Dorota Skwarek, Deputy Director of the Department of Economy and International Cooperation, Marshal Office of Lubelskie Voivodeship
Is there something special about BRIDGES? How would you describe it?
What makes BRIDGES really special is the richness of good practices. It is very valuable as a toolbox in the long-term perspective. Although we are concentrated in our action plan on one good practice transfer, we can observe what other partners do and how they adopt other good practices. And It can turn out in the future that one of them is also a good solution also for us. In fact we have many very interesting good practices at disposal, of which we can get use in the future.
Has the interregional cooperation been useful? Has is fulfilled its tasks?
The biggest value of Interreg cooperation is that through learning about different approaches we can really make a difference, the change. It is a huge, long-term learning process. Getting in contact and collaboration with partners from different parts of Europe with different professional background, and also with different attitudes to organisational issues, gives us the opportunity to get to know other systems, to learn how tools and instruments are being used in other regions and what we can get for ourselves from that.
What has BRIDGES project brought to your region? What is the added value of the project?
We made the feasibility study with the use of the adopted good practice (Autodiagnostic tool), in which we evaluated the readiness of bio economy companies to innovate. In the study we also asked for their feedback regarding the process we plan to implement in our action plan. What we can say is that the companies really feel that is something which they will be able to benefit from. It is not only questioning and asking them for opinion. Thanks to the range of activities we plan, they will be provided with the real, measurable support in order to establish a better cooperation with R&D entities.
Undoubtedly BRIDGES helped to involve relevant regional stakeholder, who became convinced that interregional cooperation can make a difference, a change.
