Month: August 2022

Hello, everyone! My name is Dana and for a whole month I have been voluntering in the Estonia-Latvia programme project “Smart Living”. The main goal of this project is to raise public awareness about environmentally friendly lifestyle and smart use of energy resources in Latvia and Estonia, combining knowledge and competence of organization in both countries. Project lead partner is Green and Smart Technology Cluster and project partners are Vidzemes Planning Region and Tartu regional Energy Agency. In order to educate and encourage the society to change their daily routine in favour of energy efficiency, all three project partners together organize seminars and workshops for households and real estate managers, as well as for owners of industrial and commercial businesses. My task in the organization is related to public relations and communication management, meaning, administration of the social media, communication with the local media as well as informing people of the benefits and importance of environmentally friendly use of energy. Also I have been introducing people to the interactive “Smart Living” tool, that helps to understand the energy usage in one’s household and gives advices to make it more energy efficient. Last month I was able to participate in the Green Tech Cluster’s organized online event “The biggest challenges for increasing energy efficiency in apartment buildings”, that gave an insight into challenges in decision-making process to improve energy efficiency in apartment building such as home ventilation, renovation processes and creation of a pipeline for energy retrofitting. This was also a great opportunity for me to understand the concept of the interactive tool “Smart Living” as it was discussed and demonstrated during the webinar. In total, 75 participants registered for the event and 50 participants took part in it. During April both online and face to face activities are planned. I am very excited to participate in this project and to be a part of raising awareness of green thinking and sustainable living. I am improving my professional skills, getting to know quite a few inspiring and knowledgable people, gaining knowledge on environmentally-friendly lifestyle and learning about ways to save energy. Grateful to continue to give my contribution to the team and be a messenger of the benefits of sustainable living and energy effiecient living spaces. Dana Linina, IVY Project Partner at Green and Smart Technology Cluster Society for the Interreg Project “Smart Living”

My name is Lucie and I come from France. I am currently volunteering in Jaca in Spain and working for the Interreg program POCTEFA. I arrived in early November 2021. POCTEFA stands for Operational Program of Territorial Cooperation Spain-France-Andorra. It stands in the A category of Interreg program because it is a cross-border cooperation program. This program aims at developing, reinforcing cooperation and financing cross-border projects in the Pyrenean area between France, Andorra and Spain. Concerning life in Jaca, it is a small town in the north of Spain, in the autonomous community of Aragon, province of Huesca and located at the foot of the Pyrenean mountains. Living here is being surrounded by some nature and historical places. I am learning multiple things about cross-border cooperation, specifically about this territory. Indeed, cross-border cooperation in the Pyrenean has been existing for a long time, even long before the POCTEFA Program was created. There are traditional relations between Pyrenean collectivities since the Middle Ages. The Pyrenean is one of the oldest European borders. The Pyrenean border faces several challenges: a low population density, low workflow, isolated rural territories, environmental changes. However, the two sides of the Pyrenean also have things in common, such as regional languages. So, despite the border, some elements bring them together. Concerning the POCTEFA Program, it acts on different lines. The five main lines of the program are : Boosting innovation and competitiveness Promoting adjustment to climate change and prevention of risk management Promoting the protection, the enhancement and the use of local sustainable resources Support the mobility of goods and people Strengthen the skills and the inclusion within territories The areas of intervention of the programme include zones near the French-Spanish border and Andorra. On the French side, the cooperation area includes the French departments of Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Ariège, Haute-Garonne, Hautes-Pyrénées, Pyrénées-Orientales from the regions Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Occitanie. On the Spanish side, the cooperation area includes the following areas : Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa, Araba/Alava, Navarra, La Rioja, Huesca, Zaragoza, Lleida, Girona, Barcelona and Tarragona. Andorra is also a member state of the program even if it is not part of the European Union. In this period, the Joint Secretariat is finishing the 2014-2020 period Program and preparing the next period. Projects are organizing their project closure day and presenting their results and accomplishments. I had the chance to virtually attend some of them and to see how the Program contributes to the different functional zones. Many of them were in the field of innovation in health. Some projects get rewarded. For example, The TESTACOS project got second place in the 2021 Triple Hélice Awards in December. I am currently volunteering and assisting the Joint Secretariat of the POCTEFA program as an Interreg reporter. I support my project manager colleagues in translating key documents such as meeting reports or documents needed for working groups. Sometimes I also help in some project management activities too. The Regiostar Awards is also another annual contest since 2008 that rewards the innovative and inclusive approach of projects in Cohesion Policy and in five different categories. Some POCTEFA projects have been selected as finalists at the last Regiostar Awards which took place on 2nd of December 2021 : they are the ORHI and TRAILS projects. The ORHI project has been selected in the “URBAN Europe: Promoting green, sustainable and circular food systems in functional urban areas” category, which is part of axis 1. It aims at using organic matter and plastic in a more efficient way in the agri-food value chain to reduce waste. The TRAILS project has been selected in the “THEME OF THE YEAR: Strengthening green mobility in the regions : European Year of the Train 2021” category, which is part of axis 4. Its objective is to strengthen the flow of goods by creating a cross-border digital single desk to bring together the multimodal offer of the two territories. Volunteering abroad is also about learning a new culture and a new language, which was also my goal. After five years of my academic schooling and thanks to this experience, I will be able to better understand the dynamics of a cross-border program. For the moment, this volunteering shows me that cross-border cooperation is essential and that cooperation has an impact on preserving the local culture, heritage and environment. Cross-border cooperation is even vital in some fields such as fires management, access to health and emergency interventions for the local population. It is therefore important to realize that cooperation in Europe is a real need and that it makes a real impact on the local scale. I am grateful and happy to be part of the POCTEFA Program. There are still many things to discover and learn. Lucie – Interreg Reporter at POCTEFA ES-FR-AD – Spain-France-Andorra Interreg Programme

Hi there! My name is Jana and I volunteer as an IVY Project Partner at the project REEgain in the Centre Algatech in Třeboň, Czech Republic. The project is focused on environmental-friendly recovery of scarce metals from electronic waste. And just imagine, they use microalgae for that! There are many problems happening on our planet, which need to be solved and one of them is limited sources of materials. We already started to recycle paper, plastic, glass, etc. but there are still so many materials we cannot recycle. Ones of these are precious metals mainly used in electronic devices. As mentioned above, the goal of the REEgain project is to recycle these elements. They are called Rare Earth Elements (REEs). The main scientific point is that some strains of microalgae bind these precious metals and with this could be metals then separated and reused. You can follow the progress of the whole project on our FB and Instagram. I joined IVY because I wanted to do something useful but also I wanted to broaden my horizons in different fields as well as improve my English. One of my good friends was working on the project REEgain as an IVY volunteer and she recommended me this experience. Today it’s been already two month since I joined REEgain project and I would like to share with you what I’ve learned so far. I’ve gained a lot of knowledge about microalgae, but also I’ve learned about scientific work and laboratory devices. I’ve found out that there is a lot of paper work behind each small experiment happening in labs. However, to be a scientist is not my job as IVY volunteer. My job is to popularize the REEgain project, talk about IVY and spread it into the World. Therefore, I write posts on social media, sharing photos, papers, articles and all the interesting information about the REEgain project. We are trying to plan short talks mainly with students (at high schools and universities) and show them what the scientists from the Centre Algatech and their Austrian partners from Campus Krems do. The cooperation is a very important part of the Interreg program thus the REEgain project is also about the cooperation between Czech and Austrian research partners. Further, regional companies are involved as strategic partners too. At last I would like to express my thrill from the opportunity being the IVY volunteer! I’ve never thought about something like this, because I missed the information. It shows the importance of getting information, which is also the mission of IVY. It is important to realize that you don’t really need to have many titles before you can contribute to the effort making our World a better place. Being an IVY volunteer is something I am really proud of! Jana Šaková – IVY Project Partner at Institute of Microbiology, The Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic for the REEgain project

Hi everyone! I am Elisabetta, an international relation graduate from Sicily who has recently decided to move back to their place of origin after some years of wondering through Europe. Last month I had the incredible opportunity of joining the Impact Hub Siracusa team to work on the ENISIE project as an IVY volunteer, within the framework of Interreg Italia-Malta 2014-2020. ENISIE wants to stimulate the creation and strengthening of enterprises (micro, small and medium) of the Sicily-Malta cross-border area in the sectors of social enterprise and social responsibility through the experimentation of new social business services and the promotion of practices of social innovation, as well as the consolidation of a cross-border platform dedicated to social innovation throughout the Mediterranean basin. What makes this project really stand out is its capacity to intercept the complementarities and asymmetries of the two cross-border areas, Sicily and Malta, that are not yet fully realised in practice and turn them into points of strength from which to build and learn from each other. That is also why we focus on those sectors in which the Mediterranean has few rivals: food and tourism. Sustainable tourism and food tech, to be precise. At the moment we are focussing on implementing the “Covid-oriented activities” that support those social enterprises that have been struggling to keep up with the Covid pandemic. The services offered through Impact Hub’s Siracusa Help Desk generally include support in the development of the business model, impact measurement services and counselling with regards to access to preferential financing. Some enterprises also receive counselling in marketing and communication strategies. My main tasks as an IVY are research-based. I am currently investigating new models of sustainable tourism in the post-pandemic era in Sicily, learning from the experience of innovative enterprises that reinvented themselves as a consequence of COVID, and collecting my findings on a study on sustainable tourism. For me one of the great added value of this experience is to see first-hand how European cooperation can be made effective and valuable in my place of origin, Sicily, a region of Europe that is in great need of exchange with others and fresh perspectives. European cooperation is not about uniformity, rather it’s all about cherishing differences and giving us the chance of being the best Mediterraneans we can possibly be. Elisabetta, IVY Project Parter at The Hub Sicilia Società Cooperativa, for the ENISIE project

Hi everyone! My name is Mariona, I come from Catalonia, and I have been a volunteer at the Danube Transnational Programme in Budapest for more than two months now! During my stay, I have been supporting my colleagues Michal and Mirjana with the communication and good practices dissemination part of the programme. Currently, we are working on a very interesting campaign where we want to show the results of our projects by sharing personal stories from the beneficiaries. We are hoping that future applicants will see the positive change that participating at Interreg can make, both individually and in a community. While being a Political Sciences Student and ex-Erasmus European Studies student, I became very interested in how the EU’s Cohesion Policy works and the importance of regional cooperation to strengthen European competitiveness. Recently, I saw a post on Twitter from Elisa Ferreira, the European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, that said “Cohesion is the silent strength of the European Union and the motor of its convergence machine”, and I think that is very true. While being a volunteer here, and from past experiences, I have come to realise how little this policy and the European Territorial Programmes are known amongst European citizens, but also among relevant stakeholders that could take part in it. Yet, the Cohesion policy is one of the main investment policies of the EU and represents more than 1/3 of its budget. Thus, I have learned how important and necessary it is to spread the knowledge about Interreg programmes and projects, and how helpful volunteers can be in doing so. From the dissemination of good practices to looking for new stakeholders who can take part in the projects. Now, while participating as a volunteer in a programme such as the Danube Transnational Programme (to be called ‘Danube Region Programme’ in 2021-2027 programming period), I have had the chance to help on spreading its good results and to feel that I am contributing to an important initiative that is making a change in Europe. During this experience, I have had the opportunity to deepen my knowledge and to discover many interesting projects in the areas of innovation, environment and culture, good governance, and low-carbon and transportation systems. The main goal of the programme is to promote economic, social, and territorial cohesion in the Danube Region through policy integration in the 14 countries participating. This programme is also complementing the EU Strategy for the Danube Region, a macro-regional strategy adopted by the European Commission a few years ago aiming at addressing common challenges together. As someone not from the region where my host organization works, I also feel that this experience has helped me to understand and learn from other cultures, which I think is also very important to working in interregional cooperation. Before ending this post, I would like to mention what is like to have an experience abroad. I have been lucky enough to land in Budapest, a very vibrant city, full of young people, good food, and amazing architecture, which I am very grateful for (so yes if you are thinking about whether you should make a trip there, do so!). Nevertheless, because this is my third abroad experience, I can say for sure that no matter where you go there is no better way to learn, discover new places, and to even learn a new language. If you have the opportunity to live in another country while taking part in a volunteering experience, do not hesitate. I want to finish by saying how glad I am about having joined IVY and to have had the opportunity to be involved in Interreg while learning more about Cohesion Policy and familiarising myself with the topics that are currently thriving around Europe. Mariona Campmajo, IVY Reporter at Danube Transnational Programme