New Interreg Europe programme, new adventures

The Interreg Europe programme stimulates interregional cooperation between European regions. It is co-funded by the Cohesion policy’s European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Most specifically, Interreg Europe aims at improving regional policies through the exchange of experience, good practices, and capacity building among regional policy actors. (Interreg Europe 2023a.)

An ERDF budget of EUR 379 million has been allocated for the new 2021-2027 programming period. The programme covers six topics contributing to all EU priorities: (1) Smarter Europe, (2) Greener Europe, (3) More connected Europe, (4) More social Europe, (5) Europe closer to citizens, and (6) Better regional governance. (Interreg Europe 2023a.)

In April-May 2022, the first call for projects was opened and Interreg Europe received 134 project proposals including all partner states as well as all topics (Interreg Europe 2022a). In December 2022, it was announced that 99 projects were eligible (74%) and altogether 72 projects (54%) were approved. (Interreg Europe 2022b.)

In the front, there is a partly visible black table on which stand white wooden letters forming the word Projects. At the back, there is a colourful wall with white stripes, a roll-up poster of Interreg Europe, and an open door to a meeting room. — Picture 1. The Interreg Europe seminar gathered lead project partners of the first call projects in Stockholm, Sweden. (Photo: Katerina Medkova)

Lead Partner seminar

On 14 March 2023, Interreg Europe organized a lead partners seminar for the 72 approved projects of the first call. The event took place in Stockholm, Sweden. The focus of the seminar was on reporting procedures, communication, and project and finance management. During the seminar, the Interreg Europe’s Policy Learning Platform (PLP) services were highlighted. PLP offers free access to knowledge and expertise as well as to the Interreg Europe community of more than 6000 practitioners. The access to knowledge represents a database of tested policy solutions of over 3000 good practices, over 400 policy publications and recordings of more than 80 thematic webinars. (Interreg Europe 2023b, 22-25.)

There are many people standing around a table and working on a task. On the white table, there is a big piece of white paper with some text and yellow post-its. There are also groups of people at the back. The picture is taken indoors in a meeting room. — Picture 2. The lead partners are jointly putting the theory into practice and correctly placing the selected communication activities on the project timeline. (Photo: Katerina Medkova)

Lahti’s new project launch

Among the successful projects of the first call is also the CITISYSTEM – Supporting cities in sustainable biobased systemic change – project, under the Greener Europe topic. CITISYSTEM promotes bio-based material cycles in the environment. The project supports cities and related local/regional policies in increasing the potential of local/regional bio-based loops of the circular economy. The focus is especially on increasing city-level actions and involving the community in understanding the importance of regional resources, such as materials and nutrients cycles, and energy flows. (LAB 2023.)

The CITISYSTEM partnership consists of seven partners from Finland (2 partners), Slovakia, Slovenia, Belgium, Greece, and Spain. Also, three associated policy authorities complement the consortium. There are two partners from Finland, LAB University of Applied Sciences, which acts as a lead partner, and the City of Lahti. The project officially started in March 2023 and lasts four years (three years of the core phase and one year of the follow-up phase). (LAB 2023.)

Author

Katerina Medkova works as an RDI Specialist at LAB University of Applied Sciences and is CITISYSTEM Communication Manager. CITISYSTEM – Supporting cities in sustainable biobased systemic change is an Interreg Europe co-funded project led by LAB University of Applied Sciences, Finland.

References

Interreg Europe. 2022a. First call figures. Cited 22 Mar 2023. Available at https://www.interregeurope.eu/news-and-events/news/first-call-figures

Interreg Europe. 2022b. The results of our first call are out. Cited 22 Mar 2023. Available at https://www.interregeurope.eu/news-and-events/news/the-results-of-our-first-call-are-out

Interreg Europe. 2023a. What is Interreg Europe?. Cited 22 Mar 2023. Available at https://www.interregeurope.eu/what-is-interreg-europe

Interreg Europe. 2023b. Welcome to the lead partner seminar!. Presentation given at the Lead partner seminar, Stockholm, 14.3.2023.

LAB. 2023. CITISYSTEM – Supporting cities in sustainable biobased systemic change. Cited 22 Mar 2023. Available at https://lab.fi/fi/projekti/citisystem-supporting-cities-sustainable-biobased-systemic-change

Links

Link 1. LAB. 2023. CITISYSTEM – Supporting cities in sustainable biobased systemic change. Cited 22 Mar 2023. Available at https://lab.fi/fi/projekti/citisystem-supporting-cities-sustainable-biobased-systemic-change