion at AER plenaries: Umbria and Maramures example of good practices

Nowadays, many questions have risen around social enterprises. Are they efficient? What is their social impact at a regional level? How can a region measure the social impact of a social enterprise? Last but not least, the most common argument is: how do you find the balance between social purpose and the economic success of the enterprise?
These and many other questions will be discussed in Vojvodina thanks to the experience that will be shared by Umbria region (IT) and Maramures (RO). Ms. Anna Ascani -dirigent of the department on social affairs and international relations at Umbria region- will present good practices developed in the last years in her region. She will show the different successes and obstacles that Umbria region is facing. While Mr. Florian Sălăjeanu -president of Asociația Profesională Neguvernamentală de Asistență Socială ASSOC Baia Mare in Maramures (RO)– will deepen the link between the scope of social enterprises and the meaning of social inclusion.

 

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Committee 2 Progress report Autumn 2018

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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 and to evaluate progress every six months.

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

Evaluating progress

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

Projects
Good practice sharing
Lobbying

The below progress report was compiled for the autumn 2018 plenary meeting in Novi Sad. It gives an overview of the situation, 6 months after the adoption of the work programme.

Projects

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

The SCIROCCO Exchange project, under the 3rd Health Programme, is based on the SCIROCCO project, which has resulted in the development of an online self-assessment tool for integrated care. The project will run from end 2018 to end 2020. It will support regions, mainly health and social care authorities for the adoption and the scaling-up of integrated care. The maturity matrix, at the core of the project, offers a tool for regions to better deliver integrated care for their citizens while at the same time empowering citizens. With this tool regions can assess their current status, revealing areas of strengths and also gaps in their capability managing the many activities needed in order to deliver integrated care.

The lead partner is the Scottish Government Health Agency Service, a new AER member. The consortium is composed by 14 organisations.

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

  •  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 an opportunity to raise awareness around the lesser-known notion of the Silver Economy. They 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 replaced the traditional AER Regional Innovation Award. The first Awards Ceremony took place on May 2018 in Brussels.

SEED is a two-year project: 10/2016 to 09/2018

  • HOME4LIFE – Certified smart and integrated living environments for ageing well

AER joined this project as supporting partner, upon the request of AGE Platform which is partner in the consortium. No budget or specific tasks assigned.

This project has been submitted within Horizon 2020 – CSA on “Supporting investment in smart living environments for ageing well through certification” and aims at the development of a European certification scheme fostering safe investments and supporting physical and technological retrofitting for what concerns age-friendly environments and accomodation.

The results of the evaluation should be known in 2018.

  • INTEGRATE PERMED project – The inter-regional linking infrastructure for implementation in personalised medicine (reserve list)

The INTEGRATE PERMED has been submitted under the Horizon 2020 Programme. It aims at linking the efforts in personalised medicine across European Regions by mapping them and then exchange of experiences between selected regions. The project will focus on breast cancer as a launching pathology to maintain focus. After validation, the approach will be replicated to other pathologies.

  • PATHWAY project – Pathway to social entrepreneurship

The PATHWAY project, under the Erasmus+ Programme, aims at providing learners with a training programme which meet their needs in the sector of social entrepreneurship. It also aims to raise awareness on the role social entrepreneurship can play in local development, fostering also be the establishment of links and cooperation between different stakeholders.

The multiplier event will be a collateral activity of the AER Summer Academy

  • Social Entrepreneur Key competencies – SEK project

Submitted within the Erasmus+ Programme, the Social Entrepreneurship Key competences (SEK) project strives for providing learners with specialized training in the sector of social entrepreneurship with a special focus on tourism.

Within this project, AER is in charge of organising an international information day, which will be the opportunity to share the project outcomes and to foster networking. AER is also in charge of a training session to test training course for social entrepreneurs. On top of that, AER will perform advocacy work in order to raise the attention on the project findings at regional and EU level.

The activities realised by the AER will take place in the scope of the Eurodyssey and the AER Youth Regional Network.

  • PIKTOGRAMA project – Visual thinking for social innovation

PIKTOGRAMA is a project submitted within Erasmus+ Programme. It focuses on design thinking approach as a method to empower non-profit organisation and implement original visual thinking tools to face new EU societal challenges (e.g. climate change). The project aims at raising awareness on this approach and the advantages it has in the social innovation context as well as stimulating its use by training the youths.

The project will provide regions with recommendations regarding design thinking, which can be an interesting method for non-profit organisations to approach social challenges.

The multiplier event will be a collateral activity within the Youth Regional Network General Assembly, thus creating synergies between AER programmes and the project.

  • Together for Cohesion: let’s rEUnite! project

The project will launch an integrated campaign “Together for Cohesion: let’s rEUnite!” with ongoing press functions and an activity mix which will allow us to achieve indirect and direct reach of the target audience.
The campaign centers on the stories of locals in regions in each of the five selected countries (Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Italy and Spain), as a highly-relatable focal points to convey the positive impact of Cohesion policy in people’s everyday lives.

The project is led by AER with the international communication agency MC Group (DE). The application was submitted to the DG Regio on the media calls for proposals.

The project is part of AER’s work on Cohesion Policy.

  • 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 also shared expertise and advice for the development of the project on youth mental health led by Catalonia and Norrbotten. The project is now in the final year where results will be published. The final conference will take place on 15-16 November in The Hague.

  •  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.

  • Event: EU funding for Croatian & Albanian regions

The event on EU funding for Croatian regions, hosted by Varaždin (HR) and Committee 3 President Radimir Čačić, and the event on EU funding for Albanian regions, hosted by Korcë (AL) and MEG member Ana Verushi brought together about 70 participants, both members and non members of AER to:

-hear about AER’s activities
-learn more on AER services for projects and services
-obtain information on the areas of cooperation with EU
-get a relevant update on the current and forthcoming EU funding opportunities
-become aware of the successful experiences of project applicants

 

Good Practice Sharing

  • Welcoming unaccompanied migrant children

Committee 2 members decided to share experiences on welcoming unaccompanied migrant children. In this context a Breakfast Briefing is being organised on welcoming unaccompanied migrant children in Novi Sad on 27 September, which will be led by the European Programme for Integration and Migration, an initiative of currently 25 private foundations, has the goal of strengthening the role played by civil society in advocating for constructive approaches to migration in Europe.

  • Exchange of experiences on social entrepreneurship (ongoing)

On the occasion of the Committee 2 plenary meeting in Novi Sad, Vojvodina (RS), members will discuss Social Entrepreneurship: multi-stakeholder collaboration & social cohesion. Good practices from Umbria (IT) and Maramures (RO) will be presented

  • Mutual learning event on the Sharing Economy (ongoing)

Each year Brussels Capital proposes a mutual learning event on a current and transversal topic. On December 4th 2018, Brussels Capital will organise a mutual learning event on the sharing Economy together with Catalonia, in Brussels, Brussels Capital Region (BE). This event organised upon the invitation of Committee 1 President Jean Luc Vanraes, aims to gather experiences from all three AER Committees and regions are welcome to share inputs and regional examples.

  • Leadership programme for policy makers on e-health, integrated care systems and health innovation (planned)

The AER e-health network wants to share good practices on leadership for the deployment of integrated care systems

  • AER e-health network activities (planned)

The AER e-health network has achieved the objectives it had set at its creation. The plenary meeting in Arad was the opportunity to set new objectives. These include good practice sharing on

-risks of digital exclusion
-business models
-data protection, profiling & mass surveillance
-Artificial intelligence, bots

  • Equal access to healthcare (planned)

The AER Group on Equal Opportunities has identified equal access to health as the main topic to be addressed in Committee 2. This includes:

-vulnerable groups: meet them where they are & help them
– exchange good practices on reducing barriers to care & access to services

 

Advocacy/ Lobbying

  • Cohesion Policy Activities: ongoing

Building on AER’s role in advocating for a strong cohesion policy, and following the adoption of a position paper on the future of cohesion policy post 2020 at the Bureau meeting in Sankt Pölten, Lower Austria (AT) on 1 June 2017, AER will continue to convene and deliver joint policy influencing work for the future cohesion policy by:

  • Holding regular debates on cohesion policy among members and between members and relevant stakeholders, such as the “Cohesion Policy: are you getting anything out of it?” debate during the AER Committees’ Autumn Plenary Meeting in Nancy on 12 September.
  • Gathering facts and figures on cohesion investments results and impact for a evidence-based advocacy.
  • Disseminating the AER position on future cohesion policy to key stakeholders and decision-makers in-country (in coordination with member regions) and in Brussels.
  • Working together with other European associations of regions, municipalities and cities and the Committee of the Regions to generate broader support for regions interests and policy proposals, including #CohesionAlliance created to demand that the EU budget after 2020 makes cohesion policy stronger, more effective, visible and available for every region in the European Union.

The Task Force on Cohesion Policy post 2020 will continue to support the work of AER in this field, providing strategic direction and oversight.

These actions aim to ensure European regions engage in the future cohesion policy discussions at regional, national and European level, and meaningfully contribute to the design and implementation of a stronger and more effective reformed policy.

  • AER Bureau Task Forces

The 2018 Spring Bureau established the creation of Task Forces on dedicated topics. These Task Forces will gather examples, identify and formulate policy messages which will be brought together in position papers which will then be used for advocacy. Members who would like to contribute to one of the below Task Forces should contact AER Coordinator for Advocacy & Institutionnal Relations Vania Freitas

-Task Force on Food

-Task force on Digitalisation

-Task Force on Migration

-Task Force on Social Innovation

The Committees’ work programmes and the AER action Plan

The developement of the Action Plan is a collective process to enable all participants to specify needs and decide to initiate activities which add value for their region. The principle is the following: as long as an action fits with the AER values, is in line with the AER priorities and has support from other regions, it can be included in the Committees work programmes. The work programmes are developped in Spring each year.

The AER action plan is the consolidation of the three Committees’ work programmes with all other activities led by the Bureau and the Executive Board. It is adopted at the General Assembly.

Members can propose new joint initiatives at any time during the year, these are then approved by the Executive Board and included in the Committees work programmes and the AER action plan.Follow AER!

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Coming to Vojvodina? Join our Summer Academy meeting!

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If you have not yet heard about the AER Summer Academy, then you should join us at our next meeting on Thursday 27 September – during the AER Autumn Plenaries in Novi Sad (Vojvodina, SRB)– in order to find out more about what this initiative can offer your region. Registrations for the Plenaries are closing on Friday 14 September! 

What is AER Summer Academy’s mission?

According to its Statute –recently approved by the AER General Assembly– the programme aims to:

  • To facilitate the exchange of experience and good practices between regions on issues of common interest.
  • To facilitate exchanges between policy makers and young people.
  • To support mutual learning.
  • To promote regional democracy in Europe & implementation of the principle of subsidiarity.
  • To provide an opportunity for regional representatives to build networks with their peers across wider Europe.
  • To foster interregional co-operation.
  • To highlight regional good practices and promote the host region
  • To promote European construction, European identity, between young people

Join our Summer Academy Organising Committee !

The AER Summer Academy Organising Committee (SAOC) is looking for new regional partners. There are many benefits to hosting an AER Summer Academy, including opportunities to:

  • learn about EU affairs;
  • network with experts and European counterparts;
  • promote the cultural heritage of your region; and
  • empower young people.

Our next meeting will be held on Thursday 27 September on the sidelines of the Plenary in Novi Sad. It will be a good opportunity for non-member regions of the Summer Academy to know more about this programme. You will have an opportunity to meet the members of the SAOC, watch a short video of the past edition in Maramures, listen to Vojvodina’s proposal for 2019, and provide comments and feedback to the committee members. Please, do not hesitate to contact Andrés Muñoz Rojo at the AER Secretariat for further information.

Looking forward to seeing you in Novi Sad!

Photo credits: @Maramures County CouncilFollow AER!

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Watch the official video of the 2018 Summer Academy in Maramures

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We are delighted to share with you this video of the 2018 AER Summer Academy produced by Maramures’ audiovisual services. This film definitely reflects what the programme has to offer to regions and participants: mutual learning, networking with experts and professionals, discovering the heritage treasures of the host region, empowering young people, gaining hands-on experience through study visits… and also having lots of fun and making friends from various regions in Europe!

All these components together result in a comprehensive experience full of beautiful memories that remain forever!

Join our Summer Academy Organising Committee !

The AER Summer Academy Organising Committee (SAOC) is looking for new regional partners willing to contribute to this great initiative and have the possibility to tap into the multiple benefits of hosting an AER Summer Academy.

Our next meeting will take place in Novi Sad (Vojvodina, SRB) on Thursday 27 September, within the AER Autumn Committee Plenaries. This will be a good opportunity for non-member regions of the Summer Academy to know more about this AER’s flagship programme and the very fresh proposal for the 2019 edition.

Please, do not hesitate to contact Andrés Muñoz Rojo at the AER Secretariat for further information.

And a few last messages…

To this year’s participants: hope you enjoyed this wonderful experience as much as the organisation team did!

To potential participants: what are you waiting for to join us in next editions?

To Maramures region: A big thanks for this great audiovisual work and for making this year’s edition a total success!

Photo credits: @Maramures County Council

Video credits: @Inside Media Baia Mare (Maramures County Council)Follow AER!

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Discussing Cultural Heritage at the 2018 Summer Academy Plenary Sessions

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Over the course of five days regional politicians, officers and youth representatives from the AER member regions gathered together for the 2018 AER Summer Academy in Maramures (RO). The opening ceremony on the morning of 7 August was followed by the first of three plenary sessions spread over the week, in which experts and professionals working in this domain provided revealing insights into the question on what is at stake –from a regional perspective– for cultural heritage in Europe.

EU Cultural Policies and Funding Programs

The first session was on the topic of ‘EU cultural policies and funding programmes’ and how they serve in protecting and promoting cultural heritage. Virgil Ș. Nițulescu, from the Ministry of Culture and National Identity in Romania outlined the evolution of cultural policies at the national and EU levels. A point he stressed was that even before any steps were taken to establish cultural policies in legislation, countries in fact already had cultural policies even though they may not have been set down in writing. The principal entity advocating for cultural policy was the Council of Europe who, through the ‘European Cultural Convention’ of 1954, urges each contracting party to take appropriate measures with a view to developing a common cultural heritage in Europe. As a result, in 1985  its flagship programme ‘European Programme of National Cultural Policy reviews’ was launched to assess the state of the cultural policies of each member state. Finally, Mr. Nițulescu emphasised the significant role that creative industries play in the global economy, being amongst the fastest growing sectors in the world and generating considerable amount of revenues and jobs; especially among youth aged 15-29.

The second half of the session was conducted by Steliana Cojocariu from the Romanian Ministry of Tourism who explained her department’s involvement in the Council of Europe’s ‘Cultural Routes’; a programme which was initiated in 1987. To date, it has over 30 routes connecting different countries covering a range of different themes from architecture and religion to gastronomy as well as providing revealing figures on European music, literature and art. The Cultural Routes are an invitation to travel and discover the rich and diverse cultural heritage of Europe creating a network that brings people and places from different countries and cultures together.

The end of the session, reserved for questions from the audience, boosted some interesting discussions. For instance, the scope of cultural promotion was raised as a means of battling xenophobia and racism by promoting inclusiveness.

Relevance of Culture and Creativity for Youth

The second plenary session focused on the relevance of culture and creativity for youth, underscoring the role of youth in preserving Cultural Heritage. Ramona Culda –from the National Board of Employers and SMEs in Romania– presented ‘Creative START’, a 4-year project kicking off this year. Its aim is to actively support small and emerging businesses in the creative industries started by youth in the North West region of Romania. In total, 600 people from the region out of which 50% are women, will benefit from training courses focusing on the development of entrepreneurial competences. 75 of these will then receive a grant to start their own business as well as support for the first two years of implementation. The project can be very valuable to young people who are in the creative industries as they are instructed in creating and implementing a business plan.

Ion Georgescu, co-founder of the Comana Paper Mill Association (Moara de Hârtie, RO), explained how his association –dedicated to book-related crafts: handmade paper, letterpress printing and bookbinding– was established in 2011. In 2016, other traditional crafts were added through the Comana Crafts Village, a space designed to revive, preserve and transmit the Romanian crafts. Ion Georgescu described it as a “social economy initiative” – even though it is not formally classified as such– as the project has created jobs for people in the village who would have no other way of getting a formal job. Through crafts they have helped communities complement their income. Their work also targets the younger generation. 80% of what they do is about working with children by organising workshops for school groups. Despite crafts being part of the local cultural heritage, Ion raised concerns about the fact that if young people are not trained in this, crafts will eventually disappear. To Ion, crafts is very much about preserving identity.

Bert Ludwig, Director of European Heritage Volunteers, talked about cultural heritage through his professional experience running the European Heritage Volunteers projects. Created in Germany in 1992, they work mainly in rural areas with a hands-on approach. The idea is to get people directly involved in cultural heritage initiatives; to “infect people with the virus of heritage as it is through involvement that we build a connection and respect for culture”. In addition to this, volunteers can acquire skills and the know-how which is being transferred from the older generation, establishing an inter-generational dialogue.

Dora David, ESN (Erasmus Student Network) National Representative of Romania, and Diana Sabo, Vice-President of the Federation of Youth NGOs in Maramures, talked about the importance of cultural heritage both for individuals’ identity but also in terms of a “collective good”. Dora David explained that a significant part of what the ESN does is to get the students involved in local society. They do this by organising different activities which allow the students to discover the local culture as well as exchanging one another’s cultural knowledge. For Diana Sabo, “what connects us as a community is our cultural heritage which includes the values we obtain from education”. In her view, “learning about cultural heritage improves our understanding of the context we grew up in: it is our past, present and future. And it is by respecting our own heritage that we can also value others’ “.

Cultural Heritage enhancing Regional Attractiveness

The last plenary session, which took place on Friday 10 August, looked at cultural heritage as a tool for increasing regional attractiveness while also discussing the need for its sustainable use. Culture heritage holds a well-known economic potential, for instance, in the tourism sector but it is also an agent in the transmission of expertise, skills and knowledge between generations. The EU envisages it as a fragile wealth that needs to be preserved and passed on to future generations. And although cultural heritage can include intangible elements, it is important in giving value and a sense of identity to a region, helping to build its future. The challenge becomes for regions to find their own identity and cultural heritage and valorise it.

In this regard, Anamaria Diaconu, National Institute for Cultural Research and Training, presented some facts and figures from a mapping on cultural consumption in various regions at the national level. This has enabled an evaluation of the cultural situation at the national and regional levels allowing for a comparison between areas and raising issues for improvement. What the statistics evidenced was the low levels of participation in cultural heritage sites, including low perceptions of the benefits that cultural heritage can bring in terms of tourism development, economic benefits and other spillover effects.

Peter Hurley, founder of Intercultural Traditions Association (Maramures, RO), focused on the need of valorising and preserving cultural heritage in the Romanian context. Originally from Ireland, he moved to Romania almost a quarter of a century ago after being captivated by the richness of the country’s culture. He describes as a European challenge what he considers “the sinking of the last Romanian cultural heritage we have”. According to Peter, the cultural heritage in Romania is something still “alive”, as traditional forms of cultural expressions prevail over the passing of time whereas in other countries cultural heritage belongs to the past. Peter Hurley concluded that we all have a duty to preserve cultural heritage by convincing people that it is something worth saving.

Article by Mariangela Clendon
Eurodyssey trainee at Brussels International
(Brussels Capital-Region, BE)

Photo credits: @Maramures County CouncilFollow AER!

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An unforgettable Summer Academy in Maramures

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The 2018 AER Summer Academy held in Maramures, Romania brought together over 100 participants from various regions across Europe to discuss and learn about the many benefits that heritage and culture can bring to a region. Through a series of plenaries, workshops and study visits, the delegates had the chance to find out about how cultural heritage contributes to the vitality of their region while also discovering the beauty of Maramures’ heritage sites and traditions.

Knowledge-sharing and study visits

Many relevant insights came out of the plenary sessions and workshops where the participants held debates on wide-ranging topics, such as the multiple positive effects of cultural heritage on regions’ prosperity; the role of youth in preserving the future of heritage sites; the growing importance of creative and traditional industries in the field of culture; and many others.

The Norwegian Youth Festivals of Art (UKM) from Østfold County Council (NO) provided the Summer Academy, in-between meetings, with a magnificent ‘soundtrack’ (to the delight of the participants!) through live performances of their young talented singers and musicians.

Last but not least, the Summer Academy delegates also had the opportunity to discover, through study visits and practical workshops, the local traditions and heritage treasures of Maramures – the UNESCO wooden churches, the restored monuments of the city of Baia Mare and the traditional local crafts and potteries.

The closing ceremony of the Summer Academy was later followed by the inauguration of the urban art work on the Youth House wall in Baia Mare carried out by Strokar artists.

Acknowledgements

AER would like first to thank Maramures County Council (RO) and its great team of devoted professionals for ensuring a success implementation of the programme. We also want to thank the locals for their warm hospitality.

A big thank you also to the Summer Academy Organising Committee (SAOC) members –  Brussels Capital Region (BE), Province of Flevoland (NL), Østfold County Council (NO), Autonomous Province of Vojvodina (SRB), Jönköping County Council (S), Canton of Zürich (CH) and Friuli Venezia Giulia (IT), because without their valuable contribution, the Summer Academy would not have been possible one more year.

And finally, you! The participants, who every year bring to the Summer Academy lots of enthusiasm, success stories and good practices that inspire our day-to-day work.

All the presentations, pictures and videos of the 2018 AER Summer Academy will be public very soon at the AER event page.

See you in 2019 for the next edition! 

Photo credits: @Maramures County CouncilFollow AER!

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Gävleborg: Virtual reality to communicate the essence of a heritage site

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At AER Summer Academy in Maramures, Ms Sofie Notstrand of Region Gävleborg (SE) will deliver a workshop entitled “Communicating the essence of a heritage site” on virtual reality and storytelling techniques to visualise, communicate and bring out the narrative potential of a place. The workshop will showcase ways to explore different methodologies to describe a location in a suggestive way. Indeed, the Region of Gävleborg has worked in the last years to develop projects that highlight what the region can do to promote conservation, digitisation, infrastructure, research, and skills development.

One of the main projects is The Virtual Heritage project, which was initiated by the world heritage site “The Decorated Farm Houses of Hälsingland” within the framework of the European year of cultural heritage 2018. Ms Notstrand has been working on it, creating a room designed for a VR (virtual reality) exhibition of the Cultural World Heritage with the goal of developing a VR experience in a museum that allows visitors to get access without guidance from the staff on the spot. This has meant adapting the room in an unique way to make it enjoyable and accessible during the users’ tour.

Methodology

 During the workshop, Ms Notstrand will give practical examples to make stories come alive; she will show how to:

  • focus on the different senses and aspects of a location;
  • present it through a storytelling approach;
  • involve a wider range of visitors.

The participants are asked to take active part of the exercises and to keep an open mind in order to become fully involved in the workshop. 

Take-away

This workshop will give the participants a practical experience of how to:

  • exploit a narrative in different ways;
  • make heritage accessible to a wider range of people;
  • create an embodied understanding of an object or place narrative potential.

Registrations open!

If you want to participate in this workshop and in many others, just check the Summer Academy practical information and then fill in the registration form available at the AER event page for the 2018 Summer Academy in Maramures (RO).

Check every detail of the event by clicking on the link below!

2018 AER Summer Academy in Maramures

Credits Photo: Jeshoots.com on UnsplashFollow AER!

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AER & the Rhine-Alpine Corridor EGTC

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On 7 June 2018, on the occasion of the  Interregional Alliance for the Rhine-Alpine Corridor EGTC conference, AER Secretary General Mathieu Mori presented the experience of AER member regions which are part of a European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC). AER aims to strengthen the cooperation with the European Corridors to help regions cooperate more along territorial axes which matter for them and engage regions across corridors.

Facilitating cooperation along European corridors

The main objective of the Rhine-Alpine Corridor EGTC is to facilitate territorial cooperation among its members and promote integrated development of the multimodal  from the regional and local perspective. The EGTC is a legal framework that helps public entities of different Member States to work together and develop projects under a new entity with full legal personality.
The conference has been the occasion to underline the importance of a joint and coordinated development of an European Corridor.

Case studies from AER members

At the workshop about “Experience with the EGTC as a legal Form” AER Secretariat Mathieu Mori spoke about AER’s members within EGTCs and illustrated four case studies:

  • Central European Transport Corridor EGTC, a Baltic-Adriatic transport corridor;
  • Euroregio Tyrol-South Tyrol-Trentino, a cooperation between Tyrol, South Tyrol and Trentino in different projects;
  • Euroregio Senza Confini, an association between Veneto (IT), Friuli-Venezia Giulia (IT) and Karnten (AT);
  • EGTC Alzette-Belval, brings together the regions of Grand Est (FR), Region Wallonie (BE), Luxemburg and the german regions of Rheinland-Pfalz and Saarland (DE).

He gave an overview of their objectives, fields of actions, their expectations for the future and presented the experiences of each with a look at the common points in order to see if the Interregional alliance for the Rhine-Alpine Corridor is a good example of interregional cooperation and if EGTC is a good tool for cross-border cooperation. The conclusion shared by Mathieu Mori showed that in all the case studies EGTC is considered as a useful tool for cooperation and it has facilitated the dialogue between different institutions, being a neutral place of cooperation and a stable partner.
It is possible to see the presentation and find synthesised the main outputs presented at the conference (presentation here).

Together in one corridor

The Interregional Alliance for the Rhine-Alpine Corridor EGTC has been established three years ago. This alliance gather 21 members from cities, regions and ports along the corridor.
The EGTC acts as an interface, as an intermediate entity facilitating consultation and dialogue between the different levels of government and between the various stakeholders from public and private scope. One of the purposes is to influence positively the sustainable development of the EU territory through the creation of one shared strategy between corridors.

Follow Up

  • Communication is now established between AER and the  EGTC Platform coordinated by the Committee of the Regions
  • The Working Group on Transport and Mobility will discuss the collaboration with the Rhine Alpine corridor and other corridors at the AER Autumn Committee Plenary in Vojvodina.
    This will be an opportunity to plan the development of cooperations between and alongside European Corridors

Useful Links

Interactive map of European Transport and Mobility corridors

EGTC Platform

 

Photo credits: Rhine-Alpine Corridor EGTCFollow AER!

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Heritage restored: Maramures and its unique projects

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Maramures, Romania is the beautiful region that will host the AER Summer Academy from 6 to 10 August 2018.  It is a unique region, typified by picturesque countryside, small villages, rolling hills, pastures, and meadows full of wildflowers . This is where culture and traditions have been carefully preserved.

This year’s AER Summer Academy in Maramures themed “Cultural Heritage for Regional Attractiveness” coincides with the European Year of Cultural Heritage. This is the perfect match for the Maramures region, an outstanding example of how cultivating heritage enriches the lives of citizens and stimulates tourism.

One workshop, two successful case-studies

The AER will hold a workshop in the Butchers’ Bastion, one of the oldest buildings (15th century) in the city of Baia Mare (county residence city). The ‘Restoration of Butchers’ Bastion’ project,  funded by EEA Grants and developed together with Norwegian partners, saw the restoration of all structures that has been in an advanced state of dereliction.

What stands out about the ‘Restoration of Butchers’ Bastion’ project is that it is aimed not only at restoring the Butchers’ Bastion, but also at revitalising it by creating a multi-functional area that will contribute to integrating the monument into the cultural and touristic circuit of the city.  There is now a multi-media room, an exhibition area, a workshop area, a small amphitheater for visitors and a tourist information office. Many cultural and educational activities, run by the County Museum of History and Archeology, have taken place in Butchers’ Bastion since the reopening.

The workshop will also look at another project: ‘The Circuit of Wooden Churches’. This ambitious project has added enormous value to sixteen wooden churches, out of which seven are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The project involves different areas and sites and has contributed to developing the access to the monuments by rehabilitated roads, fences, parking spaces, and, on top of this, has created architectural lighting systems and sixteen tourism information centers, built solely out of wood, respecting the traditional architecture and design, of the region of Maramures.

Revealing the heritage legacy of Maramures

Participants will have the opportunity to be part of an interactive workshop that will allow them to discover the cultural heritage of Maramures.

The workshop is divided into four parts:

  • Visit and presentation of Butchers’ Bastion project;
  • Discussion  with project staff;
  • Knowledge sharing about cultural and educational activities that can be organised in a restored monument;
  • Wrap-up session, a documentary  film, The Circuit of Wooden Churches’ of Maramures, will be projected followed by a final discussion about the value of cultural heritage.

Take-away

Participants will gain hands-on experience and will learn about how a monument becomes the historical legacy of a county and how a restored monument can benefit locals and tourists.

Following this, the participants will have the chance to visit some of the most famous UNESCO world heritage sites’ wooden churches in Maramures.

Registrations open!

If you want to participate in this workshop (and in many others!) just check out the Summer Academy practical information and then fill in the registration form available at the AER event page for the 2018 Summer Academy in Maramures (RO).

Check every detail of the event by clicking on the link below!

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Policy responses to EU tourism’s challenges

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Tourism is an important economic sector for most of our member regions, and the call for partners of the Municipality of Pescocostanzo in Abruzzo (IT) is a good example.

Yet current trends, either economic, social or ecological, impact touristic development’s possibilities and represent a challenge for European regions especially those who depend heavily on this sector.

The European Parliament has issued a briefing on Major Challenges for EU tourism and policy responses. It provides useful information regarding these challenges, their impact on tourism in Europe through numerous data and policies implemented to help tourist sector. Furthermore, funding opportunities and their possible use for tourism-related activities are listed in this briefing.

It brings new information and perspective and thus complete the Guide on EU funding for the tourism sector

Here is the briefing from the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS):

Major challenges for EU tourism and policy responseFollow AER!

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Do you want to exchange on tourism practices?

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The Municipality of Pescocostanzo (IT) – which is located in our member region Abruzzo – is working on the development on a new project regarding tourism and is looking for other actors interested in cooperating with them on this topic.

The overall objective of the project is to increase the tourism development of the region thanks to the comparison of tourist methods used by cities and towns in Europe. The main goal is to offer citizens the opportunity to discover different culture, to bring them closer to European institutions and to make them feel citizens of a broader territory.

The project will be developped in the following areas:

  • economy and especially boosting green jobs
  • environment
  • tourism
  • administrative experiences
  • stimulation of synergies and exchange of good practices among the twin municipalities

The project would allow partners to exchange experiences and good practices and improve their situation in the fields mentioned above. The ideal partner would be European cities which share these needs and wish to do twinning and learn from each others.

This project could take place within the forthcoming calls of Europe for Citizens programme, on the measure “Twinning between cities” or “Networks of municipalities”, or in another relevant programme.

If you are interested to learn more about this project or to be involved in the partnership, please come back to us by June 2018.

Contact

European Projects

Agnese Pantaloni

Phone: +32 2 400 10 52
E-mail: a.pantaloni(at)aer.eu
Skype ID: agnesepanta
Languages: it, en, pt

Articles by Agnese


  • EU funding
  • Calls for projects and tenders
  • Partner search

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