Periodic Reporting for period 1 - GreenFORCE (Foster Research Excellence for Green Transition in the Western Balkans)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2022-07-01 al 2023-09-30
GreenFORCE aims at fostering excellence in the "Western Balkans' green transition" scientific research and innovation of Co-PLAN (Albania), CEA (North Macedonia), and UB-GEF (Serbia), as a means to enhancing their research profile, strengthening research and management capacities of their staff, and contributing to convergence between Western Balkans (WB) and EU research capacities. This objective is reached through the twinning partnership of these organizations with the EU partners from Politecnico di Torino (Italy) and Nordregio (Sweden), which will work closely to produce territorial knowledge through exploratory research and institutional learning and will engage in networking for sharing, cross-fertilizing and amplifying knowledge at the societal level.
GreenFORCE outcomes and impacts will span across three main dimensions: scientific, economic/technological, and societal, using different pathways and with different effects in terms of scale, significance, and time. Three pathways lead to the scientific outcomes and impact: i) creation of high-quality new knowledge through the direct exchange of 17 WB researchers with 12 EU researchers experienced in the area of green transitions and through their active engagement in exploratory research for measuring and assessing the impacts and costs of green transitions in the WB; ii) strengthening of human capital in R&I, with a focus on green transition and iii) fostering diffusion of knowledge and open science through publication of 6 scientific articles, 1 edited book and 1 monitoring framework in the area of green transition.
GreenFORCE outcomes and impacts will span across three main dimensions: scientific, economic/technological, and societal, using different pathways and with different effects in terms of scale, significance, and time. Three pathways lead to the scientific outcomes and impact: i) creation of high-quality new knowledge through the direct exchange of 17 WB researchers with 12 EU researchers experienced in the area of green transitions and through their active engagement in exploratory research for measuring and assessing the impacts and costs of green transitions in the WB; ii) strengthening of human capital in R&I, with a focus on green transition and iii) fostering diffusion of knowledge and open science through publication of 6 scientific articles, 1 edited book and 1 monitoring framework in the area of green transition.
GreenFORCE, in its first 15 months, has made strides in achieving its specific objectives.
Objective 1: To enhance the research profiles and agendas of Co-PLAN, CEA, and UB-GEF, around green transitions in WB. The project has achieved significant milestones in its collaborative research efforts, with a Joint Research Agenda focused in GT currently in preparation. 2 co-design workshops focused on the Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) were conducted, with WB partners actively contributing to the identification of 13 key themes relevant to JGT. A notable achievement includes an agreement to publish 6 scientific papers in EUROPA XXI, with prepared abstracts, and the acceptance of an open-access handbook on GT proposal by an international publishing house. 2 policy briefs are finalized and published on the project website. GreenFORCE accounts in open access repositories have been created, and documents are uploaded on both Zenodo and GERY (https://gery.gef.bg.ac.rs) platforms.
Objective 2: To strengthen the research administration and management capacities of the recipient partner organizations by developing and applying an innovative model of R&I collaboration between the WB and EU researchers in the consortium. The GreenFORCE Research Advisory Board (RAB) first conducted meeting in April, gathered 6 distinguished members, discussing the JGT's conceptualization and the preliminary research agenda. In addition, 2 hybrid co-design workshops in Tirana and Skopje focused on the Scientific Publication Plan were organized, while 2 online events engaged quadruple helix actors in conceptualizing the WB green transition. Knowledge exchange included 4 teaching exchanges at POLIS University with 8 researchers and 56 students and a Summer School in Turin with 14 researchers and 20 students. Dissemination efforts featured as well a roundtable at the AESOP Congress in Estonia and a Special Session at the Regional Studies Association Conference in Ljubljana, with active participation from all GreenFORCE partners. UB-GEF's organization of the Green Agenda for the Western Balkan Conference in Belgrade highlighted these collaborative achievements.
Objective 3: To carry out knowledge-generating, exploratory, and comparative research on green transition processes, policies, costs and impacts, and its relation to spatial and regional policies, in WB and EU. In the past 15 months, the project made substantial progress in conducting knowledge-generating research on green transitions in the WB and EU. In Task 4.1 of the project, two co-design workshops engaged stakeholders, leading to the drafting and publication of a comprehensive Just Green Transition document. Task 4.2 involved drafting a mapping frame and producing five reports incorporating data from WB countries. Task 4.3 selected five research cases for WB countries. Thorough discussions during the first RAB meeting in April 2023 marked significant progress.
Objective 4: To share, amplify, and exploit the knowledge generated by the research of the twinning partners into WB societal actors and networks interested and/or engaged in WB green transition practices, policies, and/or decision-making. A comprehensive DCE strategy has been prepared and uploaded into the SYGMA system. The project website ( www.greenforcetwinning.net) is fully operational, providing a continuously updated link for easy access to project information. To enhance outreach, five social media accounts of the GreenFORCE project have been established and are regularly updated. Two biannual newsletters have been drafted and shared, contributing to knowledge dissemination. A conference in Belgrade successfully attracted 200 registered participants, fostering engagement with the project's findings. A special session on green transition in the WB was organized at the RSA Annual Conference in Ljubljana in June 2023 and all project partners actively participated in the "Territorial Governance Network in the Western Balkan" annual meeting in Skopje in 2023, strengthening collaboration. Ongoing discussions on joint future project proposals indicate a sustained commitment to knowledge sharing and collaboration within the project.
Objective 1: To enhance the research profiles and agendas of Co-PLAN, CEA, and UB-GEF, around green transitions in WB. The project has achieved significant milestones in its collaborative research efforts, with a Joint Research Agenda focused in GT currently in preparation. 2 co-design workshops focused on the Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) were conducted, with WB partners actively contributing to the identification of 13 key themes relevant to JGT. A notable achievement includes an agreement to publish 6 scientific papers in EUROPA XXI, with prepared abstracts, and the acceptance of an open-access handbook on GT proposal by an international publishing house. 2 policy briefs are finalized and published on the project website. GreenFORCE accounts in open access repositories have been created, and documents are uploaded on both Zenodo and GERY (https://gery.gef.bg.ac.rs) platforms.
Objective 2: To strengthen the research administration and management capacities of the recipient partner organizations by developing and applying an innovative model of R&I collaboration between the WB and EU researchers in the consortium. The GreenFORCE Research Advisory Board (RAB) first conducted meeting in April, gathered 6 distinguished members, discussing the JGT's conceptualization and the preliminary research agenda. In addition, 2 hybrid co-design workshops in Tirana and Skopje focused on the Scientific Publication Plan were organized, while 2 online events engaged quadruple helix actors in conceptualizing the WB green transition. Knowledge exchange included 4 teaching exchanges at POLIS University with 8 researchers and 56 students and a Summer School in Turin with 14 researchers and 20 students. Dissemination efforts featured as well a roundtable at the AESOP Congress in Estonia and a Special Session at the Regional Studies Association Conference in Ljubljana, with active participation from all GreenFORCE partners. UB-GEF's organization of the Green Agenda for the Western Balkan Conference in Belgrade highlighted these collaborative achievements.
Objective 3: To carry out knowledge-generating, exploratory, and comparative research on green transition processes, policies, costs and impacts, and its relation to spatial and regional policies, in WB and EU. In the past 15 months, the project made substantial progress in conducting knowledge-generating research on green transitions in the WB and EU. In Task 4.1 of the project, two co-design workshops engaged stakeholders, leading to the drafting and publication of a comprehensive Just Green Transition document. Task 4.2 involved drafting a mapping frame and producing five reports incorporating data from WB countries. Task 4.3 selected five research cases for WB countries. Thorough discussions during the first RAB meeting in April 2023 marked significant progress.
Objective 4: To share, amplify, and exploit the knowledge generated by the research of the twinning partners into WB societal actors and networks interested and/or engaged in WB green transition practices, policies, and/or decision-making. A comprehensive DCE strategy has been prepared and uploaded into the SYGMA system. The project website ( www.greenforcetwinning.net) is fully operational, providing a continuously updated link for easy access to project information. To enhance outreach, five social media accounts of the GreenFORCE project have been established and are regularly updated. Two biannual newsletters have been drafted and shared, contributing to knowledge dissemination. A conference in Belgrade successfully attracted 200 registered participants, fostering engagement with the project's findings. A special session on green transition in the WB was organized at the RSA Annual Conference in Ljubljana in June 2023 and all project partners actively participated in the "Territorial Governance Network in the Western Balkan" annual meeting in Skopje in 2023, strengthening collaboration. Ongoing discussions on joint future project proposals indicate a sustained commitment to knowledge sharing and collaboration within the project.
Following the 4 specific objectives of the GreenFORCE project, during this reporting period, the following results have been achieved:
- 5 topics of research related to green transition have been identified and are being carried out by the WB partners
- 1 Open Access Edited Book is already approved by the international publishing house, and a scientific edition of papers is underway
- 13 themes are elaborated and part of the Shared Research Agenda for the WB
- 170 students have been engaged through the learning exchange of GreenFORCE researchers
- 642 people have been outreached/ informed through dissemination activities
- ~ 5000 people have been reached through communication of information through the website, and social platforms of GreenFORCE
- 5 topics of research related to green transition have been identified and are being carried out by the WB partners
- 1 Open Access Edited Book is already approved by the international publishing house, and a scientific edition of papers is underway
- 13 themes are elaborated and part of the Shared Research Agenda for the WB
- 170 students have been engaged through the learning exchange of GreenFORCE researchers
- 642 people have been outreached/ informed through dissemination activities
- ~ 5000 people have been reached through communication of information through the website, and social platforms of GreenFORCE