The Innovative Sustainable Economy Community of Practice (ISE CoP) met online on the 14th of November to further strengthen connections between Governance and Thematic projects, building on the exchange started during the Community’s launch event in Marseille last June. The meeting was moderated by Mercè Boy Roura and Maria Calderó Pascual, from BETA Technological Center (UVIC-UCC).
The meeting was articulated in different sessions aimed at exploring potential for amplification and sustainability of the Thematic projects results over the time. During the hands-on sessions, the projects talked about their key production and the solutions they will develop, as well as their potential to remain active beyond the end of the projects. After a great interaction and in-depth discussions, they showed a great capacity to look ahead by proposing a set of tools and knowledge that can be transferred to promote sustainable development in the Mediterranean region. Along with this, they also matched the work they are doing with some of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the UN Agenda 2030, including SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure), 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), 13 (Climate Action) and 17 (Partnership for the Goals).
If you want to know more about our community, don’t miss the interviews with the Thematic Projects. This is a good opportunity to learn from their voices how they will channel their efforts over the years to build change and drive innovation towards a green and just transition in the areas of Marine Resources, Agri-Food Systems, Industrial Transition, Resource Valorisation.
This was followed by a training session that started with the contribution of Zuzana Bohacova, from ACR+ and other ISE Mission partners. Based on an internal analysis of Thematic projects’ needs and interests, several topics were identified for future tailor-made training. Transfer of innovative solutions, stakeholder and citizen engagement and policy mainstreaming are among the various topics that could be addressed. These are all key elements in strengthening the capacity of stakeholders and maximising the added value and impact of Interreg, which can act as a laboratory to learn and experiment.
After this contribution, Alessandro Daraio, Emilia-Romagna Region, took the floor, recalling the supporting role of Governance projects in the uptake of projects results in this programming period. He reiterated the importance of the Community of Practice and networking to share and combine individual solutions, overcoming the fragmentation and low visibility of the knowledge generated by Interreg projects. He then presented different typologies of amplification processes. For example, project implementers may decide to continue activities beyond the life of the projects, making sustainable use of projects outcomes. Alternatively, they may decide to promote the use of the solutions developed in similar contexts by sharing them with stakeholders working in the same project field or, vice versa, in contexts different from the original one. In other cases, the ambition may be to scale up, broaden the scope of the initiative being supported, or even to take the results to the level of policy or behavioural change. For further insights on this topic, we recommend reading Scaling the impact of sustainability initiatives: a typology of amplification processes by David P. Lam et. al (2020).
The event closed with an inspiring round of good practices of amplification from the following projects: Embrace, Med4Waste, HOOP, Green Growth Community (Interreg MED 2014-2020), GRASPINNO, and MISTRAL.
The ISE CoP will meet again in Sarajevo in April 2025 to continue exploring how coordinated and combined action can increase the impact of our projects in the Mediterranean.
