Category: EU Project News

Presov Regional Tourism Strategy presentation, Day 1

ORIGINN Study Visit to Prešov, Slovakia

From May 20–22, 2025, the picturesque Prešov Self-Governing Region in Slovakia played host to the fifth Study Visit of the ORIGINN project. The event brought together partners from Ireland, Sweden, Romania, Italy, Estonia, and Catalonia to share and explore good practices in soft innovation in our regions. Soft innovation can be a difficult concept to pin down, but in broad terms, whereas “hard innovation” refers to new technologies or functionalities, soft innovation encompasses more aesthetic or intellectual innovations, ranging from artistic expressions to management processes. In the context of ORIGINN, the project is focused on soft innovations that support the economic and social development of rural communities.

The three-day gathering opened with a full-day conference held at the PSGR Office in Prešov. Participants were welcomed by the Deputy Chairman of the region, who introduced the diverse landscape and potential of Prešov. This was followed by contributions from several regional experts. Mario Popper of the Strategic Development Department outlined the Prešov Region’s broader development strategy, while Štefan Pavlík spoke on integrated territorial strategies and their application in agricultural initiatives.

A key theme of the morning session was the role of education and regional collaboration. The Department of Education highlighted its work with secondary schools to support agri-food and technical vocational training. Daniel Šimčík discussed the region’s Tourism Strategy as a complementary driver of local economic sustainability.

The afternoon presentations turned to innovation in natural products and sustainable farming. Ivan Šalamon, PhD, of the University of Prešov, spoke on the healing potential of the region’s medicinal plants, while fellow academics Emília Huttmanová and Jana Chovancová introduced the university’s new sustainability-focused study programmes. Case studies from Agrokarpaty Plavnica and the family-run Hemp Bona farm provided tangible examples of how organic farming and medicinal plant cultivation are contributing to the region’s agricultural transformation.

The project partners also visited Urban Flora, a family-run urban farm in Prešov specialising in aeroponic cultivation of herbs and leafy greens—a forward-looking example of high-efficiency indoor urban agriculture with minimal environmental impact.

On the second day, the focus shifted to hands-on learning with study visits in the Plaveč and Hniezdne areas outside the town of Prešov. In Plavnica, attendees toured Agrokarpaty, Slovakia’s largest medicinal plant producer and one of the largest in Europe. The visit offered an up-close view of sustainable large-scale herbal cultivation and processing. In Hniezdne, the group experienced Nestville Park, a modern distillery, chocolate factory, and cultural centre, where traditional skills are being revitalised for modern markets.

The final day was dedicated to the internal workings of the ORIGINN project. Partners gathered for a steering meeting to review progress and plan future collaboration. This was followed by a session showcasing good practice examples in soft innovation from each partner region. The exchange of ideas highlighted diverse methods being used across Europe to support rural development, including innovative models of stakeholder engagement in Sweden, supporting local creativity as a driver of innovation in Ireland, and an online retail platform for local food producers in Romania.

The event concluded with a shared lunch and closing remarks, affirming the project’s commitment to knowledge exchange and cooperation. With a strong blend of policy dialogue and real-world examples, the fifth ORIGINN Study Visit reaffirmed the value of cross-border partnerships in building more resilient and sustainable rural communities.

Regional Development Monitor: a Good Practice for EU Regions

Ministers announce €60 million for THRIVE scheme to revitalise heritage buildings in Southern, Eastern and Midland Regions

On 16 January 2025, Minister Darragh O’Brien and Minister Alan Dillon announced that €60 million in funding is available through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) Southern Eastern and Midland Regional Programme to restore vacant or derelict heritage buildings in public ownership; revitalising urban centres, bringing valued heritage buildings back into use as community assets and delivering on New European Bauhaus and Town Centre First policies.

Building on the success of the initial funding round in 2024, the Southern Regional Assembly is pleased to open the second call for applications under Strand 2 of THRIVE – the Town Centre First Heritage Revival Scheme – from 16th January 2025 with awards of up to €7 million available to refurbish, restore, and adapt publicly owned heritage buildings within town centres.

THRIVE empowers local authorities to reimagine and adapt heritage buildings, preserving their historical and cultural significance while creating vibrant and sustainable urban spaces.

Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien TD, said:
“I very much welcome the launch of the new €85 million THRIVE call under the ERDF Regional Programmes. This funding gives local authorities the tools to bring Ireland’s heritage buildings into the 21st century, not only preserving and protecting these important heritage assets, but also ensuring their sustainable re-use for future generations. I look forward to seeing the regeneration benefits that will arise out of this funding and will strengthen the vibrancy of towns and cities throughout Ireland.”

Minister of State for Local Government and Planning, Alan Dillon TD, said:
“The THRIVE scheme underscores our commitment to tackling vacancy, promoting heritage-led regeneration, and delivering on the Town Centre First policy. The Town Centre First approach ensures that local authorities are engaged with their citizens in developing new plans to transform and celebrate these underutilised heritage buildings for the benefit of their communities, while breathing new life into towns and urban centres across the country”.

Cathaoirleach of the Southern Regional Assembly, Cllr Garret Kelleher, said:
“THRIVE offers a unique opportunity to enhance the quality of life in our communities by preserving the architectural and cultural heritage of our towns. By focusing on publicly owned buildings, this scheme ensures that restored spaces serve the needs of local citizens while respecting the principles of sustainability, aesthetics, and inclusion.”

With 100% grant aid available, local authorities are encouraged to act swiftly, as this competitive funding opportunity promises to generate significant interest nationwide.

Heritage buildings are defined as structures with unique architectural, historical, archaeological, or artistic qualities, or those that hold cultural and economic significance to their locations.

Projects funded under THRIVE are required to embrace the values of the New European Bauhaus, incorporating sustainability, aesthetics, and inclusion. The initiative also encourages a citizen-centred, community-led approach to planning, design, and project selection within the Town Centre First framework.

THRIVE is co-funded by the Government of Ireland and the European Union through the ERDF Southern, Eastern and Midlands Regional Programme 21-27. The scheme has been co-designed by the Regional Assemblies and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to address European, national and regional policy objectives.

The funding call will be managed by the ERDF Managing Authority the Southern Regional Assembly. Application guidelines and eligibility criteria are available on their respective websites at www.southernassembly.ie and www.nwra.ie.

European Partners Visit the Midlands

The third ORIGINN Study Visit, held in the Eastern and Midland Region of Ireland, took place from June 11-13, 2024. The theme in focus was the Green Economy & Blue Economy and Sustainability, and the event gathered key stakeholders to discuss the innovative practices in this area in the four midland counties of Laois, Longford, Offaly, and Westmeath.

The meeting, which took place in the town of Athlone on the River Shannon, began on June 11th with a welcome address by Clare Bannon, Acting Director of the Eastern and Midland Regional Assembly (EMRA). The Acting Director spoke of the great potential of this rural part of the region and of the importance of projects like ORIGINN to enable collaboration in policy-development for rural transformation through innovation.

Participants then received project updates from the lead partner before visiting Ballykilcavan Farm and Brewery in County Laois. A barley farm in the Walsh-Kemmis family for 13 generations, Ballykilcavan is a prime example of innovation and diversification on a traditional family farm, having developed an award-winning brewery on-site in recent years. They emphasise sustainability and circularity in their practices, and the project partners were interested to learn about the enabling policies in the region that facilitated the development of the brewery business.

The second day featured presentations from key figures in the field. Dr. Ian Archer, CEO of BioConnect, started the session with a presentation on the development of the bioeconomy in Ireland, followed by Barry Caslin, an Energy and Rural Development Specialist from Teagasc, who highlighted innovative approaches for sustainability in the farming sector. After a coffee break, Deirdre Kennedy, a Food Technologist from Teagasc, discussed advancements in food technology and policy supports for farmers developing food and drinks businesses.

In the afternoon, the project partners visited Loughboora Discovery Park in County Offaly, a green tourism initiative which has seen the transformation of bogland once used for the extraction of peat (a fossil fuel) into a leisure and conservation park for the local community and tourists alike. This was followed by a visit to the Accelerate Green Hub, which provides supports in the midlands to start-ups, particularly in the food and drinks sector.

The final day opened with a presentation by Niamh Dooley of BiaSol. Niamh’s company uses spent grain from Ballykilcavan brewery to produce high protein food products and supplements. A proud Midlands entrepreneur, she is an advocate for innovation in the rural economy, and also told the project partners about her participation in ACORNS (Accelerating the Creation of Rural Nascent Start-ups) a programme delivered in conjunction with the Government’s Department of Agriculture, Food, and the Marine, to support women entrepreneurs in rural areas.

Christine Collins and Ray Bell, Broadband Officers from Longford and Offaly County Councils, gave an inspiring presentation on the innovative digitalisation policies and initiatives in their counties, which are driving sustainable and green economic growth. The event wrapped up with presentations from the project partners about policies in their own regions to support the Green Economy, and a roundtable discussion in which partners reflected on insights gained and potential pathways forward.

Overall, the ORIGINN Study Visit facilitated a rich exchange of ideas and best practices, emphasizing the critical role of collaborative efforts in advancing the Green Economy in the Midlands. The event highlighted the importance of sustainable practices, innovation, and policy support in driving regional economic development.

Green and Blue Economy – Webinar

On May 14th, the ORIGINN project hosted a webinar on the topic of the Green Economy. The purpose of the webinar was to showcase Good Practices from the seven regional authorities who make up the ORIGINN consortium.

Moderated by Dr Geraldine Brennan of CirculÉire, Ireland’s national platform for circular manufacturing, the webinar featured a full agenda of diverse and interesting presentations. Each partner invited a local stakeholder to present their Good Practice, and these were followed by a lively questions and answers session.

The webinar was attended by 54 participants, including policy-makers, industry actors, and civil society organisations, spanning three time zones across Europe.

They tuned in to hear about organic farmers organising for policy improvement in Estonia, and the cutting-edge Bioeconomy Hub in Catalonia; they heard about Emilia-Romagna’s policies to drive the development of the blue economy, and Jämtland Härjedalen’s innovative project to develop circular business models; they took a tour through Centru’s agri-tourism heartland, and learned about a great example of public-private partnership for circular manufacturing in Prešov.

While the Good Practices presented covered a variety of issues and policy areas, the common element was the innovative nature of the interventions they described. Innovation which is at the heart of ORIGINN’s mission to support sustainable and transformative development of our rural communities.

Next2Met Study Visit in Midlands

Ireland’s gateway to digital innovation and regional attraction

Midlands, Ireland – On 5-6 April 2022, the Eastern and Midland Regional Assembly (EMRA) hosted Next2Met project partners for a study visit in Ireland to showcase and learn about how digitalisation measures are increasing the attractiveness of the Midland Region as a place to live, work and visit.

Next2Met partners came to Ireland to observe and learn about local experiences and examples of digital solutions that are being implemented in the Midlands. Key stakeholders, the broadband officers from the Midland counties, also joined the study visit.

The first stop was to Irish Manufacturing Research (IMR) in Mullingar to talk about creating a lighthouse of industry in the region. Barry Kennedy, CEO of IMR, gave a tour of IMR’s facilities including their work in 3D printing, robotics, advanced manufacturing, 5G, co-working spaces and other arears of innovation. He explained how IMR is working to “demystify, derisk and deliver” the digital transition and emerging technologies in the region. Catriona Mordan then talked about how the Advanced Technologies in Manufacturing (ATIM) cluster brings the needs of SMEs together to foster increased productivity, drive competitiveness, and support internationalization.

The next stop on the tour of the Midlands was to Co:Worx in Edgeworthstown, County Longford. At this rural co-working hub which had just launched the week prior, participants learned from Lorraine O’Connor of Longford County Council and Clare McEnroe, Director and co-founder of Co:Worx, how the community had come together to set up this facility in a former bank building and about the rural working hub strategy. We got insights from Michael Newham of the Midland Network of Co-working Facilities into means and importance of connecting co-working spaces across the region. Grow Remote’s co-founder Tracy Keogh enlightened all on the organisation’s work in supporting remote employment opportunities locally, building sustainable communities, and advocating for the companies to be informed and involved to create a pipeline of jobs that allow for remote working. Participants also spoke to Dr. Matt Saunders from Trinity College Dublin who described how the Internet of Things (IoT) and data is being used in the Midlands for peatbog management, restoration and in climate action through projects such as SmartBog. The last visit of the day was to the Kilbeggan Distillery to learn about tourism as a driver of regional attraction with specificity to the history and environment of the region.

On Wednesday the remaining participants had the opportunity to visit to the CONNECT Centre based in Dublin to see various 5G-related equipment and installations, getting an understanding of how sensors and digital solutions are being tested with the aim of making cities and towns more attractive places to live and work. We observed these solutions in person on a tour of the Smart Docklands. We also learned about the Centre’s projects OpenIreland and the Academy of the Near Future and how these ideas can be translated into other regions across Europe.

Throughout the visit there were clear areas of potential collaboration between participants as well as continued learning between the visitor and host regions. It is thanks to the opportunities provided by the Next2Met project that these exchanges could take place between the rural partner areas who share the characteristic of lying in the shadows of big urban centers.

The event is part of Next2Met, an innovative interregional exchange project co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund through the Interreg Europe Programme and involves six other European regions. The project is managed in Ireland by Eastern and Midland Regional Assembly (EMRA) who works with key stakeholders at EU, national, regional, a local level to enable regional development. The focus region of the project in Ireland is in the Midlands which include the counties of Laois, Longford, Offaly and Westmeath.

Next2Met visits to Austria

Krems an der Donau, Austria – On 17th to 19th May 2022, partners and stakeholders of the Next2Met project met in Krems an der Donau, Austria for a productive study visit and exchange of good practices on digitalisation in the region.

The occasion also marked the last partner meeting of the learning phase (Phase 1) of this Interreg Europe project.

Over the past few months, thanks to improvements in the overall health situation, partners of the Next2Met project have been able to participate in study visits in each other’s regions. The aim of study visits is to provide on-premise opportunities for knowledge exchanges of good practice examples and to promote mutual learning and discussion among partners.

The first of these in the Next2Met project was a visit in Greifswald, Germany on 30 May hosted by the project partner WITENO GmbH. Another visit took place in the province of Barcelona, Spain on 26-27 April. EMRA also had the pleasure to host the partners for a study visit of the Midlands Region on 5-6 April. You can read about what was discussed during each of these visits in the above links.

Highlights from the visit

EMRA joined the other 6 partners and a few stakeholders in the town of Krems, located in a rural area approximately 70 kilometres west of Vienna. Over the course of the 3-day event, participants had the opportunity to learn and talk about ways that Lower Austria is working to support digital transformations to make the region more attractive as a place to live, work and invest, with examples from projects being carried out in the region.

The event started with a detailed discussion of Lower Austria’s Digitalization Strategy, developed and implemented by the regional government, and progress made to date. Among the many topics and project examples covered, participants had the chance to learn about work being done in relation to helping SMEs integrate digital solutions, continuing education, digital education training, digitalisation in tourism, as well as mixed reality (i.e. virtual reality) use to support companies and education/training. EMRA and the partners were also able to gain an understanding of the way universities can support entrepreneurship and innovation.

Next steps

The Next2Met project is in the process of wrapping up the ‘learning and exchange’ portion of the project (called Phase 1). Phase 2 will commence in the coming months and will focus on the partners implementing lessons learned from these exchanges into our own regions.

Stay tuned to hear more about how EMRA and the Next2Met project will be supporting digitalisation measures in the Midlands Region – Ireland’s focus area for the project.

Contact for further information: hstromberg@emra.ie

Next2Met — A year in review

January 2021

This time last year my colleague and I flew to Lahti, Finland to participate in the first of many (or so we thought) Next2Met partner meetings.

Although China had already reported a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, we never imagined it would reach Europe or that we would be living through a pandemic for the next year. However, despite the various restrictions, work on Next2Met continued; 28 stakeholders representing the public, private and non-profit sector participated in EMRAs first ever online stakeholder meeting on the 1st of April 2020 to discuss Good Practices that focused on digitalisation in the Midlands. This stakeholder event tested the very essence of the Next2Met project; using digitalisation measures to bring people together and facilitate cooperation. Stakeholders highlighted that the main barriers to digitalisation in the Midlands were gaining and retaining a talented workforce, creating awareness of remote working possibilities and supporting and developing a culture of digitalisation among SMEs and organisations. It also emphasised a need for more information sharing and linkages between stakeholders, especially with the private sector. As a result of this feedback an ‘Extranet Teams group’ was established as a horizontal network for project stakeholders to share relevant information. EMRA also shared our experience of using online tools to host stakeholder meetings at a webinar organised by Interreg Europe which was attended by 440 people from across Europe.

Throughout the year Next2Met partners continued to share, discuss, and exchange good practices. One interesting practice that was identified by EMRA called Digibale (Finland) was explored with Midland stakeholders. EMRA hosted two online meetings; the first meeting showcased the Digibale project to 16 stakeholders from the agricultural sector and the second meeting provided an opportunity for 23 Irish and Finnish stakeholders from the agricultural sector, academics and the manufacturing and software industry to discuss SMART agriculture in the Midlands. This discussion highlighted that it’s unclear whether farmers are fully prepared for a digital transition in the Midlands. It also emphasised that there is a need to address the skills gap and cost scalability within the farming community. Stakeholders suggested that providing education and training, consulting with farmer groups, promoting digital solutions and offering grants or subsidies, to encourage farmers to a digital transition. Stakeholders also suggested that further collaboration, consultation and opportunities for research are required, this is something that an international Digbale project could provide and the majority of stakeholders are interested in continuing this work.

It is clear that Covid-19 has fast forwarded the process of digitalisation, leading individuals and organisations to find new solutions to current challenges, already demonstrated by a significant capability for remote working. If there are any positives to the pandemic, it’s this shift towards digitalisation, the possibilities for more people to work remotely along with a new appreciation for fresh air and open spaces, this could provide new opportunities for the Midlands. Next 2 Met will continue its work in 2021 and explore a number of thematic areas such as best practices in Co-Working Infrastructure, Clusters, SMEs and how business can embrace digitalisation and prepare for a digital transition.