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ERRIN strategic project involvement

While it is a main focus of ERRIN to increase project opportunities for its members and to facilitate consortia building among members, ERRIN as an association also participates, selectively and subject to approval by its Management Board, in EU-funded projects that are regarded as strategically important for the whole network or for individual thematic working groups within ERRIN.

ERRIN is currently involved as a partner in three approved projects and two project submissions:

· ‘MKW’: INTERREG IVC capitalisation project on knowledge valorisation (Start: 1/2010)

The EU suffers from what has been called an “innovation paradox”, i.e. excellent research does not always find its way into commercially valuable innovations and excellent ideas are often not used. MKW (Making Knowledge Work) aims at analysing, transferring and mainstreaming regional good practice, policies and measures that stimulate the take up of innovative ideas and knowledge. This project, led by Brainport Eindhoven (NL), will help to improve the innovation capacity of regions, by bridging gaps within the innovation chain through concrete policy action involving relevant regional stakeholders and actors of the triple helix. For more information, please see the MKW website.

· ‘ECOLINK+’: A platform to strengthen Europe’s Eco-innovation community (Start: 1/2010)

The ECOLINK+ project intends to act as an important reference point for the whole ECO-Innovation community by: i) Positioning the Eco-innovation platform to become the cardinal point for eco-innovation at the European level; ii) establishing a Club of 100 top eco-innovation companies with high growth potential where members will network, exchange best practices and build partnerships and will provide a solid showcase platform for Eco-Innovation success stories; iii) setting the key issues emerging from the sectoral platforms at the very centre of the innovation support policy debate; iv) helping actors in the eco-innovation arena to access new markets and new policy support domains (beyond the ECO-IP and Europe INNOVA). Within the project, ERRIN member regions can apply for co-financing for trans-regional events. More information on application procedure here. For an example, please see here for the Birmingham trans-regional event on 3 Dec 2010.

· ‘PLACES’: Platform for Local Authorities and Communicators Engaged in Science (Start: 6/2010)

This FP7 coordination and support action, led by ECSITE, the European Network of Science Museums (BE), aims to build a community and platform of local practitioners engaged in science communication and science in society issues. It will stimulate the sharing of good practice, knowledge and tools and promote cooperation between platform members, experiment with new activities, raise awareness on scientific culture with local/regional politicians, define a model of European city of science, and deliver policy recommendations to EU actors. For more information please consult the project website.

· ‘GRAAL’: GMES and Regions: Awareness and Access Link (Start: 03/2010)

This FP7 coordination and support action, led by Arsenale Novissimo (FR), aims to increase awareness of the potential of GMES Downstream Services to fulfil the needs of Local and Regional Authorities (LRA) while fostering the development of a sustainable and enlarged industrial base of providers of GMES Downstream Services. GRAAL will study and categorise existing and potential needs within Local and Regional Authorities for GMES downstream services. In parallel, a GMES SME Observatory will identify the ways and means to create or develop a network of SMEs to supply such services to LRAs, as well as the “barriers to entry” that SMEs must face in order to address this market. The outcomes of these studies will be used to set up a web platform acting both as a directory of GMES downstream services (Offer and Demand) and as a bridge between service providers and existing and potential end users. These activities will be backed by an awareness campaign running throughout the project.

Event EU Space Policy - 8th November 2011

· ‘C-LIEGE’: Clean Last mile transport and logistics management for Energy-Efficient local Governments in Europe (Start: 06/2011)

C-LIEGE  is a STEER project proposal addressed to the Intelligent Energy Europe programme 2010. It is an advance approach which aims to enhance energy efficiency in cities by improving integrated demand management and planning in transport, raising awareness and transferability of good practices and lessons learned among European key players. C-LIEGE will involve in its implementation administrators and other relevant stakeholders, including freight forwarders operators, residents, vehicle manufacturers, with the aim to develop, experiment and transfer successful novel integrated measures and tools. Before their implementation, these measures will be shared with both public and private actors in urban freight transport market - having as main common goal to achieve energy saving and reduction of CO2 and GHG emissions in European cities. C-LIEGE aims also to set criteria to assess and improve the sustainability of local governments' transport policies promoting more energy efficient and cleaner freight movements in urban environments by providing a novel integrated approach to mobility management solutions and tools by applying a proper mix of "push and pull" measures to city times slots management and spatial planning. Mobility management and accessibility measures currently applied mainly to demand management in passengers transport will be extended to urban freight deliveries. In achieving its goals, C-LIEGE will feed into and support European, regional and national initiatives in transport energy solutions.

. 'CONCORD': Coordination and Collaboration Facilitation for Next Generation Future Internet Public Private Partnerships (Start: 04/2011)

CONCORD Future Internet PPP programme Facilitation and Support action advances the European Future Internet research by supporting the European Commission in the successful implementation of a coherent FI PPP programme. CONCORD will coordinate and facilitate the alignment of FI PPP activities to ensure the relevance, rigor and robustness of the co-created Future Internet concepts, visions and roadmaps. The methodology used is an applied SECI model with a spiral development process.  CONCORD advocates fair, open and inclusive procedures for the supported parties to achieve commonly agreed goals. Reflecting this, CONCORD creates an open and transparent decision-making mechanism and collaborative environment where in a systematic manner, all projects contribute to , and are accountable for, their contributions towards the success of the FI PPP Programme as a whole.  CONCORD will facilitate horizontal cross-project knowledge transfer and co-creation on various collaboration levels, as well as with the related external groups. It will further support the projects’ integration and implementation with the development of guidelines regarding the handling of technical and non-technical horizontal functionalities related to standardization, legal frameworks, SME and user involvement and cross-project collaboration.  CONCORD addresses the identified challenges and conflicting interest within the community through structured discussions and meetings, while maintaining a neutral approach to the subject matter. CONCORD seeks consent and minimizes dominance by a few participants through a set of rules for participation and interactions.  CONCORD will focus on future oriented strategic planning for FI PPP and on bringing a valuable contribution via unbiased outsider attention to the FI PPP structure and processes. CONCORD will leverage on past work and investments when designing and facilitating the development of an overall system level programme view and collaboration across all FI PPP projects.



If you are interested in ERRIN participation in your project, PLEASE NOTE the following rules/procedure as outlined in ERRIN’s Internal Rules (as of Dec 2010):

“5. PROJECT INVOLVEMENT AND SUPPORT

5.1. While it is a main focus of ERRIN is to increase project opportunities for ERRIN members and to facilitate consortia building among members, ERRIN as an association can decide to be a partner in project submissions that are regarded as strategically important for the whole network or individual thematic working groups.

5.2. Strategic significance shall be determined on the basis of the project meeting the needs of the members and in terms of ERRIN visibility, content development and paving the way for future project opportunities for ERRIN members.

5.3. The MB decides on any ERRIN involvement in strategic projects. The MB has to be informed about any request for ERRIN project partnership supported by the Secretariat and by at least one MB member or WG leader (in the latter case the WG leader will be invited to the MB meeting in question). While requests will be discussed on a first come/first serve basis, all notification of such requests needs to take place well in advance of the deadline.

5.4. The request is presented and discussed at a regular MB meeting. Alternatively the MB can delegate the vetting of project requests to a MB member/group of MB members that have to report to the full board about their decision. In any case, the treasurer will be invited to give an opinion on the financial implications.

5.5. Requests have to be supported by a background document clearly outlining the scope of ERRIN involvement, ERRIN tasks within the project and financial implications.

5.6. ERRIN project involvement shall not have a negative impact on the fulfilment of regular task of the Secretariat.

5.7. ERRIN can support those projects with a support letter for which it has been asked to be involved as a partner or a sub-contractor. The MB has to be informed on any such requests by the Secretariat. The same procedure as above applies to the request of support letters.”