Interreg Euro-MED Academy: WHO WE ARE

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The Interreg Euro-MED Academy is the result of the spontaneous collaboration between the eight Thematic Communities (Blue Growth, Green Growth, Social & Creative, Efficient Buildings, Renewable Energy, Urban Transports, Sustainable Tourism, Biodiversity Protection) and PANORAMED, the governance platform, with the support of the Interreg MED Programme’s Joint Secretariat and the coordination of UNIMED – Mediterranean Universities Union (communication lead partner of Sustainable Tourism and Urban Transports Communities).

More than 10 organisations have been actively co-developing for almost a year at this initiative as a way to adapt and respond to the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions.

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The Interreg MED Programme key figures

Partner organisations

142

Approved projects

Countries

Regions

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BLUE GROWTH

https://blue-growth.interreg-med.eu

The Interreg MED Blue Growth Thematic Community assists and coordinates the Blue Growth Community's projects dealing with several blue sectors (marine renewable energy, coastal and maritime tourism, maritime surveillance, blue biotechnology, etc.) in their communication and capitalization activities. It creates and ensures internal and external synergies, knowledge sharing, transfer, and capitalization for policy-making project recommendations and take-on by key stakeholders (projects, SMEs, decision-makers, technicians, researchers, etc.). It helps external multilevel stakeholders to take-on the technical blue projects’ results and use them into policymaking at a multi-level governance scale, and SMEs to benefit from the further development of the blue economy and entrepreneurship. Thus, it contributes to the sustainable socio-economic development of the Mediterranean area through innovative investments in the Blue Economy sector.

THE PARTNERSHIP

LP : CoNISMa (National Inter-University Consortium for Marine Sciences) (IT) • ASCAME (Association of Mediterranean Chambers of Commerce and Industry) (ES) • Plan Bleu for Mediterranean environment and development (FR) • CPMR (Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions of Europe) (FR) • NTUA (National Technical University of Athens - School of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering) (GR) • UoM (University of Montenegro - Institute for marine biology) (ME) • IrRADIARE, Science for evolution®, Lda. (PT)

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GREEN GROWTH

https://green-growth.interreg-med.eu

The Interreg MED Green Growth is a thematic community of 14 modular projects promoting a sustainable development based on the sound management of the natural resources. Led by the SYNGGI project, it enhances cross-sectoral innovation practices considering the effects on the labour market by promoting social inclusion and green jobs. The thematic Community supports the projects in their communication and capitalization efforts thus increasing their impact at policy level and ensuring potential transfer of their results and good practices to the Interreg MED cooperation areas and beyond. Furthermore, the Green Growth community worked with the UN2030 Sustainable Development Goals, synthesising the results of modular projects into White Papers on Circular Economy and synergies for green growth, a Policy Paper, Legal Recommendations and a Green Growth Book. As a result, the Union for the Mediterranean labelled the Community, thereby acknowledging its potential in the transition to circular economy in the Mediterranean region.

THE PARTNERSHIP

LP : Fundació Universitària Balmes (ES) • CUEIM - University Consortium for Industrial and Managerial Economics (IT) • Dynamic Vision P.C (EL) • ANIMA Investment Network (FR) • European Regions Research and Innovation Network (BE) • Centre for Energy, Environment and Resources (BA) • REVOLVE MEDITERRANEO (ES)

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SOCIAL AND CREATIVE

https://social-and-creative.interreg-med.eu

The Social and Creative thematic community aims to promote trans-local innovation clusters for creative and social innovation. By improving the innovation capacities of public and private stakeholders from cultural and creative industries, they want to deliver better social outcomes, creating new social relations or modes of cooperation. Their projects seek new responses to social needs but also to have a positive impact on the dynamic cultural and creative sector. As a result, the Social and Creative community has inter-connected the innovation clusters developed within its thematic modular projects to create a transnational meta-cluster of creativity and social innovation in the Mediterranean. It has developed 19 Policy Briefings and tools to help policy-makers and stakeholders to define the local and regional policies on creativity and social innovation, among them an innovative semantic tool. All this work led to the definition of a shared Innovation vision.

PARTNERS

• LP : Apulia Region – Department of Economic Development, Innovation, Education, Training and Employment (IT) • Aldo Moro University of Bari - Department of Computer Science (IT) • ENOLL - European Network of Living Labs (BE) • Agency for Economic Development PREDA-PD (BA) • Institute of Entrepreneurship Development (EL) • University of Rijeka - Faculty of Economics and Business (HR) • Ministry of Energy, Commerce and Industry (CY) • Local Company of Initiatives and Activities of Malaga S.A. - Promálaga (ES)

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EFFICIENT BUILDINGS

https://efficient-buildings.interreg-med.eu

Climate change is the global challenge of the XXI century. Cutting energy use is a key lever to achieve the strong decarbonization goals the EU pledged to since the Paris agreement. In Mediterranean regions, buildings represent one of the main sources of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, especially public buildings (schools, administrative bodies). Most of such buildings requires heavy upgrading in terms of insulation and cooling systems currently partly financed by national, regional and EU thematic programmes. Projects co-funded by the Interreg MED Programme under this thematic are focusing on increasing the capacity of public buildings owners and managers to develop and implement energy efficiency practices. The Efficient Buildings community has been created precisely to cope with these issues. Starting from a bottom-up approach, this community, coordinated by the MEDNICE Horizontal project, intends to test and spread good local practices in neighbouring Mediterranean regions and countries. The Community brings together more than 95 partners from ten projects – mainly local and national public authorities, energy agencies, enterprises and research organizations – to develop and exchange methodologies, experiences and tools fostering energy efficiency upgrades in public buildings.

PARTNERS

• LP : City of Nice (FR) • ENERGY CITIES (FR) • Catalonia Institute for energy research (ES) • Euro-Mediterranean Centre on Climate Change Foundation (IT) • University of Patras – Department of Civil Engineering (EL) • CRES - Centre for Renewable Energy Sources and Saving (EL) • ENEA – Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (Roma) (IT) • Portuguese Energy Agency (PT)

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RENEWABLE ENERGY

https://renewable-energies.interreg-med.eu

Mediterranean islands and rural areas are facing several energy challenges, such as dependency, security of supply, interconnection with mainland and growing demand. Therefore, the Interreg Med Renewable Energy Community is about promoting the Renewable Energy Sources (RES) sharing ecosystem through innovative planning, management and governance tools. Its main goal is to promote a multilevel coordination of MED territories to bring an alternative roadmap for a clean-energy national regulatory framework for effective implementation at regional and local levels. They encourage bottom-up strategies to achieve a low carbon economy. The community is configured by six Modular Projects focused on the promotion of renewable energies in remote rural and islands areas, due to their vulnerability to climate change in terms of biodiversity loss, energy supply and risk of social exclusion.

PARTNERS

• LP : SRC Bistra Ptuj – Scientific Research Centre Bistra Ptuj (SI) • EMEA – Euro-Mediterranean Economists Association (ES) • ENVIRONMENT PARK SPA (IT) • North-West Croatia Regional Energy Agency (HR) • REVOLVE MEDITERRANEO (ES) • Aegean Energy and Environment Agency (EL)

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URBAN TRANSPORTS

https://urban-transports.interreg-med.eu

The Urban Transports Community is an Interreg MED Programme initiative launched in November 2016 and renewed in October 2019 till December 2022. The Community is promoting sustainable urban mobility planning in the Euro-Mediterranean region as an effective tool to reduce carbon emissions and improve the quality of life of the population and the environment.

Since November 2016, the Community featured by a horizontal project has gathered seven territorial cooperation projects co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and almost 120 organisations (public authorities, private companies, universities, NGOs and international organisations) from 12 Euro-Mediterranean countries. In this second phase the Community has the opportunity to bring the capitalisation process to the next level by providing local authorities with a tailor-made support to implement the replicable solutions developed and tested by our Community.

PARTNERS

• LP : MEDCITIES (ES) • AREA Science Park (IT) • CODATU – Working for sustainable mobility in developing cities (FR) • CIVINET CY-EL Secretariat Civil Non-Profit Company (EL) • UNIMED – Mediterranean Universities Union (IT) • Polis – Promotion of Operational Links with Integrated Services AISBL (BE) • Durres Municipality (AL)

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SUSTAINABLE TOURISM

https://sustainable-tourism.interreg-med.eu

In the Mediterranean, the tourism sector is a strategic asset, as it offers great opportunities for economic growth and employment. However, it can also entail long-term negative transformations on local economies, societies and ecosystems. Indeed, despite its economic and social importance, tourism development is exerting pressure on natural and built environment. This pressure may threaten the quality of life of local populations, degrade the tourism assets and consequently, negatively affect future tourism developments. Therefore, effective strategies and targeted integrated action should be developed and implemented across the Mediterranean region. For this reason, projects under this thematic ensure that the impact of these activities on natural and cultural heritage are considered in the development of coastal and maritime tourism.

In this perspective, the Interreg MED Sustainable Tourism community actions could be summarised into three actions: getting tourists off the beaten tracks, slowing down tourism and adapting cities and infrastructure to welcome millions of tourists.

PARTNERS

LP : Diputació de Barcelona (ES) • UNIMED – Mediterranean Universities Union (IT) • University of Thessaly – Research Committee (GR) • Network of European Regions for a Sustainable and Competitive Tourism (BE) • Adriatic Ionian Euroregion (HR) • Plan Blue for Mediterranean environment and development (FR) • Regional Development Agency Green Karst Ltd. (SI)

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BIODIVERSITY PROTECTION

https://biodiversity-protection.interreg-med.eu

EU policies have reaffirmed the importance of protected areas for the conservation of biological diversity. The preservation of coastal and maritime ecosystems is a key element for the future of the Mediterranean.

In this context, the “Mediterranean Biodiversity Protection Community (MBPC)” aims at strengthening the management and capacities of protected areas. Its main objectives are to create synergies, mainstream management efforts, and increase the protection of biodiversity in maritime and coastal ecosystems towards common identified strategic targets. Moreover, it acts as a community, seeking to boost networking as a mechanism to enhance nature conservation and protection in the region.

The projects, part of the community, join their effort to integrate conservation practices into regional development strategies, through participatory approaches, applying ecosystem-based management approaches in Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and testing geospatial, monitoring and management tools. They aim at, for example, improving conservation status and water management, fighting against marine pollution, or monitoring tourism and cruise impacts in mobile species.

The community developed the Mediterranean Biodiversity Protection Knowledge Platform (MBPKP), a platform that gathers external validated open source information including maps and spatial data. Besides, the project released a large range of documents and publications (including factsheets, technical and policy papers, workshops reports, guidelines) available online. A Declaration for an Ecosystem-based approach to biodiversity protection and management, that any interested party can adopt, has been developed to ensure the joint efforts.

PARTNERS

• LP : University of Malaga - European Topic Center (ES) • Conference of peripheral maritime regions of Europe (FR) • Plan Blue for Mediterranean environment and development (FR) • MEDCITIES (ES) • LATTE CREATIVE S.R.L. (IT) • MARINE INSTITUTE (HR) • Ministry of Ecology, Spatial Planning, and Urbanism, Montenegro •

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PANORAMED

https://governance.interreg-med.eu

During the 2014-2020 programming period, the Interreg MED Programme invested in the Axis 4, to reinforce governance efforts in the Mediterranean Region. The Programme participating States acknowledged the need to improve the coordination of policies and actions to ensure a more informed use of public funds and seize additional opportunities for development and growth. This approach is reflected in the PANORAMED project, a platform for intergovernmental close and permanent dialogue among national, regional, European and international actors in the region.

The PANORAMED platform is an innovative intergovernmental project that joins 21 ministerial and regional authorities of the European States of the Mediterranean shores and of the three pre-accession to the EU States, namely Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro. The main goal of this initiative is to contribute to the definition of shared policies and actions to respond to challenges and sustainable growth opportunities of the Mediterranean Region. Under the coordination of the Lead Partner, the Spanish Ministry of Finance and Public Administration, the partner authorities will discuss themes of high relevance for the region, such as coastal and maritime tourism or maritime surveillance, in order to identify top down strategic projects and contribute to shared policies and frameworks. Approved in June 2017, with a nine million euros budget and running until spring 2022, the project ensures a medium/long term perspective and has the potential to give a positive contribution to new EU strategies in the Mediterranean beyond the time length of the Interreg MED Programme. 2019 has been the first year when the governance processes have been fully operational, with all different types of projects, including the new 4 Governance strategic projects, working together with the thematic projects communities and the platform project that coordinates the Axis. Four strategic projects were approved to work on coastal and maritime tourism and on maritime surveillance. Two new strategic projects on innovation are foreseen in early 2020.

PARTNERS

LEAD PARTNER: Ministry of Finance and Public Administration – General Directorate for European Funds (ES) • Government of Catalonia (ES) • Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs (AL) • Directorate for European Integration of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BA) • Ministry of Regional Development and EU Funds (HR) • Directorate general for European Programmes, coordination and development (CY) • Commissariat General for Equality of Territories / Region Sud Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur / Secretariat General for the Sea (FR) • Ministry of Economy and Development / Region of Crete (EL) • National Agency for the territorial cohesion / Region Emilia Romagna / Region Marche / Region Molise / Region Tuscany (IT) • Ministry for European Affairs and Equality (MT) • Government of Montenegro – European Integration Office (ME) • AD&C, Agency for Development and Cohesion (PT) • Government Office for Development and EU Cohesion Policy (SI) • Jožef Stefan Institute (SI)

WHO WE ARE

Partner organisations

Approved projects

Countries

Regions

COMMUNITIES