Interreg Danube Region Programme

🌟 On December 17, the Monitoring Committee of the Danube Region Programme convened in Zagreb to make key decisions, including the approval of 30 new outstanding projects submitted under the second call for proposals! Implementation will kick off in March 2025. Looking ahead to the next year, the Monitoring Committee has also started shaping the third call for proposals. Additionally, the post-2027 consultation report was approved. 👏  A big thank you to all colleagues who joined the discussions in Zagreb in this busy period of the year, including the National Contact Points, who explored new ways to enhance communication and ensure national authorities can fully leverage project results. Stay tuned—official communication of grant awards with conditions will be sent on January 9, 2025! #DanubeRegion #CohesionPolicy #Interreg

💡 Have a #SmartCity solution in mind? Keep an eye on PilotInnCities (agile piloting) project. An exciting Open Call is coming this February 2025—your chance to bring your innovation to life.

💡 Sustainable energy in the Danube Region: Szeged in focus! SZETÁV KFT, the municipally owned District Heating Company of Szeged, has been leading Europe’s largest geothermal district heating overhaul since 2018. 🔥 The transformation doesn’t end there! While geothermal heating is thriving, the demand for cooling has posed a challenge. Thanks to the Interreg Danube GeoHeCo project, SZETAV is now piloting a geothermal district cooling system. #Interreg #DanubeRegion

We just returned from the TAIEX-REGIO Peer2Peer multi-country workshop in Brussels, co-organized with European Commission DG REGIO and the OECD - OCDE. 💡 The workshop was part of an exciting pilot project aimed at enhancing the capacity of managing authorities (MAs) to support a wide variety of beneficiaries. Six MAs are participating in this project, running since January 2024. What’s been done so far? ✅ A beneficiary survey reaching over 1,500 stakeholders ✅ Focus group discussions (online and in person) with 40 stakeholders ✅ Multi-stakeholder workshop in Budapest with 43 participants What’s next? The pilot project will continue with a development of an action plan identifying key challenges and areas for support in order to better assist and empower our beneficiaries to deliver successful initiatives for the Danube region. 🚀 #Interreg #CohesionPolicy #DanubeRegion https://lnkd.in/dqJGaV8T

✨ Last week, the ArtCo 2024 Conference in Budapest brought together policymakers, Interreg practitioners, and experts from across Europe to discuss cross-border, transnational, and interregional cooperation for the post-2027 period. 💡 The conference highlighted the enduring importance of Interreg in promoting European values through cooperation projects, with Imre Csalagovits (Head of the Managing Authority), Simona Ene (Head of the Joint Secretariat), and Mirjana Vidanovic (Communication Officer) representing our Danube Region team and contributing to these forward-thinking discussions. #ArtCo2024 #Interreg #EUcohesionpolicy Photo: Széchenyi Programiroda

🌟 Have you heard about our Seed Money Facility (SMF)? It’s a special funding tool designed to help great ideas in the Danube region take their first steps! 💪 A good example? The HARMON project! 🌿 Initially funded by SMF, the HARMON project aimed to align infrastructure development with environmental protection across the Danube region. With SMF’s help, HARMON identified key needs and existing practices for balancing green and grey infrastructure. These findings laid the groundwork for the Horizon 2020 BISON project (2021–2024), which developed criteria to evaluate how well national transport policies align with EU environmental goals and provided recommendations for harmonizing policies across Europe. HARMON’s work also inspired the SaveGREEN project, supported by the Danube Transnational Programme, promoting collaboration across sectors and stakeholders to integrate ecological connectivity into regional planning at the landscape level. 💡 With 36 new SMF projects approved in June 2024, we’re excited to see new such initiatives evolve and shape a sustainable future for the Danube region! Learn more: https://lnkd.in/dvE7KEzV #SeedMoneyFacility #DanubeRegion #CohesionPolicy #Interreg

⁉️ Did you know that women make up only around 25% of all entrepreneurs in the Danube region? Our WE.Circular project aims to bridge the gender gap by providing women with digital skills centred on the circular economy. 👇👇👇

In September this year, 36 new projects were launched under the Seed Money Facility, thanks to a strong partnership between the Danube Region Strategy (EUSDR) and the Danube Region Programme. 🌊🤝 By getting involved early in projects’ journey with seed funding, we aimed at making a bigger impact, providing our partners across the region with the opportunity to prepare high-quality applications to other funding sources. We spoke with Carmen Hawkins, EUSDR Priority Area Coordinator for Competitiveness, who shared her insights into this collaborative effort. 👉 https://lnkd.in/dbykJuSp #Interreg #EUSDR #SeedMoneyFacility Photo: EUSDR

🎉 #RomansWineDanube and Iron-Age-Danube projects receive prestigious recognition by Council of Europe. At the 13th Annual Advisory Forum in Budapest, Hungary, on September 27, 2024, the "Best Practices of the Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe" awards honored 6 outstanding cultural routes. Among the awardees were the Roman Emperors and Danube Wine Route 🍇, and the Iron Age Danube Route ⚒️, both highlighting the rich cultural heritage of the Danube Region. Both routes are implemented as part of #Interreg Danube projects, promoting shared heritage across borders. A huge congratulations to all the partners involved! 👏 https://lnkd.in/dAukCFJC Photo: Council of Europe

Are you passionate about shaping the future of the Danube Region? The Danube Youth Council is inviting young people (ages 18-29) from 9 Danube Region countries to become members of this dynamic platform. 🔹 Bring youth perspectives to high-level #EUSDR political discussions & participate in key events across Europe 🔹 🗓️ Applications are OPEN until Ocotber 16! https://lnkd.in/eAE-4sK9