Foster Research Excellence for Green Transition in the Western Balkans

Deliverables

This plan will outline key steps to ensuring the sustainability of GreenFORCE and its findings beyond its lifetime, along several axes: 1) policy outreach of the project results and promotion of a macro-regional partnership; 2) engagement of early-stage researchers in the teaching exchange and research; 3) endorsement of green transition in the teaching curricula of 3 universities; 4) a project website that will remain operational beyond GreenFORCE lifetime; 5) 2 joint proposals submitted by all or a part of the consortium to funding organizations; 6) establishment / consolidation of research management units in the WB partners. The partners will design the plan by the 3rd year of the project, reviewing these axes and the results of the project to date, and will endorse the final version in M36.

The regional mapping report

The mapping is a key task for the research contributing to initial data gathering and the refinement of the research proposal and to the subquestion on the identification of sectors and territories affected by the transitions and current progress of transition practices This is a participatory mapping engaging local stakeholders and communities to reveal local knowledge Each WB partner will produce the respective country report and CoPLAN will work on the final regional report This deliverable is the final regional report It will also include the mapping frame used to conduct the mapping process The WB partners will do the mapping for their own countries The PC will subcontract data gathering for the remaining countries The mapping is done for actors practices and policies in place territories upon level of relevance and potential for engaging in green transition and sectors All partners will design the mapping frame using also knowledge from other mapping processes The frame will contain the type of information to be collected the standardisation of dataentry and the tailored instruments to be deployed for accessing information

Report on the 1st stand-alone teaching events (curricula + research results)

All partners will engage in organising and implementing 3 standalone teaching events that contribute to codesigncoevaluation exchange and sharing of the research practice and results conducted in WP4 The events are open to master and PhD students from UPOLIS UBGEF and POLITO Each event will host up to 20 students of which 50 will be from the hosting institution The guest institutions will bring 5 students and 2 researchers each The length of each event is 2 weeks in the form of summerwinter schools planned tentatively for M11 M23 and M34 The first event will take place at POLITO the second one at UBGEF and the third one at UPOLIS The teaching staff will be researchers from the 5 partner institutions External keynotes may be engaged at no project cost Students will be selected in advance open call and the events will enable researchers to produce and exchange knowledge on green transitionThis deliverable is about the 1st event taking place in POLITO

Shared Strategic Research Agenda

A long-term joint research agenda for the twining organisations, aligned with the activities in WP4 and with WP3, with special focus on the monitoring and planning of sustainable transitions at sub-national territorial levels in WB. Building on Nordregio´s own research strategy, the agenda encompasses: 1) prioritization of sustainability challenges faced by different regions and industrial systems in WB (in cooperation with WP 4); 2) evaluation of internal research expertise and identification of key research stakeholders in the region; 3) selection of priority research themes and future research directions in the frame of green transitions; 4) proposal of cross-cutting joint research programmes, and; 5) identification of financing programmes (aligned with Task 2.2). The work is conducted by all partners, and coordinated by the Project Coordinator. Guidance and supervision in preparing it are assured through the organisation of 5 thematic workshops, held remotely, co-organised by Nordregio and Co-PLAN, focusing on all 5 components above.

1st Report on RAB meetings minutes and results

This first report will contain the advise from the members of RAB to the consortium on the conceptualisation stage of the research The minutes of the meeting the suggestions and agreed next steps will be included in the report

2nd Package of combined curricula of the teaching exchange and secondment plans/dossiers

Co-PLAN/POLIS and UB-GEF get involved in teaching exchange with POLITO to contribute (2 scholars per organisation, up to 2 weeks each) to existing POLITO Master/PhD courses on subjects related to just green transitions with lectures drawing on the results of the project. Also, 2-3 researchers from POLITO will contribute in selected modules taught at POLIS and UB-GEF (max. 3 weeks/host institution). Each WB partner, will assign 1 researcher to at least 1 course/module for 1 working week, as guest lecturer in UB-GEF and/or in POLIS . The teaching activities will also draw on the in the Erasmus+ project LOTUS experience and curricula.This teaching package is the second out of two planned in total.

1st group of policy briefs formulated for the steering of green transitions in the WB - 2 briefs

The WB partners will expand their capacities to formulate policy relevant documents that exceed usual ways of presenting research results They will focus on policy relevant writing involving complementary skills to researchers that aid in routing key messages to actors alien to the research community including policymakers and various professionals Such exercise requires to shift from passive objective research findings to active language to some extent subjective to suggestions The work will consist on 1 carry out an online training session Nordregio and POLITO on how to develop content of policymaking use ie that advocates for a specific or a diversity of policy directions eg policy recommendations policy briefs based on outputs from the research eg reports academic articles 2 apply the learnings in the development of 5 policy briefs relevant to green transition in WB translating the knowledge developed in this project especially the research results from WP4 into operational policy messages This deliverable is about the first two policy briefs

2nd Report on RAB meetings minutes and results

The second report will summarise the suggestions of RAB members on the results of the research on green transition in its intermediate and final stage. It will include also the minutes of the meetings, agreed points and final take away.

1st Package of combined curricula of the teaching exchange and secondment plans/dossiers

CoPLANPOLIS and UBGEF get involved in teaching exchange with POLITO to contribute 2 scholars per organisation up to 2 weeks each to existing POLITO MasterPhD courses on subjects related to just green transitions with lectures drawing on the results of the project Also 23 researchers from POLITO will contribute in selected modules taught at POLIS and UBGEF max 3 weekshost institution Each WB partner will assign 1 researcher to at least 1 coursemodule for 1 working week as guest lecturer in UBGEF andor in POLIS The teaching activities will also draw on the in the Erasmus project LOTUS experience and curriculaThis teaching package is the first out of two planned in total

Dissemination, Communication and Exploitation (DCE) Strategy

This document will contain the strategic approach and the detailed plan for Dissemination Communication and Exploitation activities It is based on the proposed tasks of WP5 but detailed further adjusted to the timeline of the activity plan and the preliminary mapping for green transition in the Western Balkans

Data Management Plan

The first version of the DMP will be prepared based on the respective template of DMP Horizon Europe customised to the specific research processes and data of the project the report will contain the rules and procedures including intellectual property regarding research data management metadata creation and access of PIDs preregistration early open sharing preprints repositories of data to be used and related protocols and the coordination of the use of ORE Zenodo or other trusted and complete repository platforms The DMP will ensure the basis to guarantee the FAIR principles in the data management processes including issues such as ethics security data reuse and allocation of resources

Report on the integration of green transition research results into teaching activities

This report will make use of the results and deliverables related to Tasks 3.1, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5 to provide an overview of the method, achievements and challenges in integrating green transition related subjects in the university curricula. Based on the experience from these tasks, the report will provide briefly recommendations that can be taken onboard by other universities in the Western Balkans and in EU.

2nd Report on communication and dissemination

The report intends to summarise in a concise manner communication and dissemination efforts during the given period of GreenFORCE implementation. Activities to report on, include: 1) partners' inputs for dissemination; 2) sharing the prepared policy briefs (task 2.4) and the published research papers or their preprints (task 3.2) with identified WB stakeholders and relevant EU institutions; 3) preparation and publication of 2 e-newsletters/year aiming an audience of 1000 recipients; 4) drafting press releases for national TVs and other web-portals, at least twice a year by each WB partner; 5) collecting and storing statistics of dissemination outreach. The report will also provide statistics on the use of social media accounts and other outreach means.A template will be prepared as part of the DCE strategy and used by CEA for the report.

Report on the 2nd and 3rd stand-alone teaching events (curricula + research results)

All partners will engage in organising and implementing 3 stand-alone teaching events that contribute to co-design/co-evaluation, exchange and sharing of the research practice and results conducted in WP4. The events are open to master and PhD students from U_POLIS, UB-GEF and POLITO. Each event will host up to 20 students, of which 50% will be from the hosting institution. The guest institutions will bring 5 students and 2 researchers each. The length of each event is 2 weeks, in the form of summer/winter schools, planned tentatively for M11, M23 and M34. The first event will take place at POLITO, the second one at UB-GEF and the third one at U_POLIS. The teaching staff will be researchers from the 5 partner institutions. External keynotes may be engaged, at no project cost. Students will be selected in advance (open call) and the events will enable researchers to produce and exchange knowledge on green transition.This deliverable is about the 2nd and 3rd events taking place in UB-GEF and U_POLIS.

Report on WB green transition conceptualisation

The core research question centres around the impacts and costs of the just green transition in WB and is unravelled into subquestions and key concepts to give way to research methods and instruments to be used The very first of these subquestions is about conceptualising green transition in the WB and how it compares to the conceptualisation in the EU and beyond The Green Agenda for WB already provides the strategic direction for the transition but the steps to implement it are to be tailored to the territorial societal and institutional context and account for their impacts Most WB transition efforts are currently noted in the field of energy where some of the major obstacles lie but less so in climate change biodiversity circular economy etc The conceptualisation will be done in the first 6 months of the implementation and by M7 the project will deliver a draftreport which will be further discussed and validated with the RAB at its first meeting

Research Study Report 1

Two research study reports will be produced – interim and final, with the results of the research as described in Task 4.3. The PC will conduct data gathering in the WB countries not participating in the twinning by means of subcontracting.This deliverable is the 1st out of the two reports.

1st Report on communication and dissemination

The report intends to summarise in a concise manner communication and dissemination efforts during the given period of GreenFORCE implementation Activities to report on include 1 partners inputs for dissemination 2 sharing the prepared policy briefs task 24 and the published research papers or their preprints task 32 with identified WB stakeholders and relevant EU institutions 3 preparation and publication of 2 enewslettersyear aiming an audience of 1000 recipients 4 drafting press releases for national TVs and other webportals at least twice a year by each WB partner 5 collecting and storing statistics of dissemination outreach The report will also provide statistics on the use of social media accounts and other outreach meansA template will be prepared as part of the DCE strategy and used by CEA for the report

Project Website

The GreenFORCE website will inform on the project partners and activities all WPs resources and methodologies policy and societal communication The site will link to the twining partners websites for local access and more resources on green transition and to science repositories The PC will create and maintain the website but all partners will contribute with input proportionally to their engagement

Publications

Waste to Energy - Unlocking the Potential of Waste as an Alternative Source of Energy in the Western Balkans

Author(s): Merita, Toska
Published in: 2023
Publisher: Green FORCE Project
DOI: 10.5281/ZENODO.12818462

European Spatial Research and Policy

Author(s): Yahya Shaker; Simone Persico
Published in: European Journal of Spatial Development, 2024, ISSN 1231-1952
Publisher: European Journal of Spatial Development
DOI: 10.5281/ZENODO.13817780

Deliverables

Publications

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