OUR WORK
The two governance projects coordinating the Interreg Euro-MED Innovative Sustainable Economy Mission work to promote a just transition to a circular economy by developing innovative technical knowledge and ensuring that these new solutions are translated into public policy.
Together, the two projects contribute to the overall Interreg Euro-MED programme by:
- Facilitating the exploitation and reuse of knowledge, experience and project results by other stakeholders.
- Supporting the transfer of results to other actors, programmes and territories and their integration into local, regional, national and European policies.
- To strengthen coordination between Mediterranean stakeholders based on shared knowledge, experience and results.
We aim to be a vital link between innovative solutions on the ground and the strategic action plans and policies being developed at different territorial levels in the Mediterranean. Our aim is to unite and engage a critical mass of stakeholders working on ISE in the Mediterranean, and to work in synergy with relevant regional governance institutions to maximise the impact of projects.
To achieve this, we implement a series of integrated and mutually reinforcing activities based on the principles of capitalisation. Capitalisation focuses on taking developed concepts and ideas forward through an inclusive and collaborative process.
Mapping Resources
Systematic identification, analyses and visualisation of relevant knowledge and policy priorities within a specific context to create a clear and comprehensive state of the art. This step supports strategic planning, decision-making, and optimise the use of available resources to achieve specific goals and address common challenges.
Observatory
The Observatory provides a comprehensive view of the Mediterranean’s Innovative Sustainable Economy (ISE), focusing on the Blue Economy (BE) and the Green Economy (GE). It provides an overview of the current state and emerging trends in the ISE using a rigorous methodology involving the collection and analysis of various documents. The synthesis anticipates continued growth in sustainable practices driven by technological, policy and stakeholder developments. It emphasises the need for actionable recommendations for future research, policy and community engagement.
Catalogue
The Catalogue of Innovative Solutions for a Sustainable Economy offers a comprehensive set of resources to empower individuals and organisations in the Mediterranean region. These resources include tools, methodologies and strategies for a more innovative and sustainable economy. Users will gain access to knowledge to innovate, make informed decisions and respond to challenges and opportunities. The Catalogue will be regularly updated.
Policy Mapping
Several transnational policy documents and strategies at the macro-regional level have identified the sustainability challenges to be addressed in the Mediterranean region and the main priorities related to them. Policy mapping will be an exercise to analyse and review the most relevant ones for the Innovative Sustainable Economy Mission to establish a common knowledge ground and create the opportunity to align projects and policies with these priorities.
Open Monitoring System
Facilitating stakeholders’ access to existing knowledge so that they have a clear picture of what is happening at regional level is crucial. This is the purpose behind the Monitoring System that will map the most active sectors, projects and networks cooperating in specific thematic areas to boost an Innovative Sustainable Economy in the Mediterranean region. The Monitoring System will provide stakeholders with a user-friendly and interactive platform to give them access to an evidence base beyond Interreg Euro-MED, leveraging on open data from Interreg and other European funding Programmes.
Community Engagement
Active involvement of individuals and groups in the implementation of activities. Seeking to build relationships, foster collaboration and ensure that all voices and visions are heard and integrated into evidence-based decision-making processes. Effective community engagement promotes transparency, trust and mutual understanding, leading to more inclusive and participatory outcomes.
Community of Practice (CoP)
The ISE CoP is key to building a strong, proactive network in the ISE mission. The CoP covers 16 projects (14 thematic and 2 governance) as a space for collective knowledge and learning. We have 155 partners from 18 countries working to strengthen the Mediterranean’s innovative, sustainable economy. The ISE CoP includes 115 members and meets twice a year. It is organised around four actions: connect, learn, share and collaborate. Specific working groups lead to common positions.
ISEC Hub
The Mediterranean Innovative Sustainable Economy Community (ISEC) Hub is a dynamic space at the forefront of transformative innovation in the Euro-Mediterranean region. The Mediterranean ISEC Hub is a virtual space for stakeholders interested in the mission of the Innovative Sustainable Economy. It operates across all pillars of the mission, ensuring valuable content is accessible to a wide audience. This version shows how the Hub’s resources are shared across different Thematic Areas and Pillars.
MED Innovation Camp
The Innovation Camp is a community building tool that helps to develop a shared understanding of complex challenges related to sustainable development in the Mediterranean region. It is a space to create the conditions for an open and facilitated dialogue between regional and local Quadruple Helix stakeholders and to propose transformative actions. Each year the Camp addresses a different theme and a specific common challenge, which is analysed at a systemic level through a Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) approach.
MED Innovation Days
The MED Innovation Days is a community-building event and a key initiative within the Interreg Euro-MED Innovative Sustainable Economy (ISE) mission, which aims to accelerate cooperation and innovation in sustainable practices across the Mediterranean region. The annual event includes community building activities using the World Café methodology on specific themes and panel discussions bringing together local authorities, researchers, entrepreneurs, SMEs and civil society to share experiences and promote sustainability efforts.
Capacity Building
The process of developing and strengthening skills, abilities, competencies, resources and knowledge transfer to individuals, organisations and communities with the aim of enhancing their ability to address common challenges and seize opportunities. Capacity building efforts aim to provide various entities with the necessary tools to respond effectively to current and emerging issues and to enable them to become more self-reliant, sustainable and resilient.
Mentoring & Twinning Programmes
The Mentoring and Twinning Programme builds capacity, fosters mutual learning and promotes innovative solutions to overcome unsustainable practices. Mentoring and twinning activities bring together partners and stakeholders to help the latter develop the necessary skills and knowledge to successfully replicate good and innovative practices in their local context. These professional exchanges will take place online and, where possible, face-to-face.
Transformative Innovation Policy Labs (TIPLs)
Transformative Innovation Policy Labs (TIPLs) are pilot actions based on a multi-level integrated territorial policy-making approach to address sustainability challenges in the Mediterranean region. The first generation of TIPLs will implement nine pilots across the MED region with committed groups of stakeholders and local and regional authorities to explore, test, learn and co-create effective tools to enhance their capacity to translate innovation project outcomes into policies and practices.
Policy Impact
Integrating evidence-based knowledge at the policy level to facilitate and accelerate the implementation of capitalised solutions on the ground. Policy impact also considers the alignment of policy priorities and multi-directional cooperation. The results of policy impact are essential to guide future decision-making and ensure that policy objectives are met.
Liaising
The Innovative Sustainable Economy (ISE) Governance projects aim to engage stakeholders with decision-making capacity in the ISE field in the Euro-Mediterranean area. This activity aims to identify relevant policies that are “open to change” and the discussion forums through which the consortium can engage with influential regional actors and advocate for positive change in several ISE areas. The project partners have developed an internal strategy to coordinate liaison activities and participate in all ISE relevant processes and events.
Synergies
Alliances are long-term, multi-actor collaborations for mutual benefit. Synergies occur when the effects of alliances are greater than the sum of their parts. New synergies are based on multiple collaborations whose effects are greater than expected without the alliance. The aim is to support and strengthen advocacy activities. Although this is a very transversal activity, the publicly available summary aims to categorise, quantify and monitor these collaborations in an interactive way. The mission partners will engage with existing stakeholder alliances addressing Mediterranean challenges.
Advocacy
The envisaged advocacy material will be based on policy papers with key recommendations derived from project activities and good practices. The aim is to promote and support policies and influence decision-makers and public opinion on innovative sustainable economies in the Mediterranean. Efforts will be made to support advocacy activities with UfM, UNEP-MAP and the Parties to the Barcelona Convention.
