In November 2018 UNIMED participated to “ECOMONDO: the green technology expo”, in quality of partner of the Interreg MED projects GO SUMP, BleuTourMed and PANACeA. ECOMONDO is a key event in the European panorama, with a growing international dimension, bringing together public and private sectors, decision makers and different stakeholders, working to foster a more sustainable development thanks to technological innovation and circular economic models.
(Rome, 12 DEC 2018) From 6th to 9th November 2018 UNIMED – the Mediterranean Universities Union- participated to ECOMONDO as partner of three Interreg MED projects on sustainable transport, tourism and biodiversity protection. “ECOMONDO: the Italian expo on green and circular economy”, held every year in Rimini, is an occasion to meet stakeholders, possible partners and other actors, promoting and shaping strategies for sustainable development and a circular economy. In ECOMONDO is possible to learn about innovative and research projects, new policy trends from both private and public sectors, of big interest for the UNIMED’ network and subnetworks and an occasion to showcase the work realised within its projects and subnetworks.
Since 2016 UNIMED is partner in the three Interreg MED projects: BleuTourMed, GO SUMP and PANACeA, co-funded by the ERDF – European Regional Development Fund under the umbrella Programme Interreg MED, with a role specialising in communication and knowledge management within the three thematic communities of projects. The communities respectively on sustainable tourism, urban transports and biodiversity protection, include a wide number of study and pilot projects, and count on the support of BleuTourMed, GO SUMP and PANACeA partnerships to capitalise their results and looby on policy-makers, while advocating for their support.
UNIMED, represents in these projects a partner with a strong commitment towards sustainable development issues and with a solid expertise in matters of Transport&Logistic and the Mediterranean Tourism, thanks to its academic subnetworks. Therefore UNIMED plays a fundamental role within these type of projects whose aim is promoting the results territorial cooperation projects funded in the framework of the Interreg MED Programme. The participation of UNIMED in these projects helps strategically to bring expertise in managing knowledge and communication, while widening its knowledge and strengthening the operational network at the benefit of its community of associates and subnetworks.
In the frame of ECOMONDO, the contribution of UNIMED has been evident with the design of the stand hosting the six Interreg MED communities participating to the event and the concepts beyond it. UNIMED designed and conceived, in cooperation with the other communities, the concepts for a public conference where three panel debates brought relevant thematic and pilot projects to the table of discussion, and moderated one of the discussions.
The Expo registered in 2018 an overall increase of national and and international visitors, with the participation of 115 countries (of which 9% from the Mediterranean) creating a bulk of 170 million contacts over four days.
GO SUMP The MED Urban Transports Community is one of the thematic communities of the EU Interreg MED Programme. The Community currently gathers 6 projects working towards achieving tailor-made sustainable urban mobility plans and solutions in the Mediterranean area. The MED Urban Transports Community is supported and animated by the GO SUMP project. The GO SUMP partnership is composed of Malaga Council, RDA Green Karst, EUROCITIES, BIC Euronova, MEDCITIES, CODATU and UNIMED – Mediterranean Universities Union, which aims at improving the visibility and the communication reach of the projects of the community, to create synergies among them and to capitalise and mainstream their results. Using a bottom-up and a top-down approach among the Community projects and relevant policy-makers and interest groups, GO SUMP acts as a bridge enhancing dialogue, promoting the transfer of knowledge and amplifying the impact of the projects of the community.
BLEUTOURMED The MED Sustainable Tourism Community is featured by BleuTourMed_C3 Project, a three-year Horizontal Project financed by the ERDF within the Interreg MED Programme whose aim is to facilitate the knowledge sharing and the capitalisation of results of the 17 Modular Projects of this MED Community. The project is implemented under the collaboration of six partners and is based on three main structural pillars: Community building (CB) Communication (COM) Capitalisation (CAP). The partners are: Latin Arc, Spain (Coordinator); Barcelona Provincial Council, Spain; Plan Bleu for the environment and development in the Mediterranean, France; UNIMED – Mediterranean Universities Union, Italy; Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences Research Committee, Greece; Adriatic Ionian Euroregion, Croatia
PANACeA The MED Biodiversity Protection Community is featured by PANACeA Projectis, which is working to streamline networking and management efforts in Mediterranean Protected Areas (PAs) as a mechanism to enhance nature conservation and protection in the region. The project builds a community of nature conservation stakeholders in the Mediterranean and acts as the Communication and Capitalisation instrument of the projects dealing with protection of biodiversity and natural ecosystems. The partners are European Topic Centre – University of Malaga, MEDCITIES, UNIMED-Mediterranean Universities Union, Inter-Mediterranean Commission of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (IMC – CPMR), Plan Bleu for the Environment and Development in the Mediterranean, Regional Environmental Centre for Central and Eastern Europe, Country Office Montenegro.
The agenda of the events is available here.
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