Action(s) and target(s) from the EUSDR Action Plan

HARMONMISSIONS project by its activities and results will contribute to the following PA 7 actions:

  • Action 1: To promote coordination of national, regional and EU funds to stimulate excellence in R&I, in research areas specific for Danube Region
  • Action 2: To promote participation of Danube countries in EU R&I Programmes, in particular in Horizon Europe
  • Action 6: To promote horizontal cooperation in science and technology across all PAs and other MRS

HARMONMISSIONS project will also contribute to the following PA 10 action:

  • Action 7: To strengthen the involvement of civil society and local actors in the Danube Region

Short description

The main objective is to harmonise the implementation of the European missions on the Danube region level.

We observe significant disparities in the level of understanding, setup, and implementation of the European missions among European regions. Within the proposed project, we aim to minimise these disparities in Missions 1 and 4 and help set up an effective Missions governing model on the Danube region level and thus reinforce the position of DR in the implementation of the EU environment.

Objectives

SO1 – Danube region governance model for Climate oriented EU Missions

The project will introduce a new governance model for the European Missions based on the Danube region countries’ specific needs to become an important element of the European Missions-oriented ecosystem. The established Steering Committee and Advisory Groups will contribute to linking relevant actors from different levels oriented towards the climate-oriented areas of the EU Missions.

SO2 – Danube region transnational cooperation for Climate oriented EU Missions

The project will facilitate transnational cooperation between EU Missions’ national and regional authorities to identify and share good practices and raise participation in the EU Missions in general.

Under this Specific Objective 2, three platforms united under 1 website dedicated to EU Missions in the Danube Region will be established to share best practices in the Region on EU climate missions. The platforms will also offer the possibility to more efficiently and easily find partners in consortia for projects dedicated to areas 1 (Adaptation to Climate Change) and 4 (100 Climate-neutral Cities by 2030) of the EU Mission.

Platforms:

  • SHARED platform: platform for sharing lessons learned at the regional level and best practices in the Climate oriented EU Missions
  • EMO platform: European Mission Observatory platform – the EMO platform will continuously provide up-to-date information on current EU Missions, open project calls, events and relevant legislative changes.
  • CCC platform: platform for sharing best practices toward Climate City Contract

SO3 – Danube region interactions for Climate oriented EU Missions

SO 3 aims to raise awareness of EU Missions, to inform the widest possible audience of stakeholders by communication and dissemination campaigns, to involve citizens in the Missions implementation.

The activities are focused on capacity building, facilitating networking and formation of partnerships for setting up project consortia for future applications in the Horizon Europe Missions calls for proposals.

Need and (expected) impact

The HARMONMISSIONS project is intended by its activities to be the beginning of setting up cooperation between the countries in the Danube region in the field of Climate-oriented EU Missions.

Macro-regional dimension

In the DR region, we find that many areas are considerably affected by environmental threats. The planned economy of the past socialist regime preferred economic production in heavy industry, which greatly damaged the environment. The consequences can be still seen today. These are significant not only directly for the environment but also for the health of the population in the region.

EU Missions themes represent the current challenges of 21st-century society. They are topical, but it can be assumed that their importance will continuously increase over time. They, therefore, need to be addressed now to leave a better and healthier Europe for future generations. In the DR macro-regional dimension, the need to be actively involved in EU mission projects is all the greater than in other EU regions, which makes the need to address these challenges more pressing. The project activities will focus on missions 1 (“Climate change”) and 4 (“Cities”). These two missions directly address climate issues and acknowledge a special position for regions and municipalities in tackling these topics. As the countries of the Danube region are considerably affected in these areas, according to Eurostat, the project intents to create an organisational structure for cooperation in these missions.

Overall, 11PPs from 9 Danube Region countries will be involved in the project (Slovakia , Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and Ukraine).

Stakeholders involved

An important goal of the project is to engage various stakeholders from national, regional, and local public authorities, sectoral agencies, infrastructure, and (public) service providers, higher education and research organisations, and the general public.

Many of these stakeholders will be directly involved in HARMONMISSIONS as project or associated partners. With others, a Memorandum of Understanding will be signed for enhancing cooperation.

Duration
01.01.2024 – 30.06.2026

Contact person

Website
HARMONMISSIONS | HARMONMISSIONS (interreg-danube.eu)
interreg-danube.eu/projects/harmonmissions