Overview
The InTraRegio project is a coordination action funded under the “Regions of knowledge” programme from the 7th Framework Programme.
The project brings together five clusters from different European regions: Canary Islands (ES), Bremen (DE), Marmara (TR), Calabria (IT) and Ruse (BG) with the aim to enhance intermodality in their regional transport systems, foster the economic developments of the regions and improve clusters’ capacities and performance.
Through mutual learning processes and collaborative relationships among the regional research-driven clusters, represented by 18 partners coming from governmental, research and industrial side, a transnational strategy will be established, directed at developing the take up of innovative measures that spin towards new collaboration among regional players and address as a joint force transport-related issues.
The InTraRegio project is a coordination action that aims to enhance the integration process and the capacity of the five European regions Canary Islands (ES), Bremen (DE), Marmara (TR), Calabria (IT) and Ruse (BG) towards their development of regional RTD and economic policies and research strategies related to transport concerns, in particular to intermodal freight and passenger transport.
Main objectives are:
- Strengthening the INTRAREGIO regions’ capacity for investing more and better in RTD and producing research strategies contributing to regional socio-economic development and to enhanced European competitiveness of transport-related economies
- Fostering development, cooperation and integration of innovative and mature research-driven clusters
- Disseminate knowledge and raising public awareness
Through mutual learning processes and collaborative relationships among regional research-driven clusters, represented by 18 partners coming from governmental, research and industrial side, a transnational strategy will be established, directed at developing the take up of innovative measures that spin towards new collaboration among regional players and address as a joint force transport-related issues.
The project will be implemented during a 36 months period in three main consecutive and complementary
phases while project management and dissemination will be horizontal activities:
- Establishment of the institutional cluster framework. In-depth analysis of the regions’ state of play and Cross-regional Analysis of regional Research Agendas, detecting synergies and paving the way for concerted RTD activities and policy strategies, including SWOT analyses and Directory of RTD offer and demand;
- Joint RTD Strategy & Policy Formulation Event and building of the Joint Action Plan with integrated Business Plan;
- Mutual learning and mentoring through personnel exchanges/ trainings and transnational workshops, supporting the goals set in the Joint Action Plan and improving the European integration process. Elaboration of an International Cooperation Strategy with an international perspective for extending cooperation possibilities in RTD and innovation support services beyond European boundaries.
Funding
Results
Policies for intermodal transportation
An EU project assisted five European regions to develop policies and research strategies affecting intermodal transport. Regional comparisons, plus info-training sessions, helped to upgrade research clusters and improve transportation efficiency.
Transportation is central to the European economy, but needs policy regulation. The European network should remain dominated by road, and freight will be regionally patchy.
Intermodal transportation is expected to offer solutions and improve performance, yet remains incompletely realised. Hence, the EU-funded INTRAREGIO project aimed to encourage European transportation innovation by fostering cooperation among several European regions and their key players. The project worked to enhance the capacity of five regions to develop economic policies and research strategies.
Targeted results included the upgrade of research clusters and plans for consolidating and developing knowledge through networking. The ultimate purpose was improving the efficiency of transportation flows. The 18-member project ran for 3 years to the end of 2014.
The project successfully completed its first reporting period goals, including establishment of key management groups. Subsequently, the project analysed the regions' state of play, including policies and best practices of technology transfer. The resulting information was structured in a comparable way, illustrating each region's economic strengths and weaknesses.
Consortium members organised an international conference for April 2013. An important dissemination event, the meeting also gathered input from contributors.
As part of the development of mutual learning processes, INTRAREGIO circulated questionnaires to beneficiaries. The purpose was to evaluate the needs of partner institutions and identify areas of interest for workshops and training sessions. As of the end of the first reporting period, each beneficiary was planning staff exchanges.
In order to develop a cooperation strategy with third countries, the project planned a dialogue event for February 2014. The goals were to attract project participants, enlarge the project's audience and foster networking.
The team also developed a dissemination and communication plan. Project staff created promotional material, including posters, a leaflet and two newsletters.
Following a major conference, INTRAREGIO achieved the active engagement of regional clusters. In collaboration with other projects, the consortium improved the Joint Action Plan for economic policy and research strategy.