From 16 to 18 May 2018 partners and stakeholders of the CORA (COnnecting Remote Areas with digital infrastructure and services) project met in Lincoln, UK, to discuss challenges and the current status of the project as well as to plan further project progression.
CORA is an Interreg IV B North Sea Region Programme (2014-2020) project. It involves 18 partners from 7 EU Member States and is dedicated to the funding of digital infrastructure and services in rural areas. One focal point is the development of digital competencies in the public and the private sector. aconium is project developer, project partner and leader of the communication work package. In collaboration with lead partner Intercommunale Leiedal (Belgium) aconium is responsible for transnational project management, finance management and communications management of CORA.
On the first day in Lincoln, Peyman Khodabakhsh (Project Manager, aconium) gave an overview of the most important project activities, specifications and results so far. Subsequently, Anne Reichenbach (Communication Manager, aconium) presented communication materials developed for CORA, for example the Transnational Communication Plan and a Visual Identity Guide, which defines use of logos and colours in order to achieve consistent project presence and good recognition value. Afterwards, she invited participants to discuss the realization of future communication activities.
At the end of the first day project partners visited a rural digital hub in Lincolnshire. The Horncastle Technology Hub delivered insights into the implementation of digital services and competencies. Entrepreneurs from different sectors can benefit from this facility and its equipment, e. g. by being able to test the application of 3D and UV printers.
Local stakeholders, amongst them representatives from digital hubs, took part in the second meeting day. It was hosted at Lincoln University, one of the project partners, and main topic were CORA pilot activities. As an introduction, aconium presented the CORA concept of digital transformation (see figure). The concept consists of guidelines and measures for the further development of digital infrastructure, digital services and digital competencies in rural areas. Main goal is to empower local actors to identify challenges and examine innovative solutions in order to develop a digital region. Lincoln University presented the digital hub concept featuring an intuitive step-by-step process for planning, setting up and operating digital hubs. Results from an online survey conducted by CORA were presented by University of Groningen. The survey identified local challenges of the digital transformation process within the pilot regions.
During the project meeting, CORA pilot areas from seven countries of the North Sea region (BE, DE, DK, NL, NO, SE, UK) presented their activities planned for the next months. In nine projects regional partners will implement measures for advancements on the fields of digital infrastructure, digital competencies and digital services. These include a cross-border fibre sharing model between Sweden and Norway, digital services like E-Health applications or Smart Home projects and fixed and mobile digital hubs between Amt Hüttener Berge (Germany), the Danish municipality Vejle and Lincoln, UK. Presentations of responsible partner institutions clearly showed the heterogeneous challenges and requirements of rural areas that will be tackled with support of the partner consortium.
Finally, in the hubs of Lincoln University, the application of digital competencies was demonstrated in an impressive way. The Designblok Hub emphasised the importance of interplay between traditional handcraft and digital technology. The hub does support companies of every size in problem solving, in order to get the best results. MoCap Hub demonstrated capturing and analysing of human movement by professional utilization of high-speed cameras. This could help to adjust equipment and industrial processes.
On the last day of the CORA partner meeting in Lincoln, Christoph Wald (Finance Manager, aconium) presented the financial handbook that was developed in the frame of CORA. He gave detailed explanations on all necessary activities concerning controlling and accounting on partner and project level.
Overall, the three-day event saw a motivated partner consortium actively working on the implementation of the CORA concept within the regions. aconium is looking forward to further collaboration and thanks all participants for the productive and insightful meeting.
Photo top: Anne Reichenbach (aconium) presenting communication materials for CORA 16 May 2018, Lincoln, UK.
Photos bottom: Impressions of the CORA partner meeting that took place from 16 to 18 May 2018 in Lincoln, UK. Participants during presentations, tours and in testing rooms of MoCap while demonstrating motion capture cameras.
Photo credits: aconium GmbH