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European Projects
The West Regional Authority is currently participating in a range of EU co-financed Projects involving inter-regional, cross-border and transnational co-operation. The aim of these projects is to promote the strengths of the West Region at a European level and also to benefit from experiences in other regions in Europe.
CURRENT EU PROJECTS
TOURAGE - Developing Senior Tourism in Remote Regions - INTERREG IVC
Period of Project: January 2012 – December 2014
Tourism is one of the fastest growing and among three largest industries in Europe but relatively remote regions are simply unaware of its potential or have not exploited it fully. Tourism clusters and networks are fragmented particularly in ‘senior tourism’ or what is termed in Ireland, the ‘grey market’ or ‘silver tourism’ in Europe.
TOURAGE is a project which involves the exchange of good practices in the tourism sector where the needs of elderly travellers are catered for. The project also seeks to develop employment policies which are suitable for this type of tourism and tourism activities. A ‘Senior Tourism Model’ will be created which will enhance regional senior tourism policies throughout Europe.
There are a wide range of innovations which have been developed for senior tourism, but only a few regions benefit from them and are using them to their full potential. In this project, innovative applications which benefit senior tourism such as those relating to accessible transportation, quality accommodation, communication, infrastructure, education and program services, etc. will be identified and exchanged. The project also seeks good practices outside ‘traditional’ tourism sectors such as well-being services, which can be beneficial to the development of silver tourism opportunities.
The West Regional Authority is one of 12 partners involved in this project. Other countries include Finland, Latvia, Hungary, Greece, Slovakia, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Spain. Website: http://www.tourage.eu/.
LAKE ADMIN – Regional Administration of Lake Restoration Initiatives - INTERREG IVC
Period of Project: January 2012 - December 2014
LAKE ADMIN aims to assess good water management experiences in relation to lake restoration and share them across Europe.
The economic values of clean and safe water are well established. Lakes, ponds and reservoirs provide water for drinking, irrigation, recreation, fish, natural and cultural values and other ecosystem services.
However, despite remarkable investments in wastewater treatment, the quality of many waters is still affected by internal and external factors such as sediments, agriculture run-off and other diffuse sources of pollution. These problems can be tackled by lake management and restoration measures.
One of the key objectives of the project is to improve the effectiveness of regional development policies related to water management, especially in the field of lake, pond and reservoir restoration and management. The purpose of this project is to create nationally uniform practices for the evaluation of lake restoration initiatives and to establish guidance about what kind of incentives regional administration authorities can provide to promote lake restorations.
The West Regional Authority is one of 10 partners in this partnership which includes the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Italy and Malta. Website: http://lakeadmin.savonia.fi/.
SECRE - Sustainable Enterprises in Community Renewable Energy - NORTHERN PERIPHERY PROGRAMME
Period of Project: August 2011 - February 2014
SECRE is a project under the auspices of the Northern Periphery Programme (NPP) which aims to identify and analyse good practices of Community Renewable Energy.
The main objective of SECRE is to develop a long term sustainable service for social enterprises (community involvement enterprises) in the area of renewable energy. The service will collate community-based renewable energy project case studies from all European project participants and will include an electronic service or ‘e-service’ element using Information Communication Technology (ICT). The e-service will disseminate the case study reports to interested communities. The case study methodology will be prepared and based on jointly developed protocols to ensure high quality data.
The West Regional Authority (WRA) will focus on a good practice community involvement enterprise in the Aran Islands off the coast of County Galway. ‘Gaotha go Rothaí – Wind to Wheels’[1] Aran Islands Electric Vehicle Project is run by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) and the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht (DAHG) where a monitoring scheme has been established for operating Electric Cars. Excess energy produced from renewable wind energy on the islands can be used to charge the Electric Vehicles and reduce reliability on imported petrol or diesel fuels.
The West Regional Authority is one of 12 partners involved in this project including other partners from Finland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, Norway and Iceland. Website: www.secre.eu.
[1] SEAI - Aran Islands Electric Vehicle Project Overview – Website http://www.seai.ie/Renewables/EV_support_programme_launched/aran_islands_EV_prog/
TG4NP - Tourist Guide for Northern Periphery - NORTHERN PERIPHERY PROGRAMME
Period of Project: June 2010 - September 2013
TG4NP is a Northern Periphery Programme approved project with an objective of supporting tourism in peripheral regions by enhancing the visitors experience in cultural and natural heritage destinations through the assistance of multimodal mobile information services (such as mobile phone applications). The services will be made as ‘technology neutral’ (i.e. not wholly dependent on a particular kind of technology) and as flexible as possible which will guarantee long term sustainability, usability and transferability (i.e. that the technology and concept can be used by other people who are not involved in this project).
The WRA’s contribution to the TG4NP project is to support tourism in peripheral regions by enhancing visitor experience with the aid of Mobile Information Services. The proposal was to develop an outstanding Mobile Tourism Phone Application (or ‘App’) which will enable potential tourists to the region to plan their cycling and walking routes and note Points of Interest (POI) along the way. Work on the development of the Hymany Way Walking/Cycling Route Mobile App progressed in 2011 and its POIs incorporate historical monuments, religious churches and places of immense importance with regard to biological diversity.
The technology establishes a Mobile Location Information Service, locally adapted for the integration of current and future web services with the use of mobile phones.
This App ‘adds value’ to the visitor experience in a rural and remote area of the region (east County Galway). In addition the Mobile App will provide directions from the user’s current position to the walking and cycling route location using GPS location technology utilized by the App. Users will be able to access photos and text information and will be encouraged to share the App on social networking sites.
The West Regional Authority is one of 11 partners involved in the project including other partners from Sweden, Iceland, Northern Ireland, Ireland, Finland, Greenland and Norway. Website: www.tg4np.eu.
DART - Declining, Aging and Regional Transformation - INTERREG IVC
Period of Project: January 2010 – December 2012
DART is an Interreg IVC approved project which focuses on the Declining, Ageing and Regional Transformation (DART) challenges which are taking place across Europe. For this reason 13 regions that are all affected by declining and ageing populations are co-operating to benchmark, identify and transfer appropriate solutions for dealing with demographic change.
DART will define new common indicators for measuring decline and other symptoms of demographic change in European regions. These indicators will allow data from different regions to be compared. It will identify good practices which strengthen the economy and which have a strong emphasis on educational, health care and social services in each region. It is envisaged that the best of these practices will be transferred to other regions.
Finally the project will make political recommendations to regional and European stakeholders and raise public and political awareness with regard to declining and ageing regions. The final report and political recommendations is being compiled by the West Regional Authority.
The West Regional Authority is one of 14 Partners which involves partners from Germany, the Czech Republic, Finland, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Poland and Romania. Website: www.dart-project.eu.
GRISI PLUS – Geomatics Rural Information Society Initiative PLUS - INTERREG IVC
Period of Project: January 2012 - December 2014
GRISI PLUS seeks to improve and modernise economic development policies for rural areas and aims to contribute to the revitalisation and economic development of isolated rural territories by enhancing the attractiveness of such areas. The project will examine how new inhabitants, entrepreneurs and tourists can be enticed into rural areas. Outcomes will provide decision-makers with policy support tools for the economic development of rural territories.
A key component in the project is the use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) and geomatics. The project will develop new methods for the promotion of local traditional products using ICT innovations. It will contribute to the development and promotion of local brands in line with the specific characteristics of rural territories and it will also reinforce the visibility and importance of independent tele-working at local, national and European level.
The West Regional Authority is one of 13 partners involved in this project with partners from France, Latvia, Cyprus, Romania, Estonia, Greece, Bulgaria, Malta, Slovenia and Czech Republic. Website: http://www.grisiplus.eu/home/.
GRISI+ Network Seminar Galway - INVITATION
(pdf, 704 kbs, Last Updated: Tue, 06 Nov 2012 12:07:00 GMT)
GRISI+ Network Seminar Galway - AGENDA
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Previous EU Projects
MICRE - Micro Waste to Energy Business: Micro Energy to Rural Enterprise - Northern Periphery Programme
Period of Project: January 2009 – December 2011 (Completed)
MicrE seeks to provide a service that exploits specific technologies in providing renewable energy solutions. It also examines how energy can be generated from by-products (e.g. from manufacturing) and waste (e.g. food waste), which can be adapted for rural Small to Medium sized Enterprises (SME’s).
The objectives of the MicrE are to:
- Promote competitiveness in rural and peripheral areas though innovative solutions for SME’s and networking
- Strengthen the synergies between environmental protection and economic growth
- Increase the energy efficiency and saving costs for SMEs
- Develop new but long term sustainable renewable energy source schemes for SMEs
- Reduce waste and the increasing cost of waste for SMEs
MicrE is a transnational service that will make small scale renewable energy generation available to small and SMEs in rural partner regions on a scale that is viable and economically feasible. Rural areas in these regions have traditionally been very energy resource intensive and dependent on fossil fuel energy due to their remote location and long winters.
Small-scale biomass and waste based energy solutions are able to address the challenges of resource availability, while progressively reducing the impact of human activities on the environment. The aim is to generate energy on-site from enterprises’ own wastes and by-products, simultaneously solving the waste disposal problems and diminishing green house gas (GHG) emissions.
MicrE has created a Booklet setting out the most promising technologies to create energy from waste and by-products. These technologies include alcohol fermentation, anaerobic digestion, gasification and pelletization. Website: www.micre.eu.
GASD - Green Atlantic for Sustainable Development - INTERREG IIIB
Project is now complete.
This project brought together the Atlantic area’s maritime regions exposed to the risks of shipping routes as well as those with strong experience in the prevention, management and clean-up of maritime ecological disasters.
This INTERREG IIIB Atlantic Area project which concluded in June 2008 saw the West and South-West Regional Authorities engage in a partnership to create a European platform of expertise and action for maritime and environmental safety issues. The GASD Project was designed to take stock of the collective public and private sector expertise of maritime regions in working on issues such as shipping route risks and dealing with maritime ecological pollution (prevention, management and clean-up) and to use these as a basis for developing informed recommendations on durable operational solutions.
The importance of being able to anticipate change and act accordingly is crucial to the partner regions’ maritime economies, which are largely dependent on fishing and tourism and on protecting existing assets. To this end, the project pioneered a sustainable economic development vision, based on an innovative approach to maritime safety and applied to their collective maritime activities. This vision was translated into practical demonstration actions on which future European policies and legislation integral to maritime safety; technical, scientific and technological innovation; and economic development can be built. A multidisciplinary ‘cluster of Maritime and Environmental Excellence’ to reinforce the attractiveness of Atlantic Area regions as a leading hub for knowledge and competitiveness in the field of maritime and environmental safety was a further output.
For Further Details please visit: http://www.interreg-atlantique.org/iiib/eng/projet/index.html
TECHLINK - INTERREG IIIB
Project is now complete.
Traditionally industrialised, the regions taking part in this project are currently faced with new competition from countries with low production costs. In order to stay competitive and avoid the risks of delocalisation, these regions must build new competitive forces based on knowledge and innovation, taking as targets important themes like the environment, alternative energy and urban mobility.In this framework, the TECHLINK project is intended to create, in these regions of the Atlantic Area, a culture of innovation and of the exchange of good practices, while developing trans-national co-operation between public and private organisations in the sector of technological innovation (universities, SMEs, technological centres…). On the basis of study of the current situation, the project consists of creating a network of trans-national co-operation which will develop methodologies and tools making it possible to control and guide the evolution of innovation in a continuous manner.
Development of a method to assess the situation of the partners in the project in terms of innovation: an auto-questionnaire has been drawn up which each partner can answer. The results of the questionnaires have been summarised and on the basis of this a training programme has been created and implemented. A strategic innovation plan for each region participating in the project has been developed. The plan lists the strategic intervention zones in each regionDevelopment of tools to aid the dissemination of a culture of innovation and the project: development of an Internet platform and organisation of several video-conferencesPromotion of the project to SMEs, universities and technical institutes: organisation of seminars, conferences and workshops. A common methodology has been developed to organise regional events on the subject of innovation.
For further details please visit: http://www.interreg-atlantique.org/iiib/eng/projet/index.html
3RD GRISI PLUS NEWSLETTER
Click here to access the 3rd Grisi Plus Newsletter (pdf, 2,522 kbs, Last Updated: Tue, 23 Apr 2013 14:13:00 BST)
