Justin Gleeson, Director of the All-Island Research Observatory (AIRO)
Regional Development Monitor: a Good Practice for EU Regions
In February 2024, EMRA, as a partner on the Interreg Europe ORIGINN project, promoted the Regional Development Monitor by including it as a Good Practice on the Interreg Europe Policy Learning Platform. The Platform publishes Good Practices in policy-making from across Europe in order to share ideas between regions and learn from the experience and expertise of regional authorities and other stakeholders from across the EU. This ensures that our regional development policies and initiatives are informed by the most innovative practices. On reviewing the Regional Development Monitor as a submitted good practice, Arnault Morisson, the Interreg Europe Thematic Expert, noted that:
“the RDM exemplifies the transformative potential of digitalisation in planning, offering inspiration for countries to build their own open data platform to support evidence-based policymaking.”
In March 2025, Interreg Europe invited EMRA to its annual conference ‘Europe, Let’s Cooperate!’ in Krakow, Poland, to showcase the Regional Development Monitor. Only nine Good Practices from the Policy Learning Platform database were selected to be presented at this event, so this was a major endorsement of the Regional Development Monitor as an innovative and valuable tool in policy monitoring.
Members of the EMRA team, along with Justin Gleeson, Director of the All-Island Research Observatory (AIRO), attended the conference to raise awareness of the Regional Development Monitor, meet representatives of other Interreg projects, and hear about developments in the Interreg programme for interregional cooperation.
Colm Walsh (SRA), Ruth Kilcullen and Owen Douglas (EMRA)
The conference featured sessions where over 500 attendees from regions across Europe heard from Policy Learning Platform experts about the services and supports available to us in making and implementing regional policy. These services include direct consultations with thematic experts on policy development, ‘matchmaking’ with other regions with particular expertise in the policy area in question, and Peer Reviews, in which the Policy Learning Platform team convene experts and representatives from other EU regions to troubleshoot and workshop policy solutions for a given challenge. Taking full advantage of these supports is crucial to maximising the impact of our participation in an Interreg project like ORIGINN.
In addition, Good Practices in policy design, policy implementation, and policy monitoring were presented, including the Regional Development Monitor. Thematic sessions looked at policy-making in innovative waste management, AI, the social dimension of the digital and green transitions, and public transport , among other issues. The conference emphasised innovation and collaboration in regional development. Exciting ideas were discussed across a range of topics, from using alternative indicators of a society’s wellbeing (citing John F. Kennedy’s remark that GDP “captures everything, in short, except what matters”) to bold new approaches to localising the Sustainable Development Goals through regional and municipal policies, as the City of Tallinn has done in Estonia.
The conference was a valuable opportunity for EMRA and our partners to strengthen ties and collaboration across the EU. It highlighted how important EU Cohesion Policy is for supporting our communities and our regions to face common challenges and ensure that inclusivity and innovation drive our development.
