Call information
Programme
INTERREG EUROPE (http://www.interregeurope.eu/).
Type of
action
Interregional Cooperation Project
Call
Deadline
Eligible
partners
3rd Call: opening date March 1st 2017
30th June 2017
Public Authorities (national, regional or local), public equivalent bodies in
charge of defining and implementing regional policy instruments and nonprofit bodies (also private) in any EU region.
Public equivalent bodies: Any body,
(a) established for the specific purpose of meeting needs in the general interest,
not having an industrial or commercial character;
(b) having legal personality; and
(c) financed, for the most part, by the State, regional or local authorities, or other
bodies governed by public law; or subject to management supervision by those
bodies; or having an administrative, managerial or supervisory board, more than
half of whose members are appointed by the State, regional or local authorities,
or by other bodies governed by public law.
Private non-profit bodies: Any body,
(a) established for the specific purpose of meeting needs in the general interest,
not having an industrial or commercial character;
(b) having legal personality;
(c) - not financed, for the most part, by the State, regional or local authorities, or
other bodies governed by public law;
- not subject to management supervision by those bodies;
- not having an administrative, managerial or supervisory board, more than half
of whose members are appointed by the State, regional or local authorities, or
by other bodies governed by public law.
Funding rate
85% for public authorities and public equivalent bodies.
75% for private non-profit bodies.
Project Proposal Information
Project
Name
NATURGROWTH. Sustainable Growth impulse in the Natura 2000 territories.
Contact
Person
Project promoter and Lead Applicant:
Provincial Council of Alava: Environment and city-planning Department
Amaia Barredo (Director) [email protected]
Josean Galera Carrillo[email protected]
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Technical Partner in Alava:
Basque Environment Cluster:
Kristina Apiñaniz (General Manager)[email protected]
Mikel Ibarra (Project Development Director)[email protected]
External consultants:
Iniciativas Innovadoras:
Javier Baztarrika (General Manager)  [email protected]
Aitor Iriarte (Project Assistant)[email protected]
Description
The objective of NATURGROWTH is to develop new sustainable economic
growth models for rural areas within the Natura 2000 territories, based on the
opportunities that the Bio-Economy, the Smart Specialization and the use of
innovative financial instruments give us.
Estimated
project
duration
Project duration: the project will be implemented in 2 phases:
• Phase 1: Exchange of experience and definition of Regional Action Plans (24
months): this phase is dedicated to the diagnosis, benchmarking, exchange of
policy experience and analysis. By the end of this phase, each partner region shall
produce an Action Plan for the integration of lessons learnt from the cooperation
in their regional policies and/or (Growth and Jobs, ETC) programmes. The Action
Plans shall identify the measures to be integrated and their timeframe, work
steps, responsible actors, costs (if any) and funding sources. The partners shall
actively involve relevant regional stakeholders in all activities.
• Phase 2: Monitoring of implementation of Regional Action Plans (24 months):
this phase is dedicated to the monitoring by each partner region of the
implementation of their Action Plan by the responsible actors in their territory.
The actual implementation of these actions is not funded by INTERREG EUROPE.
This monitoring primarily takes place within the context of each region.
However, the interregional partnership may decide to organise joint activities in
this monitoring phase to continue their policy learning process. In duly justified
cases, phase 2 may also include pilot actions to test certain parts of the Action
Plan in practice.
Estimated
project
opening
date
Leader
03/01/2018
Approach
The Natura 2000 areas report significant benefits to the European Society in
terms of resources for living (water, air, food…), quality of life (leisure, sports,
culture…) and support for economic activities.
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/natura2000/financing/docs/ENV-12018_LR_Final1.pdf
Leading partner: Provincial Council of Alava. ES
Technical partner: ACLIMA. Basque Environment Cluster. ES
However, in many occasions the rural areas inside the Natura 2000 spaces are
not the recipients of those benefits, because they are not able to create
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economic opportunities that allow keeping the local population, especially
between young and women. This is why rural areas often see themselves
emerged into continuous processes of depopulation.
The project aims to develop new models of economic ecosystems for the
Natura 2000 rural areas that enable a better use of the opportunities that the
Structural Funds offers for the sustainable development of the natural areas
(see the DG Regio Guide “Connecting Smart and Sustainable Growth Smart
Specialization”
http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/sources/docgener/presenta/green_growt
h/greengrowth.pdf).
The new model aims to combine the arising opportunities of:
- The Bioeconomy Strategy for Europe “Innovating for Sustainable
Growth: A Bioeconomy for Europe”, published by the Commission in
2012.
- The Smart Growth challenge of the “Europe 2020 Strategy” through
eco-innovation and the use of TICs.
- The use of innovative financial instruments: LDLC (Local Development by
Local Communities)-ERDF, Natural Capital Financing Facility (NCFF),
Rewilding Europe Capital (REC)…
Among others, the new model will have the next goals:
- Take advantage of the opportunities that digitalization will bring to the
rural areas, for the creation of green employment and the promotion of
new value chains in the Natura 2000 areas.
- Promote the establishment and the economic viability of probiodiversity businesses (PBB) through de public-private partnership
and innovative financing models that permits the maintenance of the
ecosystemic services in the Natura 2000 areas.
- Favor the integration of the Natura 2000 areas at a regional level
circular bio-economies through the cooperation between regional
actors, supporting of young entrepreneurs (synergies with FSE), and the
development of new sustainable business models suitable for the
deployment at a local level. This will end up contributing to the rural
development objectives (PDR).
The project will identify the synergies and complementarities between the
various policy and financial instruments (ERDF, H2020, FEADER, LIFE, strategies
and rural development plans, NCFF, etc.) to design regional action plans with
specific financing and policy combinations in order to achieve a sustainable
growth in the Natura 2000 territories of the participant regions.
The regional action plans will be developed following three major approaches:
• A participatory approach that will allow the projects partners to initiate a
continuous consulting process with the public authorities, social
organizations, innovation agents, businesses, environment protection
organizations, etc. inside of every single participants´ regional ecosystems.
• A systemic approach to cover the social and economic development and
environmental protection of the Natura 2000 territories in the participating
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regions in order to find synergies and complementarities between the
existing measures, programs and models of the participating regions.
• A bottom-up approach that allows project partners to scale from the
regional level to the EU level by identifying measures, programs and models
to stimulate the sustainable socio-economic development of the Natura
2000 territories of the participating regions as well as the EU as a whole.
Activities
The project will be implemented through the following Components:
C1: MANAGEMENT AND COORDINATION. Led by DG Innovation La Rioja
Government.
• Interregional Steering Group meetings each 6 months.
• Reporting to JTS.
• Monitoring and evaluation of project results.
C2: COMMUNICATION AND DISSEMINATION. Led by “To be Determined”.
• Definition and Communication Strategy and Plan.
• Tools: website, social media, brochure,
• Holding of regional and interregional dissemination events.
• Lay out, printing and dissemination of publications: Method, Good Practices
Guide and Policy Recommendations.
C3. EXCHANGE OF EXPERIENCE LEADING TO REGIONAL ACTION PLANS (RAP).
Led by “To be Determined”.
• Holistic analysis at regional and inter-regional level.
• Identification of Good Practices.
• Field Visits to partners’ good practices and Peer Review process of local
policies.
• Definition of Regional Action Plans.
C4. MONITORING OF REGIONAL ACTION PLANS (RAP). Led by “To be
Determined”.
• Monitoring and reporting implementation progress of RAP.
Expected
outputs
Main outputs:
- Regional Reports with results of Diagnosis Phase.
- Inventory of Good Practices.
- Regional Policy Briefs.
- Policy Road Map.
- Regional Action Plans.
- Monitoring Reports
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