BEGIN partners and the Steering Committee meet in Gothenburg
14th June, 2017 - The first Steering Committee meeting of the BEGIN project took place in Gothenburg, joining forces with the 2017 “Embrace the Water” conference. The Steering Committee gathering was organised on the first day of the 2nd BEGIN partner meeting (14-15th June 2017). Directors and politicians of the BEGIN community worked together to enrich the project and will continue to do so during the next four years.
Earlier this year, during the kick-off meeting in Dordrecht, BEGIN partners agreed on the benefits to create a Steering Committee. The aim of this committee is to connect the project to relevant local, regional and national ambitions, initiatives and funding, and to encourage political and executive support. Steering Committee meetings will take place once a year.
Besides meeting with the Steering Committee, BEGIN project partners shared the progress of their respective pilot projects, discussed project risk management and agreed on forming transnational subgroups to enable closer collaboration and a better learning experience. Moreover, BEGIN partners participated in interactive workshops on city-2-city learning and social innovation. During the second day, partners visited Frihamnen/Jubileumsparken, the BEGIN pilot site in Sweden. About forty people attended the meeting.
The next BEGIN partner meeting will be this fall in Aberdeen, Scotland, from October 18 to 19, 2017. Scientific partners (CIRIA, Royal College of Arts, Erasmus University of Rotterdam, etc.) will present their guidance documents and tools on the State-of-the-Art of Blue Green Infrastructures (BGI) and Social Innovation. A total of 10 local governments will use and apply this knowledge on their respective pilot projects. In addition, Delft-IHE will prepare a Transnational Learning Exchange Programme workshop, in which BEGIN cities and councils will be divided in three thematic groups to exchange knowledge and experiences. BEGIN will invite 4-5 UK local governments to participate in the workshop. The meeting will also include a working block dedicated to approaches and methods (e.g., TEEB, BEST) to measure the value of a BGI pilot project.