Innovative Skills for Promoting Inclusive Rural Education in Central Europe

General Objective

INNOSKILLS-CE aims to strengthen skills for smart specialisation, industrial transition and entrepreneurship, with a particular focus on young people in rural and peripheral areas. Through the development of training programmes based on immersive technologies (augmented and virtual reality) and the creation of a digital Learning Management System platform, the project will enable students and businesses to experiment with innovative learning pathways that are more closely aligned with the needs of the labour market. The aim is to reduce brain drain, increase youth employability and promote the growth of SMEs in the manufacturing and technology sectors, while strengthening the economic and social cohesion of less developed areas.

Sfide territoriali affrontate

• Inland area of Lower Ferrara (Italy): geographical isolation, decline in employment, high school dropout rate (21%), lack of technical and digital skills.
• Wałbrzych (Polonia): post-mineraria, disoccupazione giovanile elevata, riduzione dell’istruzione professionale.
• Vas County (Hungary): strong automotive sector but shortage of skilled labour and migration of young people abroad.

Innovative approach

• Creazione di programmi formativi immersivi in realtà aumentata e virtuale per sperimentare “sul campo” le professioni del futuro.
• Development of a Learning Management System (LMS) platform connecting students, schools and SMEs.
• Joint involvement of schools, businesses, public bodies and training centres.
• Joint involvement of schools, businesses, public bodies and training centres.

Main output

1. Joint training strategy for adapting curricula to labour market needs
2. Package of innovative solutions (procedures, AR/VR content) for training
3. Attività pilota di formazione immersiva
4. Sistema LMS transnazionale per la condivisione dei materiali educativi e la formazione continua basata su un approccio innovativo e pratico

Duration

24 months – From 1st February 2026

Total budget

€ 800.000

Partners

LP/PP1: SIPRO Ferrara Development Agency (Italia)

PP2: Pannon Business Network Association – PBN (Ungheria)

PP3: The Wałbrzych Region Fund – FRW (Polonia)

Support the Transition with incubation and AcceleRaTion to raise-UP firms in Emilia-Romagna region

General Objective

StartupER, aims to activate incubation and acceleration paths.

The project involves Start-ups, Spin-offs and Entrepreneurial Teams operating in key sectors of the ecological transition, and is aimed at contributing to the relaunch of the competitiveness of the regional economic production system, as envisaged by the Emilia-Romagna Region ERDF PR 2021-2027.

Project Actions

The project is marked by three paths:

• the pre-incubation route is aimed at guiding companies in their embryonic phase, verifying the validity of ideas by supporting them in accessing the incubation phase;
• the incubation route is aimed at start-ups/spin-offs and entrepreneurial teams in the initial phase of their growth and aims to support projects through the consolidation of the business model to increase competitive advantage in the market;
• the acceleration phase is aimed at start-ups/spin-offs that have already consolidated their market presence and are ready to embark on an advanced growth phase in order to further strengthen their business for greater distinctiveness.

The selected start-ups are 7 for the pre-incubation and incubation path and 6 for the acceleration, and the sectors involved range from circular economy, industry 4.0, health and wellness to digitalisation and artificial intelligence.

Duration

The courses will last nine months for incubation and six months for acceleration and will run until 2025.

Partners

Università degli Studi di Ferrara (leadpartner),
S.I.PRO. – Agenzia Provinciale per lo Sviluppo
GATE Real Estate Innovation (REI),

Project website

StartupER

LEading coopEration toWArds energy communities policies tackling energy povertY

General objective:

LEEWAY intervenes in the regional and local policies of the different partners, with the aim of promoting the adoption of energy policies for the introduction of Renewable Energy Communities (RECs), through the sharing and direct exchange of experiences between public authorities at different levels. This will require a joint effort to fill policy gaps in RECs, introducing those elements and rules aimed at ensuring a change in each target group’s policy instrument, thus supporting local and regional public authorities in creating suitable conditions for the introduction of RECs. Therefore, the project addresses five policy instruments, two of which are investment instruments for jobs and growth, from different partner regions, creating the favourable framework in terms of legal, operational and financial conditions for the establishment and financing of RECs

Duration:

36 months

Total budget:

€ 1.514.000

Partners:

LP/PP1: SIPRO (Italy)

PP2: Regione Emilia-Romagna (Italy)

PP3: City of Roeselare (Belgium)

PP4: Marshal’s Office of Silesia Region, Silesian Government (Poland)

PP5: Citizen-energy-cooperatives in district of Pfaffenhofen a.d.Ilm (Germany)

PP6: Municipality of Pfaffenhofen a.d. Ilm (Germany)

PP7: Grad Prelog (Croatia)

Project website: https://www.interregeurope.eu/leeway

Website Interreg EUROPE 2021 – 2027

Name:

Expected results:

The overall objective of the Horizon Europe USAGE (Urban Data Space for Green Deal) project is to provide solutions and mechanisms to make environmental and climate data, collected and processed on the basis of FAIR principles (i.e. retrievable, accessible, interoperable and reusable), available to all citizens. USAGE aims to support the implementation of the European data strategy and the Green Deal priority actions that address climate change where the effects are most impactful: urban areas.

USAGE wants to build a decentralised infrastructure for the collection, processing and exchange of reliable data based on shared principles, facilitating the combination of heterogeneous data useful for decision-making processes for the adoption of urban policies.

The consortium is led by the Polytechnic University of Madrid (Spain) and has partners with interdisciplinary expertise (universities and research centres, large and small companies, municipalities) from five European countries.

The solutions arrived at by USAGE will be tested and validated in four medium-sized pilot cities, with the aim of subsequently re-using them in other cities: Ferrara (Italy), Graz (Austria), Leuven (Belgium) and Zaragoza (Spain).

The USAGE project fits into the political agenda of the European Union, which has identified the dual transition, ecological and digital, as its pillars. In particular, in order to achieve the objectives of the Green New Deal, the Commission has indicated that a “data-driven” approach, i.e. based on timely data and information (European Data Strategy, 2020) is necessary to field environmental policies co-designed by public administrations in collaboration with citizens, civil society organisations, and businesses, supported by both technological and social innovations.

Duration:

36 months (1 August 2022 – 31 July 2025)

Total budget:

€ 4.111.294,64

Partners:

UNIVERSIDAD POLITECNICA DE MADRID (Spagna)

VERMESSUNG AVT-ZT-GMBH (Austria) – Partner affiliato AVT AIRBORNE SENSING ITALIA SRL (Italia)

COMUNE DI FERRARA (Italia) – Partner affiliato S.I.PRO. – AGENZIA PROVINCIALE PERLO SVILUPPO SPA (Italia)

DEDAGROUP PUBLIC SERVICES SRL (Italia)

EPSILON ITALIA SRL (Italia)

FONDAZIONE BRUNO KESSLER (Italia)

GEOCAT BV (Olanda)

OPEN GEOSPATIAL CONSORTIOM EUROPE (Belgio)

AYUNTAMIENTO DE ZARAGOZA (Spagna)

THE LISBON COUNCIL FOR ECONOMIC COMPETITIVENESS ASBL (Belgio)

KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN (Belgio)

Project website

Website Cordis

Title

Target – To capitalise on and take advantage of energy savings solutions through the cooperation of central European cities

Project main objective

One of the main challenges for public administrations today is the reduction of energy consumption in public buildings without having to make major upgrades and modifications. Administrations need to test useful, reliable solutions to properly manage the use of energy and implement integrated approaches to also raise awareness among the public about their energy use. This European project, called Target-CE, will gather, analyse and adapt the results of 8 international projects that have already been funded [BOOSTEE-CE, ENERGY @ SCHOOL, FEEDSCHOOLS, eCENTRAL, CitiEnGov (Interreg-CE), EMPOWER (Interreg-EU), GreenSoul and PANEL2050 (H2020)] through the cooperation between a few central European cities. The selected resulting systems will then be implemented locally and integrated into the pertinent regional strategies. The data produced by these in-depth explorations will offer new solutions for the energetic management of public buildings that will be catalogued within a single web platform. The project’s activities will be coordinated by the 8 partners working together on a European level, with the goal of taking advantage of non-innovative technical solutions to increase energy efficiency and the use of renewables in public buildings. The project will be divided into 7 pilot actions that will involve 16 municipalities, including Ferrara, to raise awareness and educate people about the positive impact of efficient energy management and savings for local bodies and citizens alike.

Partners

Lead Partner – The Bruno Kessler Foundation (IT)PP2 – Euwt Novum – NOVUM Limited, a European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (PL)PP3 – MAE – Energy Agency of Mazovia (PL)PP4 – Lower Romagna Union of Municipalities (Unione dei Comuni della Bassa Romagna) (IT)PP5 – Kssena – Energy Agency of Savinjska, (SI)PP6 – the City of Split (HR)PP7 – The Energy and Innovation Centre of Weiz (AT)PP8 – Sipro, a Local Development Agency – Ferrara(IT)

Duration

24 months

Name: 

S.LI.DES. Smart strategies for the development of sustainable tourism at cultural sites

Strategic objective:

3.1 – Leverage natural and cultural heritage for sustainable economic development

Investment priorities: 

6c – Conserving, protecting, promoting and developing natural and cultural heritage

Main project objective:

The S.LI.Des project is aimed at promoting cross-border cooperation between the regions included in the programme area, for the joint planning of intelligent strategies to support sustainable, balanced regional development. This is done through the promotion of both material and intangible cultural heritage, in particular the assets that constitute the identity of the destinations (artisan businesses and craftsmen).
The project will provide local authorities with an innovative system of dynamic data about tourist flows, which will improve their decision-making processes in terms of the management of the most popular tourist sites. In addition, it aims at exploiting the tourist potential of ‘lesser’ cultural assets, as a lever to revitalize the urban and social landscape and diversify the local economy.

Project summary: the goal of the project is to develop a methodology and a smart strategy to preserve and enhance material and intangible cultural heritage, to promote sustainable local development, concentrating in particular on ‘living heritage’: artisan businesses and creative industries.

Through a series of innovative tools and methods, S.LI.DES will develop a Smart Destination Ecosystem to dynamically analyse different aspects of the cultural heritage of the destinations, to monitor the transport models of visitors and identify potential ‘savoir-faire’ aspects to improve the visitor experience. All the data will result in a competitiveness and sustainability assessment for the destinations to support the development of actions to implement, diversifying tourist options through investments targeted at cultural heritage.

S.LI.DES takes a participatory and innovative approach, which includes the combination of a vast range of smart technologies and methods to integrate the destination data and flow analyses, thereby supporting the decision-making process of the policy makers, preserving the identity of each region and making destinations livelier while improving quality of life for visitors and local citizens. The main ‘products’ resulting from the project will be:
– a Smart Destination Ecosystem methodology, which includes a map of the activities linked to artistic craftsmanship, cultural heritage and cultural and creative businesses;
– a dashboard for each tourist destination, to update public decision makers on tourist flows;
– a strategy for the promotion of cultural heritage and the management of tourist flows.
All of this is meant to benefit politicians and public authorities, craftsmen and artisans, cultural associations, SMEs, tourist industries, visitors and citizens.

Partners:

Lead Partner – Università di Cà Foscari-Venezia (IT)

PP1 – CISET (IT)
PP2 – Ecipa (IT)
PP3 – SIPRO Ferrara (IT)
PP4 – City of Bari (IT)
PP5 – City of Venice (IT)
PP6 – CAST-Università di Bologna (IT)
PP7 – Tourism Institute – Zagreb (HR)
PP8 – Craft College – Adult Education Institute Rijeka (HR)
PP9 – Development agency of Dubrovnik-Dura (HR)
PP10 – Tourism Institute of Sibenik (HR)

Duration:

30 months

Project website

Name:

GREEN MIND – GREEN and smart Mobility INDustry innovation

Objectives:

The Green Mind project was launched to develop economic competitiveness and innovation in the green, smart transportation industry, reinforcing regional and transnational cooperation between businesses, research bodies and public administrations. With the term ‘smart green mobility’, we refer to an industrial sector that touches upon numerous other industries, including:
– transport and logistics;
– car manufacturing and parts, including self-driving vehicles;
– green fuels and related infrastructure;
– IT, including smart infrastructure and transport systems
An innovative sector in the Mediterranean basin, the green/smart transport industry is quickly evolving thanks to technological development, but also to stricter environmental policies. Green Mind is aimed at reinforcing the transnational activities of clusters and agencies to support the SME network in taking advantage of market opportunities related to the growing demand for smart, green transportation products and services.
The transnational approach of Green Mind consists of joint learning, knowledge sharing and the development of skills for innovation in the Mediterranean basin.

Expected results:

The strategic objective of the Green Mind project is to promote the ability to innovate within public and private bodies in the green/smart transport industry. In particular, Green Mind strengthens the transnational activities of the clusters to support SMEs in exploiting market opportunities with the growing demand for green and smart transport products and services in the Mediterranean area. Green mind is focused on the sustainable transport industry and aims at introducing change in the Mediterranean basin through the following actions:
– configuration and testing of services for SMEs (in terms of market intelligence, screening and for public financing opportunities and B2B matchmaking events) that belong to sub-industries relevant to the sustainable transport industry in an inter-industry approach (transport and logistics, automotive, ICT, energy);
– introduction of these services within partners in a transnational innovation network, thereby ensuring greater sustainability;
– delivery of the results of the tested services to non-partner clusters to transfer innovation more broadly and to launch the final programme, aimed at knowledge sharing within the organisations that make up the clusters in the Mediterranean basin. Lastly, Green Mind contributes to smart specialisation strategies (RIS3) and the policies of regions participating in the transnational policy innovation process. The latter engages research bodies, local entities and businesses to encourage the regional competitiveness of the programme in the sustainable transport industry.

Duration: 

December 2017 – May 2020 – 30 months

Budget: 

€ 1,742,000 

Partners:

Eight partners coming from different countries in the Mediterranean basin (Italy, Greece, Spain, France, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina): 

• SIPRO, a Local Development Agency – Ferrara (IT) – Lead partner;
• CENTRE FOR RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY HELLAS – Greece;
• MULTI-SECTOR INNOVATIVE BUSINESS ASSOCIATION FOR SMART CITIES. ANDALUCIA SMART CITY CLUSTER – Spain;
• AFT – Regional Delegation Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur et Corse – France;
• Istrian Development Agency (IDA) Ltd. – Croatia;
• Sarajevo Economic Regional Development Agency SERDA – Bosnia Herzegovina;
• eZAVOD – Slovenia;
• County of Split-Dalmatia – Croatia

Project website

Objectives

The Adriatic-Ionian region has abundant potential for the development of sustainable tourism, yet the industry has a few weak points. As such, the ADRION 5 SENSES project was launched to address the lack of a sustainable tourism model based on innovative, high-quality products and services for tourists.

With a holistic approach to sight, smell, touch, taste and hearing, the project will develop effective branding strategies and increase the performance of the Adriatic-Ionian region by setting the groundwork to improve the visitor experience. This integrated approach (sensory marketing) is new and innovative in the Adriatic-Ionic region.

The overall goal is to establish and promote the ADRION brand in the tourism industry, engaging all five senses of tourists.

More specifically, the goal is to focus the efforts of ADRION stakeholders on the sustainable planning of physical and virtual environments and on the enhancement and conservation of natural/cultural heritage to create return visitors thanks to positive memories of their experience.

The project aims at using technology for the co-creation of advanced experiences. The Adriatic-Ionian region is perfectly suited to engaging the multi-sensory nature of visitor experiences in order to design those that deepen the potential of ICT.

The partnership

Ten partners from different countries in the Adriatic-Ionian region (Greece, Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Montenegro and Albania). 

Expected results

The main results of the project include a joint strategy and an action plan for improved, more sustainable management of tourism in the Adriatic-Ionian region, the creation of the ADRION brand and demonstrative actions (sensory map, a multilingual web platform and exhibition centres) to benefit the local/regional/national authorities, SMEs, organisations that support businesses, universities, etc.

Duration

January 2018 – December 2019 – 24 months

Budget

€1,437,000 

Lead partner

Epirus Region – Ioannina (GR)

Partners

• Epirus Region – Ioannina (GR) – Lead partner;
• Development Agency of Evia SA – Greece;
• SIPRO, a Local Development Agency – Italy;
• Zadar County Development Agency ZADRA NOVA – Croatia;
• RDA of Northern Primorska Ltd. Nova Gorica – Slovenia
• Sarajevo Economic Region Development Agency – Bosnia Herzegovina;
• Regional Agency for Economic Development of Šumadija and Pomoravlje – Serbia;
• Albanian Development Fund – Albania
• National Tourism Organisation of Montenegro – Montenegro
• Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications of the Republic of Serbia – Serbia