REFRAME

Partnermeeting in Oldenburg

06 February 2017 - Published by Alfred Kazemier
Transnational cooperation is essential for the success of the Reframe project. We want and need to learn from each other, share experiences and discuss challenges. Of course this happens in the frequent contact between partners from different regions. However just as important are the organized partner meetings. On January 12 the Diakonisches Werk Oldenburg hosted a partnermeeting in Oldenburg. All the participating regions were present to discuss budgets, activity plans and the progress of all the parties involved. Inspirational about partnermeetings is that we have the chance to get to know a partner better. Therefore Mr Kollmann, director of the Diakonische Werk in Oldenburg, started with a short introduction to the city of Oldenburg and its region and gave a short presentation on the Diakonisches Werk Oldenburg and its history.

Budget and Activity plans.

In order to better the cooperation between partners the project coordinator has made a summary of the submitted Budget and Activity plans. The partners discussed how the planned activities - within the budget allocated to these activities - lead to the realization of the project goals of Reframe. This discussion lead to the identification of new possibilities for cooperation.

The differences in culture and approach are also visible between countries but also between participants within a region. Discussing these differences in the plenary session and during the lunch break lead to new perspectives on ways to support food related SMEs.

Comments on the activity plans.

A few interesting subjects are mentioned throughout this partner meeting.

  • The city of Groningen has learned that many small steps are necessary to the clear the ground / prepare the essentials for scaling up and realizing a more sizable regional food chain. A useful method is setting up the Ketentafel, which is a monthly meeting where government, public organizations, NGOs and enterprises of various sizes meet and discuss how to foster a sustainable demand and supply for regionally produced food.

  • For a regional food chain, processing, logistics and quality assurance are essential but are missing links at the moment. Other obstacles can be found in the current regulation for procurement. This difficulty is recognized by every partner. We all work towards business cases, organisation models and specialisation strategies to realize these missing links.

  • The Danish partners call for recognition of differences between countries, which call for customized solutions for each region. Europe is united in diversity. The Danish partners also stress the need to look at business cases from a community perspective as well as business perspective.

  • All partners have several interesting and relevant small scale projects. The challenge is to enlarge the scale of these projects and thus enlarge their impact.

  • The economic perspective is essential for the successful realization of the Reframe goals. For this we need to make data, business cases and smart specialisation strategies more accessible.

  • The marketing of regional products start with the recognition of their quality. Here recognition outside the local region or country can be very helpful as the Danish example shows.

  • Transnational communication is coordinated by the Diakonisches Werk Oldenburg, Germany. The project coordinator again asks all partners to send in news reports to be posted in the Reframe website and to be shared through the Reframe newsletter.

Next Partner Meeting

On the 21st and 22nd of April, the next partner meeting will be organized in Gothenburg by the Swedish partners. At this Reframe conference, the Swedish partners will show the pilots and projects now being enacted, their first results, and will discuss how to share them across Reframe and across the North Sea Region. At this conference, special attention to the possibilities of procurement regulations will be given.