ALSO - Achievement of Lisbon and Gothenburg Strategy Objectives by INTERREG

ALSO
Achievement of the Lisbon and Gothenburg Strategy Objectives by INTERREG

PARTICIPATING COUNTRIES:

• Italy
• Hungary
• Bulgaria
• Finland
• Lithuania
• Estonia
• France
• Spain
• United Kingdom
• Belgium
• Netherlands

QUESTIONS TO BE ANALYSED BY THE PROJECT:

• Need for effective and increase participation in INTERREG at present and in the future, from candidate countries, neighbouring countries and New Member States.
• Coordination between regional planners and INTERREG operators/project managers in order to better transpose regional programming activities into INTERREG.
• Needs at Programme Management level for evaluation methods and set of indicators in order to evaluate INTERREG projects impacts.
• Necessity to develop common tools of communication and better instruments in order to diffuse the INTERREG results at regional, national and European level.
• Strong necessity for training of regional planners and INTERREG operators/project managers in order to make them more prepared on specific issues for improved development of regional cooperation themes and territorial promotion activities.

OBJECTIVES:

• General Objectives: To facilitate exchange of know-how between regional development planners, INTERREG programme managers and INTERREG project developers.; To foster INTERREG project development and to facilitate a wider and more qualified participation in the future European Territorial Cooperation Objective; To make the findings available for the European Commission, the INTERACT Secretariat, the INTERACT Points and the INTERREG community with the aim of improving the effectiveness of INTERREG III and contributing to the new programming of the European Territorial Cooperation Objective;
• Specific Objectives: ALSO aims to examine and evaluate a defined number of INTERREG projects and test them on an Evaluation Model in order to produce a Good Practices Manual and a Checklist supplying the key indication for evaluating INTERREG projects results and impact, training regional planners and operators/project managers and orienting the new generation of INTERREG projects (European Territorial Cooperation) towards the objectives of the Lisbon and Gothenburg Strategy;

EXPECTED OUTPUTS:

• Scientific outputs: ALSO Evaluation Model, ALSO Report Analysis.
• Operational outputs: ALSO Good Practice Manual, ALSO Checklist, two ALSO workshops to raise awareness and train regional actors about the role played by ALSO.
• Dissemination outputs: Ongoing publication of all information regarding ALSO project on the project website; continuous web-marketing activities; publication of two high level articles in the EIPASCOPE magazine; production and dissemination of ALSO materials (leaflets, posters, gadgets); participation at special events and organisation of three STRAND Working Conferences and a Final Conference.