ERDF Regional policy awards

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A new annual award for regional development has been launched by the European Commission. The Regiostars prize will be given to projects that demonstrate innovation and good practice in their region.

The main objective of RegioStars 2008 is to identify good innovative practices in regional development. The aim is to highlight original and innovative projects which could be attractive and inspiring to other regions under the following themes and sub-themes:

Regional Economies Based on Knowledge and Technological Innovation.

  • Supporting clusters and business networks
  • Technology transfer from research institutes to SMEs

Sustainable Economic Development.

  • Energy efficiency and renewable energies
  • Environmental technologies

The choice of project is entirely up to the regional authorities, as are the processes and methods used to select it.

Award Criteria
The award criteria will be:

  • Innovative character of the project in the regional context. (In this context a project is an action which has a strategic dimension and which has potential impact on the region).
  • Potential impact on the regional economy
  • Expected sustainability of the project
  • Project’s results in enhancing local, regional and interregional partnerships

Winners
For each sub-theme there will be two winners; one from a Regional Competitiveness and Employment Objective region and one from a Convergence Objective region.

The winners will be notified by mid-February 2008. Winners are expected to attend the Regions for Economic Change conference in March 2008 when the awards will be announced. They may also be asked to present their project at the conference. The winners will be presented with a trophy; there will be no monetary reward.

Rules
For an application to be considered admissible the following rules must be respected:

  1. Completed application forms must be submitted by 29 June 2007 at the latest.
  2. The application must be submitted by a Regional Managing Authority or Member State managing authority where the entire country is a NUTS II region
  3. One application per region will be accepted. The application must come under the heading of only one of the categories (1, 2, 3 or 4)
  4. The project must have been co-funded by ERDF or pre-accession funding

Upon receipt applications will be checked for admissibility and the regional authority will be notified as to whether its application has been accepted.

For information or enquiries please contact DG Regional Policy's Innovative Actions unit: regio-stars@ec.europa.eu, tel: +32 2 2984571 or visit this link


NICVA | James Laverty | 22 May 2007
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