The third meeting  of the Transnational of Blue Energy Laboratory (TBEL) was held from June 5 to 7 in Thessaloniki, Greece. The event, organized by the Technical University of Thessaloniki as part of the MAESTRALE project, was an opportunity to discuss the state-of-art and the implementation of blue energies in the Mediterranean area and to present the pilot projects implemented by the project partners.  

A study visit by a Libyan delegation from the fisheries sector, to which Informest participates as a co-organizer, is started yesterday from Vigo (Galicia, Spain). The study visit to one of the most important European realities for the fishing and mariculture sector constitutes the natural continuation of the PathDev project, dedicated to supporting the Libyan municipalities for the revival of the fisheries sector and enhances the cooperation between the two European regions, Friuli Venezia Giulia and Galicia, strongly active in the Committee of European Regions, which gave life to the Nicosia Initiative to support Libyan municipalities. 

In the first Newsletter of the PRIMIS project "Multicultural journey between Italy and Slovenia through the prism of minorities", funded by the Interreg Italy-Slovenia Program 2014-2020, the project and the partners are presented. Newsletter # 1 can be downloaded directly here. 

If you wish to receive project newsletters and find out what the next activities will be you can subscribe to this link.

The sustainable use of marine energies is one of the most promising frontiers of blue growth development in Europe. At the EUSEW Energy Fair, the Interreg MED Maestrale project will show how many ways of exploitation of marine energy are feasible in the Mediterranean basin.

Through the Twinning Project GE 16 ENI EC 03 18 context, the objective of the ongoing visit of Georgian Delegation in Italy is to have a better understanding on how to establish control systems and procedures in line with the EU acquis for PDOs and PGIs.

In details, the beneficiaries will be hosted by the Italian Ministry of Agricultural, Food, Forestry and Tourism Policies (MiPAAFT). The study visit will start with a visit to the MiPAAFT with a view to better know its structures and responsibilities on GI management and controls.

SISMA project, funded by the INTERREG MED Program and coordinated by Informest, has been selected for REGIOSTARS 2019 award in the category Building climate-resilient cities. It is possible to click on the like button to one or several eligible projects until 9 July at this link. Projects that receive highest number of likes will go to he second phase. The winners will be awarded during the ceremony in Bruxelles on 9 October.

The Summer School will take place in Paluzza from the 1st to the 6th of September 2019. It is addressed to local administrators from Friuli Venezia Giulia, Veneto and Trentino and aims to give them the chance to develop an open mind-set towards some innovation themes for the integrated development of the territory and for thinking about “planning” as a method for projecting coherent interventions fundable with European funds or with other resources in the field of international, national and regional policies. The video can be seen here.

The award is given every year to projects funded by the European Union that demonstrate excellence and new approaches in regional development.

Each Operational Program can choose up to 5 projects: the MED Programme has selected SISMA project as one of the best innovative practices developed in the Mediterranean area, endorsing SISMA for the Regio Star 2019 award participation.

Informest attended yesterday the event dedicated to the future of the maritime in Friuli Venezia Giulia region organized by MARE FVG. The event draws the attention on competences of the regional enterprises and research institutions of the maritime sector and on trends and medium term visions of the big regional players of the sector. The event is attended by SMEs, research institutions and educational centres.

A new Twinning project in Georgia has started on 1st February.

Coordinated by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food, Forestry and Tourism (MiPAAFT), the general objective of the project is to support the development of “Appellations of Origin” and “Geographical Indications” (GIs) system in Georgia through the creation of effective supporting tools with the provisions of the European Union’s GIs protection system.

In particular, in the 24 months of activity experts from the Italian Ministry of Agriculture and of other competent institutions, jointly with the French colleagues, who act in the project as Junior Partner, will support the Georgian counterpart of the National Intellectual Property Center of Georgia in the improvement and adjustment of legislation and administrative / sanctioning structure for the protection and control of GIs. Among others,  4 new geographical indications are foreseen as project result.

Informest will implement the administrative and financial aspects, supporting MiPAAFT in the management and coordination of the project.

SISMA Project partners, leaded by Informest, met in Rome on Friday 20 April.
Objective of the meeting: finalizing the "SET - Subsidy Evaluation Tool" in view of the public presentation planned for May all long the Mediterranean area.

ESPON organizes a high-profile scientific seminar focused on the dissemination of good practices in the field of sustainable urban planning in the cross-border area of our Region.

In order to better face the new challenges imposed by climate change and demographic tendencies, it is necessary to rethink the urbanization system.

On December 2016, the Incubator of Creative Industries was established within the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (LIAA) with the mission to support the creation of new and development of current creative enterprises in Latvia. CI Incubator offers two programmes: Pre-incubation (up to 6 months) – suitable for prospective and young creative entrepreneurs developing or improving business idea, and Incubation (up to 4 years) – suitable for entrepreneurs with clearly defined business idea. The program supports companies under 3 years.

Indirect cultural policy provides support for CCI within the legislative framework of Navarre. One of the aspects for the moment is Tax credits for film and audiovisual production according to the local law (Ley Foral), 29/2014, Article 70 (made public on 24 December 2014). This law gives percentage credits for investments in productions of films and TV series (fiction, animation and/or documentary) and services delivered for film and TV series productions.

On March 27th and 28th in Aba Iulia and Sibiu (Romania) the CRE: HUB steering comitee will be held together with the sixth study visit of the project. The meeting will focus on the policies to strengthen the creative industries, analyzing the creation of territorial hubs.

Opening the LX Factory was a private initiative. It is a grand 23.000 m2 former factory in the Lisbon area of Alcântara, comprising ten buildings ranging from one to five floors.

In 2008, the complex was turned into a creative island for enterprises and professionals, serving also as stage for a diverse set of happenings related to fashion, advertising, communication, fine arts, architecture, music, etc. Sectors of the 203 enterprises/professionals currently established: architecture; design; catering /restaurants; shopping/leisure; advertising; fashion; visual arts; performing arts; music; new technologies; communication/marketing; photography; publishers; etc.

In the field of culture the Valley of Arts plays a significant role. The self-organized summer festival exists since 1989 and offers various cultural, musical, theatrical and literary programs. It is based on the local culture, built and natural environment. The centre of the festival is Kapolcs village but it was expanded to the villages nearby. The income of the festival is divided between the participating villages and they can use it for rural development aims. 

FVG Film Commission & Contract scheme audiovisual Production

FVG Film Commission, born in 2000, has assisted hundreds of productions, including films, documentaries, TV series, music videos and commercials. FVG FC is a founding member of EUFCN (European Film Commission Network) that is associated with the Film Commission on the European market. In 2003 the FVG Film Fund was established; which provides funding for those productions that choose regional territory for shooting. The Film Commission offers operators (movie, television, advertising and multimedia), the number of services is free of charge (production offices, equipment, tailors, local partnership network). The ratio between the FVG Film Commission investment and productions economic fallout is around 1 to 6.

The Foundation "Lucana Film Commission" (LFC) was established in 2012 with the purpose to promote and support the production of films, television, audio-visual materials and advertisements in Basilicata. The production and distribution of the works born in the region can exploit grants and incentives provided through the specially established LFC fund.

Carolina Creative Quarter was established in order to bring together all creative and innovative resources of the city of Alba Iulia in the Centru Region and create a permanent culture and art infrastructure, within the premises of the historic Carolina Citadel. The initiative is supported by the administration of the city of Alba Iulia, which is planning to set up a series of spaces dedicated to the CCI in the city: workshops, galleries, incubator, training facilities – all within the historic citadel.

“RaPaPro” creative partnership programme, which facilitates a collaboration among vocational cultural education institutions (involving art, design, music and dance schools), municipalities, business, social groups and other representatives of society in order to bring the creative ideas into “life”. “RaPaPro” is initiated in 2014 and is financed by the Ministry of Culture of Latvia. 

Regional Creative Economy Centre (RCKE) was established within the Regional Development Agency of Ljubljana Urban Region (RDA LUR) in the context of an Interreg Central Europe project Creative Cities. It is still mainly funded through different EU projects, but partially also by RDA LUR. The main aim of RCKE is to train and connect creative individuals from creative industries with companies in other industries, thus creating conditions for achieving business successes based on multidisciplinary development processes.

MERKATUA is an arts meeting / fair focusing on the disciplines of theatre, dance, film, music and literature (edition). It was born with the intention of showing the products of the professional scope of the Navarra culture to distributors and to other type of agents of bordering communities and provinces as well as specialized agents. The fair will take place on Wednesday 25 and Thursday 26 October 2017.

Startup Lisboa is an initiative of the Lisbon City Council, included in the wider strategic umbrella “Lisbon Creative City”, and a part of the city’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. The proposal to set up this incubator stemmed from the Council’s participatory budget of 2009/2010. A private non-profit association, it was founded in 2011 with the support from the bank Montepio Geral and the governmental agency IAPMEI – Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation. It is now a part of an urban regeneration project for Lisbon’s downtown area (Baixa), including the reuse of historical buildings. 

The Albacomp Innovation Centre was established in 2015 in Székesfehérvár and boasts an impressive 4000 m2 area. The Centre has offices and place for production as well as it is suitable environment for R&D&I, back office and commercial activities, services, education and production. It can provide research infrastructure for the settling cluster members. The Albacomp RI Ltd. has agreement with the Alba Regia Technical Faculty (Óbuda Uniersity) in the field of dual training, so the centre is home for educational activities too.

Pordenone, along with the University Consortium of Pordenone, Unindustria and Technology Centre have created a strategic asset for the development of local economies. The COMET association (District of Components industry and Thermo-electromechanics, the coordinator of “Young People and Arts”) organizes 12 workshops involving businesses in a week-long work with students, teachers, tutors and designers. 

The process that lead to Matera as the 2019 European Capital of Culture.

Since 1985, the European Council of Ministers has assigned the title of European Capital of Culture. The application dossier for Matera European Capital of Culture was prepared by the Committee Matera 2019, with the involvement of the Municipality, the University of Basilicata, the Two Provinces, the Chambers of Commerce, the Foundation Zetema, the Matera's Murgia Park and the Conservatory of Matera, and was accepted on 17 October 2014.

FOLD is a communication platform that brings together Latvian and foreign CCIs with the aim to facilitate their collaboration and learning together. The main focus is on design and design thinking.

The creation of platform is based on the merger of previously existing blogs — “Plikums” and “DesignBlog” (both created in 2009), which gathered news on the interesting in Latvian design, and a slightly younger “Fine Young Urbanists”, which wrote about urban planning and design. 

Interact organizes in Brussels a discussion event to share experiences between cohesion and cooperation experts. exchange of concepts, approaches and ideas related to territorial cohesion and cooperation. This event will help to measure changes in the territories, also in view of the post-2020 period. 

Solutions, constrains and potentials to generate electricity from wave power, marine currents or from salinity gradients and possibility to produce biomass or biofuel by seaweed farms and from marine thermal energy were at the core of our activities and interesting guidelines are going to be published.

Finally cultural and creative enterprises get recognition in law in Italy. And more: Italian Parliament at the end of last year decided to allocate to this kind of companies a tax credit equal to 30 percent of the costs incurred for development, production and promotion of cultural and creative products and services. The tax credit is expected "within the spending limit of 500,000 euros for the year 2018 and of 1 million euros per year for 2019 and 2020 until all available resources are used up".

CRE:HUB project has been selected by the European Commission as a relevant initiative to be labelled for the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018!

The aim of the European Year of Cultural Heritage (EYCH) is to encourage more people to discover and engage with Europe's cultural heritage, and to reinforce a sense of belonging to a common European space. The slogan for the year is: Our heritage: where the past meets the future.

More information can be found at: europa.eu/cultural-heritage/

Ljubljana Urban Region – Slovenia. Competence Centre for Design Management (KCDM) was established in 2013 within the Human Resources Development Operational Programme 2007-2013 and was co-financed by the European Social Fund. It was a pilot project of a design agency Gigodesign which included 19 companies - design companies, consulting companies and companies which develop new products and services, with the aim to improve knowledge and processes in cooperation, increase the value of their brands and improve the position of all companies on the market. 

The latest newsletter about Maestrale project is out now!!
Check the results of second and third study visit had in Sweden in July with the feedbacks of the project partners and see the comparison on advantages and the disadvantages of the technological solutions seen on the field.
You may also find the results of the 45 case studies analysed and news on our communication and social media channels!
Read it in English or French version.

On November 8th and 9th in Potenza (Italy), as part of the CRE: HUB project activities, a Team formed by the Friuli Venezia Giulia experts Franco Scolari, Director of Pordenone Technology Park, and Kaspar Steinbergs, “Strategic Management and Cultural and Creative Industries” professor at Alberta College in Riga (Latvia), and other regional stakeholders of the two project partners, will be participating in a On-Field Visit. 

In the framework of the CHIMERA Project (Innovative Cultural and Creative Clusters in the Mediterranean Area), the workshop "Cluster Building for the Audiovisual Sector in Friuli Venezia Giulia Autonomous Region: what to focus on " was held on 20 September in Trieste. The workshop saw the confrontation of Marine Haverland, visual advisor of the Brussels region's audiovisual brand “screen.brussels”, with the main actors in the FVG autonomous region audiovisual sector. For the regional audiovisual industry, it was a valuable exchange and comparison opportunity with a reality that represents a true audiovisual ecosystem. “screen.brussels” is in fact the trademark of an audiovisual ecosystem consisting of four different components: a Film Commission (screen.brussels Film Commission), a cluster (screen.brussels cluster), an audiovisual fund supporting co-productions (screen.brussels fund) and a financing line dedicated to regional business in the audiovisual sector (screen.brussels business).

The III Steering Committee meeting of SISMA project (co-financed by Interreg MED Programme) was held over the last couple of days in Cadarache (France). The project, which aims to develop innovative financing schemes leading to the energy retrofitting of public buildings in the Mediterranean area, comprises nine European partners representing Greece, Bosnia, Slovenia, Italy, France and Spain. During the two-day meeting, partners have performed an analysis of best practices of existing financing schemes already in place in participating countries.

The 2nd Steering and Technical Committee of the project “ChIMERA – Innovative cultural and creative clusters in the MED area” will take place tomorrow in Nice, France. The project, funded by the INTERREG Med Programme, aims at innovative and transnational clusters creation in the field of cultural and creative enterprises and involves 10 partners from 7 Countries (Italy, Portugal, France, Albania, Greece, Slovenia and Spain) in order to encourage public and private actors to increase their innovative capacities through cooperation between enterprises, research centres, public authorities and civil society, at Regional and European levels.

The webinar presents main outcomes and real examples deepens in the Renew-School project activities and studies. It is focused on solutions and strategies for indoor air quality, thermal comfort and efficient ventilation systems with high level of integration in renovation projects for schools, particularly in completion to intervention for high performances building envelope and integration of RES. The webinar will be free and open. It will be held on 20th February at 10.30.

To receive the access link and information please send an e-mail to Marco Pietrobon - eERG Group: marco.pietrobon@polimi.it. You can see the agenda at the address: http://www.renew-school.eu/en/school-renovations-quick-affordable-green-and-healthy-real-examples-and-outcomes-from-the-renew-school-project/

“Details for passive buildings: the passive house construction standard over the last few years and refurbishment of existing buildings according to passive standards” was the topic of the lesson held on 18th January by Informest within the master Course on Advances in Building Constructions of the Department of Engineering and Architecture of Udine University.

The lesson, in English language, was introduced by Professor Anna Frangipane, that gave students hints and references with main topics treated during previous lessons.

At the end of November, in Seville, took place the kick-off conference of the project MAESTRALE, one of the 12 projects approved under Axis 1 of the Interreg Mediterranean Programme, the one dedicated to sustainable innovation. The project aims, firstly, to make the point about the state in the production of "blue energy" in the Mediterranean (including the existing legislation in different countries), and then, once identified the technical and economically most promising solutions, to set up an international network of local promotion and development laboratories able to disseminate the knowledge gained on the ground.

More than 80 people, mostly university students from the local School of Architecture of Antwerp, visited on Thursday, October 13, a Topsportschool and two primary schools renovated with the "Renew School" method. Participants attended also the technical workshop organized by the Belgian partners of Renew School project.

SISMA “Supporting Innovative Schemes in the MED Area” is one of 49 projects approved by the Interreg MED Programme Steering Committee held at the end of September.

The project aims at developing innovative financing schemes based on European Structural Funds and other public funds to finance significant energy retrofits of public building.

SISMA involves 8 partners from 6 MED Countries (Italy, Greece, Spain, France, Bosnia&Herzegovina and Slovenia), has a total budget of 600.000€ and it will last 18 months starting from November 2016.

The Project ChIMERA“Innovative cultural and creative clusters in the MED area” was approved by the Steering Committee of the MED Programme on 27th September in Marseille. ChIMERA aims at building innovative clusters in the Cultural and Creative Industries sector and involves 10 partners from 7 Countries (Italy, Portugal, France, Albania, Greece, Slovenia and Spain) leaded by the Autonomous Region Friuli Venezia Giulia – Department for culture, sports and solidarity with the support of Informest.

ChIMERA will last 30 months starting from November 2016 and it is worth 2.470.882.00 euro.

Twenty-two teachers from the schools involved in BlueSKILLS project met in Herceg Novi for the  first educational workshop aimed to create working groups leaded by VET System experts in the Adriatic area.

Blue SKILLS, coordinated by Informest, gives the opportunity to the representatives of schools and educational institutes of Friuli Venezia Giulia, Marche and Abruzzo Region to meet the counterparts from Montenegro, Albania, Bosnia Erzegovina and Croatia in order to create the precondition for the future Adriatic network of students mobility.

It was held the 21st July 2016 in the premises of Government Office, a working meeting of the project IPA 2013 "Fight against organized crime in the Western Balkans", implemented in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Albania and Kosovo. Prefect Porzio, who leads from its beginning this important project initiative of the Public Security Department of the Ministry of the Interior, received the 5 Italian experts resident in the beneficiary countries and their local assistants working on the project. It has been discussed investigations to be conducted in the coming year, that should be focused on financial crimes, on support to forensic laboratories and on detection of information flows and data exchange on ongoing criminal cases in the Western Balkans. 

The first visit covered plant health controls, and in particular activities for monitoring quarantine organisms. During the visit procedures and methodologies for control of potatoes from third countries h(Egypt) have been demonstrated at the checkpoint of Trieste port, and examples on how row controls are done demonstrated. The control of the propagation of plants and monitoring of quarantine pests and quality was the topic of discussion to the Cooperative Rauscedo, where the delegation was received by the President of the cooperative. The delegation also received a practical training on the use of FITOGIS system, used by the Plant Protection Service of the Emilia-Romagna region, with a visit to a fruit farm in Imola and then at the offices of the service.

The week-long visit ended in in Ferrara in a company that produces seed potatoes and strawberry seeds, where the delegation was informed about phytosanitary inspection and certification of quality of plants and seeds.

Informest takes part as partner to the Project CAPTAIN (Capitalization of Transport models in Adriatic Ionian Network for supporting EUSAIR development), co-financed by CBC Adriatic IPA 2007-2013 Programme, having as Lead Partner the Central Directorate for infrastructure and territory of the Autonomous Region Friuli Venezia Giulia, involving partners from all the eligible countries of the area. The Project, with a budget of €734.000 and a duration of 7 months (it has to be completed by the end of November), intends to answer to the common need to improve accessibility and mobility across Adriatic-Ionian basin and its hinterland, through the development of sustainable, safe, cross-border, integrated transport services and the improvement of infrastructures through the capitalisation of the results achieved in EA SEA-WAY, Adrimob and AdriaticMoS IPA projects.

Thursday May 5th was held in Sarajevo the Fifth Steering Committee of the Twinning Project "Further strengthening of capacities of phytosanitary sector in the fields of plant protection products, plant health and seeds and seedlings, including phytosanitary laboratories and phytosanitary inspections”.

Participants of the event were representatives of the Italian Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policy, Lead Partner of the project, and local representatives of the main beneficiary institutions. Project Leader Bruno Faraglia, general manager of Central Phytosanitary Service, Plant Production sector of Ministry of Agricultural Policy, informed the participants that preparatory work for the new Regulation on fertilizing under European coordination have been started and Beneficiary Country Project Leader Snezana Akulovic, confirmed that the new Regulation on Plants Protection will be ratified by the Parliament within this year.

With a responsive opening ceremony started its activities the Business Service Centre in Gorazde, a city located in Podrinje Canton, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Centre, which will be the core of the new Business Improvement Zone of the city, was financed by IPA Programme funds for local development of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the coordination of OXFAM Italy and the support of Informest, Podrinje Canton, Gorazde Municipality and Gorazde Chamber of Commerce.

It’s the first concrete achievement of the project. The first step was to renovate an historic building in the city centre that today is converted to a multi-used building for business activities of the area,  encouraging the local economic development.