The project approvals for the 2009 Life+ programme calls for proposals were announced by DG Environment on 23 July. Among the 210 approved projects are two Irish initiatives on Nature & Biodiversity project.

The Blackwater Samok project aims to bring about a sustained enhancement of the Upper (Munster) Blackwater Special Area of Conservation (SAC) by targeting the species of Freshwater pearl mussel, Atlantic salmon, European otter and kingfisher. This will involve carrying out actions aimed at restoring the quality of the river bed and riparian zone. The IRD Duhallow community-based Integrated Rural Development company has been provided with EU funding of EUR935,000 to work on this issue until 2014.

Meanwhile Coillte is to benefit from EUR1.29 million over the next 5 years to help restore wetland, peat-forming conditions on raised bogs by continuing the process of removing plantation forests. This builds upon the work carried out under a previous LIFE-funded project which was completed in December 2008.

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The Joining Forces project on city-region governance has now concluded having brought together eight partner cities to explore effective strategy development and governance arrangements at the city-region level. This URBACT II initiative examined how successful cooperation between cities and their surrounding areas can be achieved while helping to effectively address key competitiveness, equality and sustainability challenges. It dealt with issues including appropriate scales of governance and policy-making, resource pooling, and support at national, regional and EU level.

After two years of exchange and learning activities, Joining Forces has proposed recommendations applicable at various levels in response to each partner city’s situation. These are based on consideration of aspects of metropolitan governance including strategic and spatial planning; mobility management and transport; environmental issues (air and noise pollution, waste disposal, water supply); knowledge economy (creativity, research & education); private sector involvement; social inclusion, participation and empowerment; and attractiveness & competitiveness. In response, partner cities have set up Local Support Groups to work on plans ensuring the process has an impact on local practices and policies.

Final Report - Conclusions & Recommendations

Compendium of information on Local Support Groups and Local Action Plans

A 7th Framework Research Programme 'Socio-Economic Sciences and the humanities' initiative on the impact of ''intangible assets'' (IA) on regional economic growth held its final conference in Brussels on 6 July to disseminate its findings as policy recommendations towards the future design and implementation of regional innovation strategies.

The IAREG project has analysed the difficult-to-appreciate and thus undervalued role of IA such as human capital, researcher mobility, and entrepreneurship networks in the generation of innovation, competitiveness and economic growth at regional level. Its participants - research institutes, firms, policy-makers and other stakeholders in 9 countries - have collectively developed a series of new indicators in order to present new evidence on the processes through which IA influence economic development and ways in which this may be reliably monitored.

It analysed how IA and their interaction define the environment affecting firms' location decisions and measured the role of regional externalities in the generation of IA and in determining local economic performances.

http://www.iareg.org

Waterford has secured EU funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) under the 'Science in Society' strand to develop as a 'European City of Scientific Culture' over the next four years.

The PLACES (Platform for Local Authorities and Communicators Engaged in Science) venture led by ECSITE, the European Network of Science Museums, and also involving the European Science Events Association (EUSCEA) and the European Regions Research and Innovation Network (ERRIN) aims to build community platforms of local practitioners engaged in science in society issues. It will stimulate the sharing of good practice, knowledge and tools and promote cooperation between platform members, experiment with new activities, raise awareness on scientific culture with local/regional politicians, define a model of European city of science, and deliver policy recommendations to EU actors.

The Irish element will see the Waterford Institute of Technology outreach Centre for the Advancement of Learning of Maths, Science and Technology (CALMAST) partnering with the local authorities in Waterford City and County to promote the area's existing scientific research and communications activity and to strengthen the appeal of the wider South-East region to attract competitive research funding and inward investors.

www.wit.ie

A joint venture between the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources and Northern Ireland's Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment to give the island of Ireland a direct telecommunications link with North America has been shortlisted for the 2010 RegioStars, the awards for innovative projects supported by EU cohesion policy, in the category of ''broadband coverage in less developed regions or rural areas''.

Project Kelvin, a EUR32 million initiative including INTERREG 4A funding, is currently developing a hi-tech fibre-optic cable system to directly tap into the transatlantic telecommunications connection that links Canada and Cumbria. The 32km spur from Co. Derry will, in turn, interconnect with existing telecoms infrastructure on both sides of the border. This is set to substantially enhance the availability of faster, more reliable and cheaper broadband and direct international telecoms connectivity for companies in Letterkenny, Monaghan, Castleblaney, Drogheda and Dundalk as well as Belfast, Derry, Coleraine and Armagh. Until now this sort of communication has had to be routed through London-based networks with consequent impacts on cost and service quality. The benefits which access to the fastest connectivity line to North America will bring for locally-based US-owned firms are expected to be especially attractive. The investment is expected to be complete and operational by March.

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