Policy responses to the economic crisis, and the wider development of regional development policies at national and European levels, have been the subject of a series of 'knowledge exchange seminars' organised by EPRC with government officials in Warsaw and Berlin.
Drawing on the EU-wide regional development research undertaken by EPRC under the EoRPA research programme (available here), which is led by Professor Douglas Yuill, the seminars explored the implications of EPRC research for policy practice in Poland and Germany. The Poland seminar, on 14 December 2009, was hosted by the Polish Ministry of Regional Development and attended by policy officials from both central government and the Polish regions as well as academics from Warsaw and Gdansk.
A series of discussions was initiated by three papers presented by Professor Douglas Yuill and Dr Martin Ferry: "Regional policy under crisis conditions" (by D. Yuill and M. Ferry); "Rethinking the future of Cohesion policy "(D Yuill and J. Bachtler); and "Regional policy and demographic change "(M. Ferry). The meeting also saw the publication in Polish of EoRPA research originally presented at the annual EoRPA meeting held in Scotland in October 2008. The seminar presentations in Germany on 19 January 2010 were made to the key German Federal-State regional policy committee (the Unterausschuss Gemeinschaftsaufgabe 'Verbessrung der regionalen Wirtshcaftstruktur'), attended by senior regional policy officials from both the Federal and State levels. The presentations by Professor Douglas Yuill and Dr Sara Davies were based on ongoing work within EPRC on future EU policy frameworks which will impact on national regional policies across the EU post 2013: Die Zukunft der Kohasionspolitik: Szenarien und Policy-Folgen (J. Bachtler, F. Wishlade and D. Yuill); and Zukunft der EU-Regionalbeihilfen: Szenarien und Fragen (S. Davies and F. Wishlade).