Recently, the winners of the first Interreg Europe competition for Ukraine were announced. It is extremely gratifying that the Khmelnytskyi Regional Development Agency and the Odesa Regional Development Agency will join the implementation of the program projects – pilot agencies that receive institutional support from the UCORD project.
The Khmelnytskyi Regional Development Agency, as part of an international consortium, will implement the project “PERSIST: How to build a long-term S3-commitment – permanent and sustainable implementation of the transformation of smart specialization”.
«The agency’s team will implement this project in a consortium with partners from Sweden, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Albania, Spain and the Netherlands. The victory in the competition is a great merit of our partners, because they coordinated all the work. We have a leader in the application – this is the Jönköping region (Sweden). It is valuable for us that we took part for the first time and that we will gain experience in the implementation of such projects. Now we are waiting for 4 years of cooperation to study the best European practices in the field of smart specialization,» says Kateryna Savchuk, the director of the Khmelnyskyi Regional Development Agency.
The Odesa Regional Development Agency will join the implementation of the project “SafeSkills: Increasing the number of qualified personnel in the fields of security”. Partners of the Agency in implementing the project are partners from Finland, Poland, France and Spain.
«Our project is aimed at increasing the number of qualified personnel in the field of security. The project provides for the exchange of experience, work with strategic documents, and the implementation of best European practices for the training of specialists in the field of security. SafeSkills addresses the critical shortage of skilled personnel in the security and safety sectors. The project will help to develop regional policies and educational programs that will meet modern challenges in the field of security, cyber protection, industrial and environmental safety,» says Serhii Kononenko, the director of the Odesa Regional Development Agency.
In total, Ukrainian organizations participate in 22 projects within the six priorities of the program:
- Smarter Europe – research and innovation, digitization, startups;
- More Social Europe – education, medicine, inclusiveness, development of culture and sustainable tourism;
- More Connected Europe – development of the European transport network and sustainable mobility;
- Greener Europe – energy efficiency, waste and water management;
- Europe closer to citizens – integrated urban and rural development;
- Better Governance – improving the work of self-governing municipalities and the level of their provision of services to citizens.
Among the participants are local self-government bodies, regional military administrations, public and charitable organizations, trade unions, chambers of commerce and industry from all over Ukraine. The largest number of participating partners are in the Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv regions.
Interreg Europe is a program of interregional cooperation financed by the European Union and aimed at reducing disparities in the levels of development, growth and quality of life in different regions of Europe. The program started in 2021 and will continue until 2027.
Interreg Europe creates an environment for sharing solutions and experiences in the field of regional development. Its support covers 36 countries, including the EU27, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland and Ukraine.
We congratulate our pilot agencies and their partners on their victory and wish them successful implementation of projects for the development of their regions!
The Swiss-Ukrainian project “Ukraine’s Cohesion and Regional Development”, UCORD, is implemented with the support of Switzerland via the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation by NIRAS Sweden AB.