Province of Reggio Emilia (Italy) Leading partner

 

Regionforbundet Östsam (Sweden)

 

Province of Albacete (Spain)

 

Enzkreis Province (Germany)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Objectives and Methods

The project puts particular attention to the bottom-up approach towards innovation and local development as declared in the Lisbon agenda where innovation and creativity are seen as important tools to foster competitiveness, economic growth and citizens' participation.

The specific objectives of the project are:

a) Exchange of best practices about the implementation of innovative policies on local development locally

b) Involvement and networking among social actors, such as local public authorities, private companies and NGOs and voluntary organisations

c) Experiment new solutions for the promotion of entrepreneurship and of young human capital, for the creation of sustainable jobs and for the implementation of innovative public services.

 

The project foresees 5 events and namely, an opening session in September 2009 to be held in Reggio Emilia, three specific seminars (in Albacete, Linkoping and Enzkreis during 2010) on the interaction between the concept of innovation for local development and the public actors, NGOs and the private companies and a final meeting to evaluate and disseminate the results of the project to be held in Reggio Emilia in 2011.

 

Expected results

Considering the involvement of different target groups (public, private, non profit ones) and their different actions the expected results can be seen as specific for each group. Particular attention will be put on:

- Innovative solutions/products for local development to be implemented locally
- Increasing in participation of citizens
- Networking among different target groups locally
- Networking among participants and participating organisations

Indeed, seminars and conferences will be an opportunity for setting the basis of a long-standing cooperation and the expected results is the creations of conditions to develop new projects among the partners and the actors they will involve. The expected impact of the project will be both on the direct participants in the project meetings but also, with a multiplying effect in the contexts in which they operate through a strong spill-over process.