TRACER online Capacity Building Event: “Clean energy transition of the Region of Western Macedonia: Funding Opportunities”

On Thursday the 2^nd of December 2021, the TRACER Capacity Building Event for the Region of Western Macedonia, “Clean energy transition of the Region of Western Macedonia: Funding Opportunities” was organized by TRACER partner, CRES. The event was planned in the frame of Work Package 4 (Mobilization of EU funds and programmes), as foreseen for all participating target regions, while it was held online due to the still unfavorable Covid-19 conditions in the country of Greece.

During the event, the existing funding possibilities as well as the available funding tools at national and European level, necessary for the supporting of the more even/smooth and just transition to the after-coal era have been presented to the local and/or regional authorities, research and other bodies, as well as SMEs/industry of Western Macedonia Region, aiming at the improvement of the capacities/skills of the interested parts in finding the necessary resources to implement investment projects related to the coal transition.

The online event was introduced by the General Director of CRES, Dr. Lampros Pyrgiotis, followed by the opening speeches of the President of CRES, Dr. Spyridon Economou and the Governor of the Region of Western Macedonia, Mr. George Kassapidis, while the Head of Office, General Secretariat for Energy and Mineral Resources of the Hellenic Ministry of Environment and Energy, Mr. Antonis Marinos also made some very interesting placement regarding the energy transition topic for Greece and especially the Western Macedonia Region.

The event (see the agenda here) was composed by seven (7) sessions with respective presentations (in PowerPoint, included as pdf files links in the following description), as follows:

Introduction to the TRACER project: brief description, progress, main outputs, planned activities
Mrs. Georgia Veziryianni – CRES Training Department

Funding possibilities based on the new Business Plan for the Region of Western Macedonia, under the frame of the new Corporate Regional Development Pact (NSRF) 2021-2027
Mr. Ioannis Papadopoulos - Management Authority for the Operational Program of Western Macedonia

R&I funding opportunities for the clean energy transition under the (new) HORIZON EUROPE Programme
Dr. Maria Georgiadou - DG Research & Innovation - C1 Clean Energy Transition

Opportunities for financing investment projects under the Just Transition Fund and the Innovation Fund
Dr. Chrysovalantou Ziogou - European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) – Project Manager

Financing projects in coal regions in transition - Insights from the transition financing toolkit
Mr. Jannis Beutel - Wuppertal Institute, Secretariat of the EU Initiative for Coal Regions in Transition (CRIT)

Funding opportunities in the frame of the Just Transition Development Plan 2021 – Presentation of the Territorial Just Development Plan (TJDP) for Western Macedonia Region
Mrs. Theodora Zacharia - Technical Secretariat of the “Just Development Transition Plan – SDAM”

“White Dragon” project and the IPCEI (Important Projects of Common European Interest) framework
Mr. Nikolaos Ntavos, Co-founder & Manager - Cluster of Bioeconomy & Environment of Western Macedonia (CluBE)

The entire event ended up with a fruitful Round Table discussion under the moderation of CRES with the exchange of interesting questions and / or positions mainly addressing the funding possibilities for the region, while it was characterized as the so far most complete and comprehensive presentation of the available funding sources, their means of implementation and approaches that could be adopted by the coal intensive regions, for the country of Greece.

You can follow the (registered) event at the following link:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1VG9iOG6Pj1RtIrMFDNa4_BO37JX-MQkS?usp=sharing

For further information, please contact CRES Training Department: gvezir@cres.gr