INTERREG IV C “Brain Flow” “Brain Flow” Brain Flow and Knowledge Transfer fostering Innovation on Border Regions “BRAND” Kick-off event Gelsenkirchen, 08th June 2011

BRAND Kick-off event, What are we talking about?

BRAND Kick-off event, INTERREG IV C is implemented within the objective 3: European Territorial Cooperation ( ) and financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) Who can participate: Regional/local public policies actors coming from the 27 member states + Norway and Switzerland Main aim: Improving the effectiveness of regional policies and instruments Projects build on the exchange of experience in two thematic fields: 1) Innovation and the knowledge economy 2) Environment and risk prevention INTERREG IV C

BRAND Kick-off event, The Mini-Programme “Brain Flow“ has been approved under the 2nd call of the INTERREG IV C Programme (end of 2009) Priority 1: Innovation and the knowledge economy Sub-theme: Employment, human capital and education Duration: 01 February 2010 – 31 January 2014 Total budget: ,00 EUR ERDF ,00 EUR EU-Partner co-financing ,00 EUR Norwegian fund ,00 EUR Swiss contribution ,00 EUR “Brain Flow” – Facts & Figures

BRAND Kick-off event, border regions coming from 7 European countries Ministry for Economic Affairs, Energy, Building, Housing and Transport of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, DE (Lead Partner) Province of Gelderland, NL Province of Overijssel, NL County Administrative Board of Värmland, SE Nemunas Euroregion Marijampole Bureau, LT Regio Basiliensis Northwest Switzerland, CH Hedmark County Council, NO Region of Navarre, ES © Poplar Geographical coverage of the partnership The Partnership

BRAND Kick-off event, Growing fluctuations/shortages of highly qualified people to more favourable economic environments Border regions seem to be more vulnerable to “brain- drain/brain-gain“ fluctuations and need special attention  Need of new policies to handle the changes What is “Brain Flow” about?

BRAND Kick-off event, …of the Mini-Programme is “to enable regional authorities and other regional/local actors to develop and improve their policies and instruments to counter the outflow of highly educated and qualified people (brain-drain) and to attract and retain human capital (brain-gain) in their regions in support of their innovation capacity and competitiveness” The main aim…

BRAND Kick-off event, Exchange of experience and knowledge transfer of existing strategies, policies und instruments to attract and bind human capital to the region Development of new approaches and instruments Building of a common knowledge base Implementation of the results in the regions in order to initiate modernised regional policies The Approach (1/2)

BRAND Kick-off event, The interregional exchange will take place on 2 levels: 1) The overall (strategic) Mini-Programme level 2) The individual (practical) sub-project level Both are related to three interrelated priorities: 1) Increasing regional attractiveness 2) Supporting key economic sectors 3) Improving the higher education system Through the implementation of interregional sub-projects, a more intense discussion on specific (inter)regional policy strategies, instruments as well as “good practices” will be achieved and experiences will be exchanged across Europe. The Approach (2/2)

BRAND Kick-off event, The Annual Conferences to disseminate the Brain Flow achievements and experiences gained among the partner regions The Thematic Exchange of Experience Meetings for the cooperation on strategic level The sub-projects to design new cooperation, to exchange “good practices” and develop new approaches on operational level, e.g. BRAND Main Activities

BRAND Kick-off event, The 3 rd call for “Brain Flow” sub-projects is running until the 25th of July 2011 – please contact the “Brain Flow” Coordination Unit or the responsible partner in your region The 1st Annual Conferences to disseminate the “Brain Flow” achievements and experiences will take place in October. Further information coming soon. News

BRAND Kick-off event, “Brain Flow“ Coordination Unit Ministry for Economic Affairs, Energy, Building, Housing and Transport of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia Haroldstraße Düsseldorf Germany phone: mailto: or Contact Details