iEER-project has concluded the past months with six major interregional events including three learning camps (Northern Ireland and Ireland, Southern Denmark and Marche, Italy) and three peer visits (West region Romania, West Pomerania, Poland and Hauts-de-France). In addition, the project has been presented in various connections around Europe, for example in the European Week of Regions and Cities in Brussels.
While the iEER is about to start its second phase in March 2018, the partners have been working hard with the future outcomes of the project: regional action plans, Boost growth e-book and planning the joint actions.
The Lead partner team wishes to complete this year with this post and thank all the partners and stakeholders for your appreciated work and support. Here are the highlights of 2017 in a nutshell:
March: Learning camp in Ireland & Northern Ireland
The learning camp was about entrepreneurship in outlying areas in Northern Ireland and in county Kerry in Ireland. The learning camp gave an overall perspective of the two regions that have strong roots in entrepreneurship and are among the top in Europe when it comes to attracting foreign talent and investment.
April: Peer visit to Timisoara
In west region Romania iEER visited to learn about the region’s startup ecosystem and to conduct a peer evaluation on the region’s entrepreneurial activities. The three-day visit was hosted by iEER partner Regional Development Agency of the West Region Romania. One of the good practices was INCUBOX and Minds Hub.
May: Learning camp in Southern Denmark
The well-developed smart specialisation strategy and effective use of structural funds for startup support in Southern Denmark provided plenty of thoughts to take home. Sites presented during the learning camp were in the specialisation areas of Health care (EIP reference sites) and Sustainable Energy (off-share industry).
September: Learning camp in Marche
Marche learning camp in Italy gave the iEER project a wide view of the regional startup ecosystem. Visit sites included Contamination lab and HIVE. At the camp, a workshop offered the possibility for iEER regions to review good practices and its selection to prepare for the action plan. 
October: The European Week of Regions and Cities
A regional Start-up and Scale-up initiative – learning from iEER project and its regions -workshop was organised by the European Commission DG Grow, European Committee of Region and the iEER Interreg Europe. The workshop was part of European Week of Regions and Cities official programme and it attracted nearly 140 participants representing local and regional authorities, universities, entrepreneurs and business development agencies.
October: Peer visit to Sczcecin
In the end of October the iEER peer review experts group visited the Polish entrepreneurial ecosystem in Szczecin. The delegation was hosted by our lovely Martha Ciesielska (in the picture below) and the regional partners. 
November: Boosting the entrepreneurial spirit in Lille
Entrepreneurship is strongly linked in the strategic targets of the Hauts-de-France region, among the nine universities. One of the highlights of the peer visit was at the Plaine Images that is a host for creative industries entrepreneurs. At the site iEER got to hear interesting start-up examples and had a chance to see the President Emmanuel Macron visiting the place at the same time.
