In the frame of the project an online database of research organizations, scholars and universities dealing with local and regional enterprises was set up. This network aims to facilitate knowledge exchange by creating tools of communication between them. In addition, this main output of the project prepares the basis for joint thinking, articulation of interest and recommendations as well as for further joint projects in V4 countries. It is still possible to join, for that, see the details here.

The Youth&SPA project under Key Action 3 of the Erasmus+ Programme is running with the professional support of HETFA. During the session “Boosting the attractiveness of rural towns for young people” we focused on the main challenges of rural towns, such as youth migration, lack of community building opportunities, and lack of interest of youngsters towards decision-making processes. All participants were involved into an interactive online voting and then brainstorming on the future of rural towns. Our colleagues at the Division for International Cooperation participated actively in the preparation, dissemination and realization of the workshop in Brussels. The outcomes of the workshop are available on the Youth&SPA project website.

Our colleagues from the Division for Policy Evaluation and Impact Assessment participated at the meeting of the project called „Measuring What Matters to EU Citizens: Social Progress in the European Region” financed by DG Regio (Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy). HETFA is involved as consortium partner among other international organisations. This meeting focused mainly on the empirically test of  Social Progress Index (SPI) with special regard to the question of comparability.

The key aim of this pilot project is to empirically test how the Social Progress Index (EU-SPI) developed by the EU could be used to inform and improve policy-making in relation to policies supported by cohesion policy; at the same time the aim of the pilot is to find ways for linking the EU-SPI index with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in order to cover several social aspects.

By doing so, the project is currently engaging European regions at various development levels in a joint work: between ten and twelve regions are invited to participate and will also receive reimbursement for their activities. These regions are expected to take part in different activities with a twofold objective: to better understand the regional features and to share and engage in mutual peer learning activities with other regions and the European Commission.

Regarding the first objective, the activities foreseen include a fluent dialogue with the project representatives, an event for better understanding the region’s needs, the participation in a fact-finding mission to the region, the identification of relevant stakeholders in the region with whom to interact for gathering information and the selection of relevant topics to be in depth analysed.

The second objective includes the participation in peer learning workshops, a review of the main findings to inform the European Commission, the participation in the final conference and the possibility to participate in the different dissemination tools put in place by the consortium (e.g. the online platform).

The project start in December and will end by the closing conference in January 2020. The partnership is consisted of highly experienced partners in this field, including:

• Intrasoft International S.A. (headquarters in Luxemburg, present in 19 other countries)
• Technopolis Group (being present in 8 European countries)
• Orkestra, Basque Institute of Competitiveness (Spain)
• ZSI, Centre for Social Innovation (Austria)
• University of Athens (Greece)
• HETFA Research Institute.

HETFA considers this project an important opportunity to get involved in this project and reinforce its network throughout Europe, with a special regard to Central Europe.

Municipalities and civil organizations active in the field of youth and culture from Hungary, Slovenia, Estonia, Austria and France are participating in the project. ENriCH aims to reinterpret the European cultural heritage through the dialogue of involved young people and decision makers. ENriCH also provides opportunity to explore how the major European events affected the cities of the partnership, and what kind of long-term impacts these happenings had on them. Moreover, it pays special attention to discover such local values which contributed to the European cultural heritage.

As part of the project, local discussions and transnational workshops are organized. During these events, young participants gain insight into the world of decision-makers and discuss how the preliminary identified local heritage has formed the present and future of Europe. Furthermore, they examine to what extent the perception and attitude of future’s generation has changed relating to common European values. Beside the official project partners, the city of Passau will also host a transnational project event since it is rich in cultural heritage and has a traditional and active relationship with Veszprém.

At the end of the project two major outputs are planned: first, a use-it! based online map of each city consisting of alternative city walks compiled by young participants in strong dialogue with seniors and experts. This map shall demonstrate those cultural heritages (both tangible and intangible) that local young people would show to foreigners. Second, outcomes and results of discussions will be summarized in a final study including policy recommendations aiming to shape the involvement of youth in the preservation of cultural heritage.

The project EnriCH reinforces the aspiration of Veszprém to be actively involved in European cultural processes and to strengthen its international relations. This is a key priority now, when Veszprém is preparing its application for the 2nd round of the European Capital of Culture 2023 call.

EnriCH is starting in these days: the kick-off meeting is being held in Veszprém on 18-19 September 2018. This first event provides opportunity for participants to brainstorm on the importance and the preservation of cultural heritage on the one hand; on the other hand to change experience how young people can be involved into the promotion and transmission of local and European cultural heritage.  The official website and the social media channels of the project will start in due time. Till then, for further details stay tuned on www.hetfa.eu!

Partners of ENriCH are:

• Municipality of Veszprém, HU
• Tartu City Government, ES
• Public University of Ptuj, SI
• City of Saumur, FR
• Foster Europe Foundation for Strong European Regions, AT.

The aim of the workshop of 24 February was that more and more actor of the district could express their opinion on the developmental document in preparation. Representatives of the District’s municipality, employees of the municipality, chief architects of the neighbouring districts and towns and representatives of civil and religious organisations of the district participated at the event.

Integrated Sustainable Urban Development Strategies are being prepared all over Hungary. In the creation of the strategy of Rakosmente, beside HÉTFA, the Urbanitás Ltd. takes part with engineering tasks. Gábor Balás, director of HÉTFA highlighted at the workshop that the standard of living of the Rakosmente’s people can be improved by protecting the district’s values and with better transport opportunities. The increase in the number of workplaces in the district is an important aim of the developments, which would help people to commute less.

A detailed report on the workshop (Hungarian).

From 2014, in the new financial period of the EU, the Integrated Urban Development Strategy id change to Integrated Sustainable Urban Development Strategy. The Ministry for Home Affairs made it possible to write the strategies of small and medium sized cities and districts of Budapest: for those municipalities, who needed, the Ministry for Home Affairs issued a tender for it. In the Central Hungarian region, the Pest-Budapest Consortium won, where HETFA leads the preparation of the 8th and the 17th districts’ Strategies.

After the preparatory work for several months, on 20 February, together with the Municipality of Józsefváros (8th District), we invited numerous representatives of important institutions for the district and of other civil and economic organisations to a consultation in order to form the basis of the strategy building in the partnership process. The approximately 80 invitees were presented by the relevance and the role of the Integrated Sustainable Urban Development Strategy and then we opened four thematic tables according to issues related to the district’s economy, society, built and natural environment and its structural parts. We focused on identifying the main problems, capacities, strong points and potential places for development.

The answers of the representatives form an important part of the Strategy’s analysis of the current situation and in setting the main future goals. Two further workshops are foreseen, where with a similar circle of invitees, we collect the main development goal and project ideas.