From 22 to 24 November 2022, aconium and the partners of the Interreg North Sea Region projects CORA and COM³ meet in Lincoln, UK to share project results and future activities.
The Interreg projects for the North Sea Region CORA and COM³ aim at reducing the digital divide in rural areas and creating a fair digital future. At the meeting in Lincoln, partners in both projects discussed the latest progress.
In the CORA project, for example, a series of workshops was launched in autumn with the aim of sensitising and inspiring employees in municipalities, providing them with practical knowledge and concrete guidelines on various topics of digital transformation in rural areas of the North Sea region. This includes the development of digital competences in the administration and among the population as well as the creation of digital infrastructure in areas such as health, administration, mobility and economy. In this context, aconium organised an informative workshop on ‘Integrated Strategy, KPIs and Financing’.
In the upcoming months, 50 individual digital strategies or projects will be created in the neighbouring municipalities of the partner cities within the framework of the CORA project, which are to contribute to the digital transformation of their region.
In the COM³ project, the so called ‘COM³ model’ was presented. It is an easy-to-follow guide that will help staff and developers in municipalities, regions and economic development organisations to make local businesses technology-enabled. In addition, the development of further training solutions for building a digital entrepreneurial ecosystem in rural areas was discussed.
A number of e-learning modules are already freely available on the learning platform www.ruraldigital.eu:
- Fostering the Digital Transformation of SMEs in Rural Areas – an Introduction
- Cybersecurity Readiness through Honeypots
- Designing Support Measures for a Rural Digital Entrepreneurial Ecosystem
- Rural Digital Hubs – Ensuring Buy-In and Engagement
The COM³ partners will develop further training solutions and share the results of their 9 innovative pilot projects in the North Sea region by June 2023.
Background on CORA and COM³
Together with partners from Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the UK and Germany, aconium in CORA and COM³ develops actions and training solutions that enable all citizens, small and medium-sized enterprises and administrations to acquire the necessary digital skills.
Together with the lead partner Intercommunale Leiedal, Belgium, aconium coordinates the project, communication and financial management activities and is involved in the development of the project methodology and training solutions in cooperation with the academic partners.