Projects

The BE-Rural project aims to realise the potential of regional and local bio-based economies by supporting a wide group of stakeholders to participate in the development of bioeconomy strategies and roadmaps. It focuses particularly on five regions, namely Stara Zagora (Bulgaria), Szczecin Lagoon and Vistula Lagoon (Poland), Strumica (Macedonia), Covasna (Romania) and Vidzeme and Kurzeme (Latvia), each of which had strong potential in specific bio-based sectors (e.g. essential oils and herbs for cosmetics/pharmaceuticals; small-scale fisheries; agricultural residues; and forestry). BE-Rural will stimulate learning and the co-creation of knowledge within each individual region, but also between the five regions, and at a wider European level.

To visit the BE-Rural website, click here.

TRACER aims to support a number of coal-intensive regions around Europe to design (or re-design) their research and innovation strategies in order to facilitate their transition towards a sustainable energy system.

The project focuses on nine regions. These are South East Bulgaria, North West Bohemia (CZ), Lusatian Lignite District (DE), West Macedonia (GR), Upper Silesian Coalfield (PL), West Romania and Wales (UK) within the EU, and Kolubara (Serbia) and Donetsk (Ukraine) outside the EU.

Core activities include:

• bringing together a wide range of stakeholders in each target region to discuss and agree on a shared vision and priorities for coal transition
• joint development of R&I strategies, industrial roadmaps and decision support tools
• identification and analysis of best practice examples of successful and ambitious transition processes in coal intensive regions
• assessment of social, environmental and technological challenges
• the elaboration of guidelines on how to mobilise investment
• activities to stimulate R&I cooperation among coal intensive regions in Europe and beyond.

To visit the TRACER website, click here.  

The evaluation will focus on the Programme’s contributions to NPA targets and objectives, which focus specifically on the needs of remote and peripheral communities, and also to cooperation and development in the Arctic and Europe 2020 Strategy.

EPRC is working as part of consortium led by ÖIR, on the project which involves work to develop an improved set of territorial indicators for ETC programmes to help support  setting investment priorities, strategic programming, monitoring and evaluation. The work focuses on 12 case study programmes: Austria-Czech Republic, Central Baltic, Central Europe, Deutschland-Nederland, Italy-Austria, Italy-Croatia, Mediterranean, North West Europe, South Baltic, South West Europe, Sweden-Denmark-Norway, and the Two Seas programme. The consortium is led by ÖIR GmbH, Austrian Institute for Regional Studies.

EPRC is coordinating a study for the European Commission aimed at enhancing the understanding of the planned and implemented use of Technical Assistance (TA) under EU Cohesion Policy programmes during the 2014-20 period. Given the important contribution of Technical Assistance to the successful implementation of Cohesion Policy, the study will provide a better understanding of the use of TA and present cases of TA-funded sustainable capacity building activities, particularly in the area of Human Resources Development.

From a policy perspective, the key issues are whether and how TA is being used to strengthen the administrative capacity of Member States for implementing Operational Programmes and projects. The project also seeks to understand whether this Technical Assistance investment is sustainable – whether TA is planned and monitored to ensure the strengthening of administrative capacity beyond the life of an OP.

The project is led by a core team comprising EPRC and Red2Red researchers, and involves also a team of National Experts in the Member States.

The project aimed to provide a better understanding of the potential and the use of synergies among EU funds in the field of research and innovation in the agri-food sector. The study was managed by Stefan Kah in cooperation with Markus Gruber of convelop.

The research showed that there is a broad variety of support instruments available for innovation in agriculture, covering all stages of the innovation process. However, they are not necessarily linked to each other and operate independently, making the creation of synergies challenging. Also, a high complexity and different sets of rules, particularly between direct and shared management instruments, deter policy-makers from pursuing synergies.

Synergies do not easily develop automatically, but have to be supported proactively. The research identified four key success factors, as well as three supporting factors:

• Enablers that can provide guidance and coordination in agricultural innovation systems

• Strategies that define objectives and priorities

• Incentives that make synergies worth the additional effort and associated risk

• Harmonisation of rules between different instruments and associated simplification

• Supporting factors: transparency, trust and culture

The full report is available here (from page 172).

This study aims to address the 'territorial gap' in financial instruments research, looking at the spatial incidence of FIs, their added value and the extent to which different territorial features and governance mechanisms help or hinder the use of FI in regional development policy. It is being undertaken for ESPON by a consortium also comprising TU Delft in the Netherlands, Nordregio in Sweden and Red2Red Consultores in Spain.

This study explores the experiences related to the use of financial instruments for regional development in Europe and policies to encourage their uptake. It draws on the experiences with financial instruments, principally in the EU member states, and considers both purely domestic and cofinanced instruments. The study is expected to be published by OECD in 2018 as part of an edited volume.

The project involves research on the contribution of Cohesion policy to citizens’ identification with the EU. Funded by Horizon 2020 and involving 10 research institutes and SMEs, the project provides new insights into the European identification of EU citizens and the effectiveness of strategies to communicate EU cohesion policy to citizens.

http://www.cohesify.eu/

The project involves mapping how integrated territorial approaches are being planned and implemented, gaining insights into progress and challenges. The research encompasses 800 integrated territorial strategies from across the EU, focusing on the factors influencing the way in which territorial strategies are set up and implemented and the effectiveness of the strategies.