Our virtual project meeting
Due to ongoing Covid-19-related travel restrictions, the project meeting of TeRRItoria scheduled for the 14th of January 2021 took place virtually.
The meeting started with a summary of the activities carried out in the last six months. The last physical meeting took place in Bologna (Italy) in November 2019 and saw the conclusion of the analytical strand of the project (Work Packages 2 and 3). In 2020 the project had to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, which had a significant impact on the co-creation phase and the subsequent transition to the implementation phase.
What’s next?
In spring the implementation phase of the five Transformative Experiments (TEs) is due to start. This process requires important collaboration and facilitation among all the project partners involved in this stage. The process may be facilitated by the fact that during the first 24 months of the project a strong synergy between WPs 5, 6, and 7 have been created.
During the project meeting it was decided to keep the impacts of Covid-19 on individual TEs under strict monitoring over the coming weeks. Based on that feedback, it might be possible that the TeRRItoria consortium will ask the European Commission for an extension of the project timeline.
Moreover, the discussion among the project partners was also particularly focused on the exploitation phase of the project and its future sustainability. Both aspects are extremely relevant since the project is entering in its final year.
An update from the Transformative Experiments
During the afternoon session, all five of the TEs were invited to update the consortium about how they plan to implement their own experiment in the coming months. By clicking here, you can gain a better understanding of what’s going on in Trøndelag, likewise by clicking here for Emilia Romagna. The Central Macedonia, North East Romania, and Gabrovo also provided updates.
RRI synergies: the SeeRRI rationale
In order to facilitate the implementation phase of the five TEs, the TeRRItoria consortium decided to invite the project coordinator of another RRI project financed under the same call (Swafs-14) which focuses on activities in three different regions of Europe. Nhien Nguyen illustrated the rationale behind the SeeRRI project and its own strategy adopted so far. She also showcased to a motivated and interested audience a general overview of the three TEs foreseen in SeeRRI.
Nhien recommend the TeRRItoria project partners to go beyond the co-design phase and also pay attention to co-implementation. Her experience as a project coordinator has shown her that a particular challenge lies in identifying the right people and keeping them involved. She also pointed out how crucial it is to be able to mix different stakeholder groups (and not conduct co-creation meetings with only one type of Triple Helix representatives, for instance).
