The City of Leeuwarden and the Province of Leeuwarden have initiated Europe Ready Fryslan. A platform supporting organizations to bring Europe to your doorstep.
Europe Ready Fryslan is a new initiative which provides workshops, guest lectures and sometime one-on-one advise to research, cultural and educational organizations but also to entrepreneurs. Europe Ready Fryslan tries to inspire organizations from Friesland to do more with European subsdies and grants. It is an awareness program to make people aware of the potential of H2020/Horizon Europe, Erasmus Plus and all forms of European initiatives. Participation of Frisian entities is free. All costs are for the account of the Province of Friesland and the municipalities in Friesland.
Resources needed
The total budget of the initiative is 100.000 euro per year.
Evidence of success
After a research concerning European funding landing in Friesland it was concluded that Friesland needs a wake up call. Europe Ready Fryslan organizes workshops about how to apply for projects (H2020, Interreg, Erasmus Plus, EYE, etc.), how to find partners, specific calls for tourism, cultural industry, education and research. In 2020, 11 workshops were organized (online) with 24 guest lecturers, addressing 74 people from education, 68 entrepreneurs and 167 from governmental organizations.
Difficulties encountered
The challenge is to proof that with this kind of awareness raising substantially more subsidies and grants will land at Frisian based organizations. We want to double the number of successful organizations in the region related to working with European funding for projects.
Potential for learning or transfer
Research shows that Friesland lags behind in finding European funded project opportunities. We rank last or worst top 3 regions in innovativeness and internalisation or export. Europe Ready Fryslan contributes to achieving more funding for Frisian Organizations and a better position in the Dutch ranking concerning innovativeness and internationalization. If your region faces the same challenge, the initiative is not rocket science, but we have proven success. It is easy to copy.
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Tags: Cultural, Education, Entrepreneurship, Funding, Interreg IVC, Learning, Project, Research
