Anetel

Programs in Progress

Novel Support tools to Mediterranean Governments Exploiting Behavioural Incentives – NUDGES

NUDGES is an Interreg Euro-MED study project funded by the European Union. The project aims to demonstrate how Mediterranean countries can utilize behavioural strategies (“nudging”) to improve urban climate policies. NUDGES will deliver six proofs of concept, testing and comparing the effectiveness of nudging interventions versus cultural interventions. These interventions will use an innovative approach that focuses on how people feel and sense things, including what they see, hear, smell, taste, and touch.

The overall objective of the NUDGES project is to undertake a feasibility study—grounded on the results of six experimental pilots and leveraging the territorial diversities and cultural commonalities of Mediterranean countries — for the successful integration of “nudging” strategies into the urban climate change mitigation and adaptation policies of MED local, regional, and national public authorities. Additionally, the Project aims to create a new and innovative community of interest and develop a transferability plan , paving the way for further research in this domain.

The main NUDGES project’s results and deliverables are planned to ensure the creation of a strong MED community of interest that is willing to support and implement environmentally friendly alternatives in everyday life and local policies (nudges). Project partners will publish a NUDGES Manifesto and conduct a feasibility study on leveraging the territorial diversities and cultural commonalities of Mediterranean countries, based on six pilots. To pave the way for further research in this domain, Project Partners will deliver a Transferability plan.

Eight project partners from eight Mediterranean countries work together to change behaviours of people and tackle climate changes. The partners of the project are the following:

1) Larnaca and Famagusta Districts Development Agency (Lead Partner) - Cyprus

2) Musol Foundation – Spain

3) E-institute - Institute for Comprehensive Development Solutions – Slovenia

4) University "G. d'Annunzio" of Chieti and Pescara – Italy

5) Aristotle University of Thessaloniki – Greece

6) Knowledge Network – Croatia

7) Development Agency of City of Prijedor – Bosnia and Herzegovina

8) Museum of Humor and Satire – Bulgaria

Total Budget 599.940,00

Duration: 1 January 2024 – 31 March 2026

Website: https://nudges.interreg-euro-med.eu/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nudges-project/about/

Dialogue4LivingAreas

Dialogue4LivingAreas is a governance project under the Interreg Euro-Med funded by the European Union.

The necessary changes and inevitable challenges of the mitigation of climate change and the adaptation to its effects, especially in the Mediterranean context, require us to modify the prevailing anthropogenic model, challenging us to decarbonize the economy in all its sectors in a homogenous, efficient and fair manner.

From a thematic point of view, the project will focus on a holistic approach to “green living areas”, notably: promotion of energy efficiency, renewable and citizen energy communities; support of sustainable urban transports; improvement of waste and water management; development of urban and peri-urban agriculture.

While supporting the parallel Thematic Community Project and the Euro-Med Academy, for a maximum efficiency of the overall process from local to transnational level, the proposal aims to implement an innovative support mechanism for key Euro-Mediterranean stakeholders (local /national authorities, European institutions, associations, networks, cooperation programmes, macroregional strategies), to actively participate in a Euro-med working Community for green Living areas’ Institutional Dialogue, to reinforce cooperation in the Mediterranean area by improving and transferring public initiatives and policies.

What is the Institutional Dialogue Process’ objective?

Amplifying the transfer of policies by fostering dialogue among key Euro-Mediterranean policymakers and public stakeholders, for improved quality of life of citizens.
Assisting Thematic Projects in strengthening implementation of their policy solutions and promoting their successful policy instruments

The activities of this 7-year project will form an arborescence, gradually increasing the number of actors involved and broadening the scope of the actions, by implementing a sustainable Euro-Mediterranean Green Living Areas’ Institutional Dialogue Association with mature results in line with the 2030 targets.

Partners:

1) Nice Côte d'Azur Metropolis (Lead Partner) – France

2) Catalonia Institute for Energy Research – Spain

3) University of Patras - Department of Civil Engineering – Greece

4) Polis Network – Belgium

5) North-West Croatia Regional Energy Agency – Croatia

6) Regional Agency for Infrastructure Development, Building Renovation and Energy of Liguria – Italy

7) Larnaca and Famagusta Districts Development Agency – Cyprus

8) Lisboa E-Nova – Lisbon’s Energy and Environment Agency – Portugal

9) Albanian Agency for Energy Efficiency – Albania

Total Budget: 3.199.493,12

Duration: 1 January 2023 – 30 September 2029

Website: https://green-living-areas.interreg-euro-med.eu/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/interreg-euro-med-green-living-areas/

X: https://x.com/InterregMedGLA

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/interregmedgla/

Developing community based innovative business models for the revival of the internal areas in the Mediterranean – REVIVE

REVIVE is a test project under the Interreg Euro-Med funded by the European Union.

In the last decades, the internal territories of the Mediterranean have been affected by steady depopulation processes that have led people to move to urban and coastal areas with a higher concentration of economic activities. Low economic dynamism, scarce public services, lack of job opportunities, poor digitalization and accessibility are the main challenges that make the internal areas more vulnerable.

REVIVE fits into this context, by building on participatory and capacity building approaches to reinforce the collaboration among quadruple helix stakeholders, strengthen the cohesion of communities and co-design innovative and integrated solutions to common challenges.

Through a transnational cooperation and coordination project partners will develop and test collaborative economic models through the creation of Innovative Community Cooperatives with the aim of developing interconnected products and services for the supply chains of existing economic sectors. In parallel, the project will co-design a set of digital services and test the application of advanced technologies through the creation of Mediterranean Digital Innovation Hubs. The MDIHs will then be integrated in the REVIVE transnational cluster of Innovative Community Cooperatives that will jointly provide concrete solutions for creating new business opportunities, encourage people to live and invest in these areas.

In its final phase the project will provide a transferring framework that will set the basis for up-scaling of results, strengthen the cohesion and promote the transition towards competitive, innovative and resilient ecosystems of the internal territories of the transnational cooperation area.

The REVIVE project brings together 9 partners from 7 countries of the Mediterranean with a common objective for smarter and green rural areas of Mediterranean.

1) Larnaca and Famagusta Districts Development Agency (Lead Partner) – Cyprus

2) National Research Council - Institute of Bioeconomy – Italy

3) Institute of Agriculture and Tourism – Croatia

4) Official Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Services and Navigation of Mallorca – Spain

5) National Association of Italian Municipalities – Tuscany – Italy

6) Regional Rural Development Standing Working Group in SEE – North Macedonia

7) Development Agency of South Aegean Region – Greece

8) Agencia de Estrategia Turística de las Islas Baleares – Spain

9) E-institute - Institute for Comprehensive Development Solutions - Slovenia

For the next 33 months starting from January 2024 until September 2026 our partners will work together for deliver capacity and skills development, service design, engage the stakeholders in the phases of co-design and implementation of community based innovative business models and digital innovation hubs aiming to increase sustainable and green job opportunities and revive the social and economic structure in the selected pilot areas of the Mediterranean.

Total budget: € 2,380,000.00

Project duration: 1 January 2024 – 30 September 2026

Website: https://revive.interreg-euro-med.eu/

Linkedin:https://www.linkedin.com/company/revive-interreg-euro-med-project/?viewAsMember=true

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/reviveinterreg.eu/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reviveinterreg.eu/

Testing Circular Economy solutions for the green transition of the Mediterranean area – CircleEMED

CircleMED aims to convert the Euro-Med area into circular economy-based territories, accelerating the diffusion of circular and climate-neutral practices and the green transition of the local civil, industrial and institutional systems. It points at reconciling our economies and human activities with the planetary boundaries.

CircleMED’s integrated and systemic approach targets all the four helix stakeholders to promote the transition process to circular and sustainable production and consumption models, stimulating awareness and testing innovative circular solutions working closely with citizens, policy makers, business support organisations, academia, research entities and additional stakeholders, sharing knowledge and responsibilities for the green transition.

Key elements CircleMED stress on are those considered fundamental for sustainable development: economic prosperity, environmental protection and social equity, balancing them to benefit current and future generations, targeting the three dimensions of citizens, SMEs and policy makers.

CircleMED could be considered an evolutionary innovative project, testing solutions that already exist, but that have never been used together. It focuses on promoting circularity and testing resource efficiency particularly through an innovative circular assessment tool for SMEs, the creation of a transnational network of territorial circular hubs and the elaboration of plans for transferability of results in the whole Mediterranean area. The project aims at redesign, repair, reuse and recycle as driving scheme leading citizens, institutions and companies’ choices to a resource-efficient and competitive economy, further developing and scaling up circular approaches, methodologies and strategies easily adaptable to any kind of territory.

Partners:

1) University of Turin - Department of Management (Lead Partner) – Italy

2) Larnaca and Famagusta Districts Development Agency – Cyprus

3) Technological Corporation of Andalusia – Spain

4) Sarajevo Economic Region Development Agency – Bosnia and Herzegovina

5) Var Chamber of Commerce and Industry – France

6) Bulgarian Association of Recycling – Bulgaria

7) Centre for Research and Technology Hellas - Greece

Total budget: € 1,854,529.80,

Project duration: 1 January 2024 – 30 September 2026

Website: https://circlemed.interreg-euro-med.eu/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/circlemed-project/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/circlemedproject

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/circlemed_project/

MITOMED+: Models of Integrated Tourism in the MEDiterranean Plus

MITOMED+ is multi-module project combining Testing and Capitalization (M2+M3). It is a follow up of the previous MITOMED project (MED Maritime), which has been working to promote the integrated management of M&C tourism by improving the knowledge of data, products, services through a set of indicators based on the NECSTouR model. MITOMED+ takes farther these results aiming to improve the coordination of strategies between territories at transnational level regarding the development of the M&C tourism through cooperation and joint planning between regions. The main objective of the project deals with the enhancement of sustainability and responsibility in M&C tourism, by improving local and regional strategies and policy actions and coordinating them at a wider MED transnational level. To achieve this objective, the project intends to increase knowledge and social dialogue regarding the development of a sustainable and responsible M&C tourism in each partner region for better decision-making, improve M&C tourism planning at destination level and its coordination for a transnational governance, mainstream its results into local, regional and national policies and set up a MED M&C tourism management model. The project brings together a right mix of regional authorities and their networks, associations of local authorities, territorial development agencies, higher education institution and research centers, having the appropriate competences and expertise in M&C tourism.

Duration: 1/02/2017 - 31/01/2020

Total Budget: 2.650.000,00 €

Official website: https://mitomed-plus.interreg-med.eu/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nudges-project/about/

Project co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund

SIROCCO: Sustainable Inter-Regional Coastal & Cruise maritime tourism though Cooperation and joint planning

SIROCCO aims to enhance the sustainability of cruise maritime/coastal tourism in the MED Area. The project is focusing on cruise, being a very important component of the whole Mediterranean maritime & coastal tourism sector, as it is characterised by strong economic growth, high value-adding potential for the local communities and significant challenges in conserving the Mediterranean natural and cultural heritage. Increasing the level of sustainability of cruise tourism will have a direct positive impact on the sustainability of coastal tourism as a whole in the Mediterranean.

SIROCCO's 'Sustainable Cruise Value Chain Action Plans' and ' Sustainable Cruise Tourism Joint Action Plan' will incorporate operational solutions for reducing the negative impacts of cruise maritime/coastal tourism in the MED. These solutions will be based on the outcomes of studying five real-life cruise value chains in different Mediterranean countries and will be migrated to the MED level.

SIROCCO, through its 'Regional and Interregional Policy Integration' will enhance and integrate cruise maritime/coastal tourism development into the wider strategies of five MED regions and identify ways for coordinating regional strategies. Moreover, through its 'Sustainable Cruise Maritime/Coastal Tourism Certification System' it is also expected to have a positive impact on 'Sustainable Tourism Public Policy' and 'Sustainable Tourism Management '.

Duration: 1/11/2016 - 31/06/2018

Total Budget: 600.000,00 €

Official website: https://sirocco.interreg-med.eu/

Project co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund

ROAD-CSR: A Roadmap for Integrating Corporate Social Responsibility into EU Member States and Business Practices.

Competitiveness of SMEs is high in the agenda of the European Commission (EC). Due to economic crisis there is a widespread expectation that businesses should be more accountable to the society. The EC issued the Directive 2014/95/EU, where companies concerned are required to disclose in their management report, information on policies, risks and outcomes as regards environmental, social and employee aspects, respect for human rights, anticorruption and bribery issues, and diversity in their board of directors; In other words, to integrate in their business models the CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) principles. Although, the new directive applies only to a limited number of large EU companies it leaves out the Small and Medium sized enterprises (SMEs) that are the predominant form of enterprise in EU and a key to achieving the goals of growth and jobs strategy. Studies have shown that CSR is viewed as a vital concept that businesses of all types and size need to understand and address. Also, there is a positive relationship between SMEs and CSR and their competitiveness. Our common challenge is to help member states to apply the new directive and new measures in their Operational Programmes in order SMEs to increase their competitiveness and sustainability.

The overall objective of the project is to help EU member states to apply CSR as a holistic management approach to SMEs. In this way, SMEs will increase their competitiveness. The main outputs of the project will help countries involved in the project to exchange experience, best practices and create a road map for integrating CSR into national and regional legislations and Programmes and as well to create national/regional actions plans. Moreover, an important output of the project will be the policy recommendations for the revision of the Directive 2014/95/EU in order to create precedents for future policy developments on CSR and corporate accountability not only for large companies but as well for SMEs.

Duration: 1/10/2017 - 31/12/2020

Total Budget: 1.161.255,00€

Official website: https://www.interregeurope.eu/road-csr/

Project co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund

FINMED: Boosting the financing of innovation for green growth sectors through innovative clusters services in the MED area

Fostering economic growth and development, while ensuring that natural assets continue to provide the resources and environmental services on which prosperity relies, is no more a choice but an imperative for the economic and social future wellbeing of people. Although green transition will not take off without financing and assure the financing of innovation in green sectors has become a common concern for all MED countries and regions. To answer this challenge, a pool of regions, clusters, business support organisations, knowledge providers and development agencies joined in the finMED project, whose aim is to boost the financing of innovation in green growth sectors through improved delivery of policies and strategies and the introduction of innovative cluster services.

The project delivers concrete outputs and results in three fields:

1- Public policies delivery, by developing and adopting new concepts, principle and practices to finance green growth strategies;

2- Innovation and business environment, by improving interaction and collaboration (at regional and transnational level) among involved stakeholders and bridging the gap among enterprises and financers;

3- Green sectors capacities, by stimulating and actively supporting their adaptability to the most impellent financing challenges.

FINEMD also develops a proper specific position on the future of green sectors innovation financing, supporting the policy debate for 2021-2028 programming period in MED and EU area.

Duration: 1/02/2018 - 31/01/2022

Total Budget: 4.300.740,36 €

Project co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund

INHERIT: Sustainable Tourism Strategies to Conserve and Valorise the Mediterranean Coastal and Maritime Heritage.

INHERIT is an integrated project with 15 partners from all 10 MED countries aiming to conserve and valorise natural heritage in MED coastal and maritime tourist destinations. The project will test and deploy a new approach adapted to MED

specificities protecting natural heritage from the adverse effects of intensive tourism. INHERIT will promote sustainable tourism alleviating seasonality and tackling the surpassing of the hosting capacity, by designing and implementing a “bottom-up” protection approach relying on self-regulation and monitoring by local society and tourism stakeholders.

The INHERIT protection approach will involve all the key stakeholders (at MED, national, regional and local level) in its studying, testing and capitalisation activities, to deliver:

- A MED-wide policy strategy and protection measures addressing the negative effects of intensive tourism flows.

- MED INHERITURA sites, i.e. designated areas in which human activities coexist with substantial natural heritage,

subscribing to the INHERIT protection approach and acting as models, to scale up and out the approach to other MED areas.

- A network and management mechanism of the INHERITURA sites, that will assume the sustainability and the scaling up after project completion.

- Thematic tourism routes (e.g. remote islands, prehistoric sites) will be pilot-integrated in the INHERITURA areas using the improved protection as an asset to increase tourism attractiveness in a sustainable way.

Duration: 1/02/2018 - 31/01/2022

Total Budget: 5.612.660,00 €

Project co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund

Interreg Mediterranean Programme WINTER MED

WINTERMED is a project that is co-financed by the Interreg MED Programme, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

WINTER MED promotes the transition from the 3S (Sea-Sun-Sand) tourism of insular tourist destinations during the summer to an alternative, sustainable, all-year round use of these territories, by delivering the tools for changing and upgrading one of the key sectors of the Mediterranean area. The main objective of the project is to implement integrated transnational strategies for the development of all year round sustainable and responsible tourism in Mediterranean island destinations, through joint planning and cooperation between involved regions. To achieve this objective, the project intends to:

• promote the participatory process in in each partner region for a better decision-making

• empower local and regional policy makers, economic operators and local communities in sustainable tourism planning

• deliver tools to improve the regional and national action plans and policies for a more sustainable and responsible tourism in the MED islands

• mainstream its results into local, regional, and national policies through an EU wide advocacy campaign.

For more info: https://winter-med.interreg-med.eu/

INCIRCLE: Support Insular and low-density areas in the transition towards a more Circular Economy

INCIRLE is a project that is co-financed by the Interreg MED Programme, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

INCIRCLE aims to support insular and scarcely inhabited MED areas to meet the increasing environmental challenges caused by tourist activities, to find a balance between positive and negative externalities of tourism and to preserve the quality and availability of the areas’ natural resources and attractiveness. Specifically, it promotes sustainable and responsible tourism in MED insular and low-density areas by promoting efficient use of water, production of energy from local RES, reduction of waste production, sustainable mobility.

Being a Multi-module Interreg MED project (Testing and Capitalising Type) INCIRCLE tests existing methodologies and tools in the project territories, and focuses importantly on the replicability and scale-up of solutions and strategies, creating handy tools and an efficient roadmap for integrated policy-making that accounts for all the sectors that are important for Circular Tourism (INCIRCLE pillars).

BLUEFASMA: Empowering innovation capacity of SMEs, maritime clusters and networks in MED islands and coastal areas to support blue Circular Economy (CE) growth in fishing/aquaculture

BLUEFASMA is a project that is co-financed by the Interreg MED Programme, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

BLUEFASMA integrates and implements Circular Economy (CE) principles in the key blue growth sector of fishing/aquaculture to benefit MED insular/coastal areas in a novel/innovative way. Project team tackles the transnational challenge of continual depletion of natural resources and the below-EU-average MED CE innovation performance in fishing/aquaculture. Its overall objective is to empower innovation capacity of SMEs, maritime clusters/networks, PAs to boost blue CE growth in insular/coastal areas. CE prevents depletion of resources by closing energy & materials loops, leading to smart/sustainable growth as a key MED joint asset. Currently PAs/SMEs are cautious to embrace CE practices, which PAs perceive as cumbersome & SMEs as non-profitable.

BLUEFAMSA approach will change current thinking on circularity by:

-replicating effective CE work (eg in efficient use of waste & by-products), mainly from North-EU&MED projects

-testing the upgraded circularity self-assessment tool in 11 participating MED territories and monitoring business readiness/willingness to invest in R&I

-organising Blue Living Labs & targeted transferring activities

-shifting policy towards CE

-systematizing funding opportunities for blue CE innovation business investment

Main outputs:

-BLUEfasma online platform

-Blue Living Labs

-BLUEfasma Capacity Building Instrument

-Capitalization events

The outputs will increase innovation capacity and transnational activities among blue actors of Inter. MED Community.

Public Private Partnership for Public Procurement Innovation within the Innobroker Model (P5 Innobroker)

P5 Innobroker stands for “Public Private Partnership for Public Procurement of Innovation within the Innobroker Model.” It expresses the goal to further develop, accelerate, deploy, validate and demonstrate a self-sustainable EU-wide B2G Public Procurement of Innovation (PPI) brokerage service ecosystem-based business model and platform (Innobroker) for mobilizing and bringing together early adopter public buyers and leading-edge EU SMEs and start-ups as well as to pave the way for the implementation of an effective, collaborative/coordinated set of transnational SMEs/start-up-oriented PPI bids through a Public-Private Partnership PPI Facilitator Business Model (P5 Innovation Procurement broker).

Public procurement accounts for about 14% of the European Union's (EU) gross domestic product - meaning it has enormous potential to guide new developments in a range of sectors, help to stimulate future markets and address key societal challenges. Public authorities who support the process of innovation or purchase innovative goods and services are often directly awarded with improved services at optimised costs.

Innovation procurement can involve buying the process of innovation or buying the outcomes of innovation, such as:

Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP): the public buyers describe their needs, and procure businesses and researchers to develop innovative products, services or processes to meet the need.
Public Procurement of Innovation (PPI): instead of buying 'off-the-shelf' solutions, the public buyers act as an early adopter or launch customer of innovative solutions new to the market.

The scope of the P5 Innobroker project will be achieved through a set of specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-constrained (SMART) specific objectives, which are fully aligned with the COSME COS-LINKPP-2020-2-05 call topic scope and objectives. The specific objectives are the following:

Objective 1 – Accelerating the development and implementation of the Innovation Procurement Broker (IPB) Business Model (BM).

Objective 2 – Maturing, improving, and fine-tuning the Innobroker concept by testing it against specific local and regional boundary conditions.

Objective 3 – To demonstrate in quantitative terms the relevance and effectiveness of the IPB BM model and the role of IPBs, as well as its contribution to innovation deployment.

Objective 4 – To contribute to make the IPB BM self-sustainable.

Objective 5 – To develop and strengthen adequate links between public administrations and innovation ecosystem players creating a business-friendly environment and reducing the administrative burden on SMEs;

Objective 6 – To create new opportunities for SMEs and/or start-ups to develop new products, services and to grow or scale up their operations.

Objective 7 – To support the growth and development of innovative SMEs and start-ups by the provision of appropriate business development and technology valorisation services schemes within the IPB BM including the support for participation in IP bids.

Objective 8 – To pave the way for the implementation of an effective, collaborative/coordinated set of transnational SMEs/start-up-oriented PPI bids, thus accelerating the rolling-out and boosting of IP throughout the EU, Neighbourhood and Associated Countries, ensuring the European dimension of the brokered solutions from suppliers.

Duration

01.11.2021 - 31.10.2024

(36 months)

Total Budget

880.295,97 EUR

Lead partner:

- Andalusia Technological Corporation (CTA), Spain

Partners:

- EA- Eco-entreprises (EA), France

- Centre for Research & Technology Hellas (CERTH) Greece

- Larnaca and Famagusta Districts Development Agency (ANETEL), Cyprus

- Sarajevo Economic Region Development Agency (SERDA), Bosnia and Herzegovina