In 2020 the agencies were the most agile entities providing resources to sustain the economy; now we are all immersed in mobilising all the socio-economic actors in our territories to establish agreed development strategies that are making effective use of the recovery funds. Development agencies remain at the forefront of shaping the future of our economy based on the dual digital and sustainable transition.
I am particularly proud of the effectiveness of the two thematic groups: Digitalisation in cooperation with FundingBox and Smart heritage cities under the POCITYF project. We created both groups in 2020 and they have fulfilled their schedule of activities in 2021. Both are open to any interested stakeholder (member or non-member of the association) because we are an inclusive association. For EURADA members, the year 2021 has seen continued growth in our activities, building on a positive 2020 financial year. Practically every day we have received a concrete opportunity through specialised information (more than 150 eReminders exclusive for members).
The Association has organised more than 50 events (more than one per week), specifically designed for development agencies. I would like to highlight Agorada+2021 that we did in a hybrid way in Valencia in collaboration with the development agency IVACE and the Spanish Association Foro ADR. We had an extraordinary participation in our annual Brokerage Event for our agencies with more than 200 cooperation profiles; and I would also like to point out a summer course on European project management in development agencies with more than 100 participants.
Our best development agency was SIMORA (Croatia), for a set of exemplary actions deployed over several years for the promotion of the gaming industry in a territory with declining traditional economic activities. SIMORA has led all the actors of Sisak-Moslavina county combining training, industrial investments, and support to entrepreneurs. ZAFER-Kutahya, CEIN-Navarra and INFO-Murcia also received awards. This brings visibility to the good practices of development agencies.
The Board of Directors prioritised that we continue to have a direct dialogue with the EU institutions. We have been approved this year to be experts in three additional groups: interregional innovation investments initiative (we are represented by Valeria Bandini from ART-ER), in the Dialogue with CPR Partners and in the Just Transition Platform. We are active in the SBA follow up and SME Envoys where I represent EURADA. To improve the effectiveness of our European lobbying activities, we have established an important Task Force on institutional relations with the EU, led by Cédric Grignard from Invest in Lyon (ADERLY), which is bearing fruit by drawing up an exhaustive map of our links and possibilities for action.
Our most relevant international activity has been the establishment of 20 cooperation partnerships with regions in Latin America and China, in the framework of the International Urban Regional Cooperation (IURC) project of the European Commission. As in previous years, we have continued to collaborate actively with the IEDC, our sister organisation in the United States; and we have supported actions with our colleagues from development agencies in Argentina and opened possibilities for cooperation with other countries such as Mexico.
My outlook for 2022 is positive. EURADA will start the year with an open call to support cooperation between 5 European regions and 5 Japanese prefectures. Our work with clusters will increase and we will organise in the next two years at least 15 specialised 'Clusters meet Regions' events and 19 Brokerage Events for the European Cluster Cooperation Platform in which we will give a very active presence to regional development agencies. EURADA is supporting the creation of partnerships among its members for the interregional innovation investments (I3) initiative call; and will continue its active role in digital transition issues (supporting the numerous development agencies that are DIHs) and green transition with several projects on green public procurement, circular economy or just transition.
At the same time, we have several challenges for the year 2022. EURADA is going to be 30 years old (it was founded in 1992) and we believe that it is time to recapitulate the association and make it a source of inspiration for the future of agencies in the next decades. We have also started a new specialised training activity with Nesta which will be the basis of a complete set of training actions for experts of regional development agencies. Finally, the opportunities will become more and more attractive. European programmes are all open and EURADA should help all members to make the best use of the available European funds.
In general, we want to be an open association involving all the European regional experts on economic and social development. We are delighted that you will join us in this new year - being an active member or one of our stakeholders - joining efforts between all the European regional actors involved in fair economic development. I hope I will see you in the journey that starts in 2022
With all my best wishes
Roberta Dall’Olio
President of EURADA
