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Hajdú-Bihar County Government participates in several international cooperations and projects and maintains cooperation with international partners in the context of its international activities. This active international presence, which has been going on for more than a decade, helps to increase the resources for development focused on the strengths and opportunities of the county, in line with the county’s strategic objectives.

European Territorial, Social and R&D collaborations

WEEEWaste (Improving policies for waste management of electrical and electronic equipment) project (2023-2027) is funded by INTERREG EUROPE Programme. The issue addressed by the project is the necessity to implement European coordinated approaches for the management of waste from electrical, electronic equipment (WEEE). WEEEWaste aims to implement better national, regional and local policies for management of WEEE, covering the main recommendations of the “Circular Electronics Initiative” from the EU Circular Economy AP. The final objective of WEEEWaste is to promote reuse, collection, recycling and other forms of recovery of waste electrical and electronic equipment, supporting thus the achievement of the WEEE Directive 2012/19/EU.

See more: https://interregeurope.eu/weeewaste

SYSTOUR (Systemic approach for sustainable tourism strategies in rural areas) project (2023-2027) is funded by INTERREG EUROPE Programme. The main goal is to move the tourism flow to the rural areas that are none exploited and stress the particularities of these territories, looking for a balance in each territory’s flows and connecting areas through 3 main aspects: Mobility (transport, public or private initiatives), Digital connection and Particular experiences (healthy leisure, gastronomy, spas offer). All the infrastructures should be sustainable and provide access to the natural areas with 3 specific aims: Increasing economy benefit/business investment, Green employment opportunities and Increasing the liability in depopulated areas.

See more: https://interregeurope.eu/systour

More than a village (Smart village transition, a model for more competitive and attractive villages in Central Europe) project (2023-2026) is funded by INTERREG CENTRAL EUROPE Programme. Many rural areas in central Europe struggle with the digital transition. Strategies to become smarter and stay competitive are either missing or hard to transfer. The project is changing this. The partnership develops a smart village model that will make rural regions more attractive for people and businesses. The partnership tests the model including action plans in five different regions with a focus on job creation and business development.

See more: https://www.interreg-central.eu/projects/more-than-a-village/

GOCORE (Governing Community Resilience) project (2023-2027) is funded by INTERREG EUROPE Programme. GOCORE partners come from Fryslân (NL), Syddjurs (DK), Madeira (PT), Saaremaa (EE), Coimbra (PT), Hajdú-Bihar (HU), Trento (IT) and the German-speaking community of Belgium – with complementary experiences in community engagement and empowerment across a broad range of policy fields. The aim is to increase the capacities of our rural/peripheral regions to involve their communities as active partners in the development and implementation of regional policy. We will exchange and implement governance practices for the engagement of communities in policy delivery, the empowerment of community actors to autonomously implement actions in support of regional and community development and for the demonstration and communication of the impact of community action.

See more: https://interregeurope.eu/gocore

EXPRESS (European regions promoting renewable energy self-sufficiency) project (2023-2027) is funded by INTERREG EUROPE Programme. In the EXPRESS project, the participating regions seek to increase their energy self-sufficiency and their share of renewable energy. Locally produced renewable energy contributes to sustainable development, in which the energy is produced in the region creating jobs and bringing local revenue. The project supports the REPowerEU targets to produce clean energy, save energy and diversify energy supplies in Europe.

See more: https://interregeurope.eu/express

RIS4DANU (Sustainable Smart Specialisation for the Re-opening of Industrial Sites in the Danube Region) project (2022-2024) is an international cooperation funded by Horizon Europe seeking to elaborate strategic business development plans for the re-opening of 21 disused industrial sites in the Danube Macro-Region, an area that stretches from the Black Forest to the Black Sea. RIS4Danu implements coordinated actions over 24 months to develop strategic business development plans for the reopening of a total of 21 disused industrial sites in the Danube macro-region, from the Black Forest to the Black Sea. Hajdú_bihar County Government is participating in the project as an associated partner.

See more: https://ris4danu.eu/

SOCRATES (Strengthening social economy for innovative and resilient regions) project (2022-2023) supports the first theme and priority (scope) of the call SMP-COSME-2021-RESILIENCE-SEM Social Economy Missions for community resilience “Improving business environment and supporting sustainable business models based on social economy” through transnational social economy missions for interregional mutual learning and exchange of good practices on enabling supportive business environment for the social economy. Local action plans of the social economy are elaborated in collaboration with relevant social economy stakeholders (e.g., public administration, civil society, SMEs, and business community) to raise the social economy’s awareness, visibility, and recognition. Nevertheless, the project formulates replicable recommendations to enable the local social economy ecosystem, improve the legal, policy, and regulatory frameworks, access finance, and strengthen public-private dialogue. Therefore, the project reinforces the local social economy’s resilience and supports the social economy’s twin transition towards sustainability, aligned with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

See more: https://socrates.rc-nm.si/

SinCE-AFC (Enchancing the Entrepreneurship of SMEs in Circular Economy of the Agri-Food Chain) project (2019-2023) was funded by INTERREG EUROPE Programme. SinCE-AFC aimed at involving SMEs of the Agri-Food chain in circular economy through the promotion of the appropriate managing and financial horizontal mechanisms. All the Agri-Food agents committed to production, processing, packaging, distribution and final consumption were expected to operate in a coordinated way to better adapt to circular economy. The project promoted innovation, derived knowledge and developed close collaboration with the Interreg Europe Learning Platform as well as with the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform and the RIS3 Platform Group.

See more: https://projects2014-2020.interregeurope.eu/since-afc/

RENATUR (Improving regional policies to better protect natural heritage of peri-urban open spaces) project (2019-2023) was funded by INTERREG EUROPE Programme. The aim of RENATUR project was to draw attention to the importance of peri-urban open spaces and their natural heritage in order to preserve it. For this purpose, model regions were selected, which have a great interest in the promotion and protection of the natural heritage of the peri-urban open spaces in planning practice.

See more: https://projects2014-2020.interregeurope.eu/renatur/

Local Food Chains project (2021-2022) was funded by the European Commission through COSME to develop ‘Social Economy Mission’. The topic covered the strengthening of resilient short food supply chains that are sustainable and resilient to change. The overall objective of the cooperation was “Sustainable agriculture and rural development through the development of small and medium-sized enterprises in the short food supply chain”. The participation of HBCG in the project was due to the good international relations developed in the EUREGA project. The development of sustainable and resilient short food supply chains requires a coordinated approach and commitment from producers, farms, consumers, social enterprises and public sector actors. This mission provided an opportunity to strengthen the social ownership of the food chain, providing a platform for cooperation between stakeholders at local and regional level.

DelFin (Development of Financial Ecosystems for the Promotion of Social Entrepreneurship in Rural Regions) project (2019-2022) was funded by INTERREG CENTRAL EUROPE Programme. The main objective of the project was the promotion of social entrepreneurship in rural regions with special transformation challenges to advance economic and social innovation. The rural regions Saalekreis (DE), Hajdú-Bihar (HU), Duga Resa (CR) and rural areas in Piedmont Region (IT) work together with the specific objective to improve funding for public support structures for social entrepreneurship and further develop financing and funding instruments for social enterprises.

See more: https://programme2014-20.interreg-central.eu/Content.Node/DelFin.htmlh

HealingPlaces (Enhancing environmental management capacities for sustainable use of the natural heritage of Central European SPA towns and regions as the driver for local and regional development) project (2019-2022) was funded by INTERREG CENTRAL EUROPE Programme. The Healing Places project aimed at a more sustainable development of spas by protecting the unique resources that constitute their basis. The partners extended knowledge and awareness regarding the influence of various factors on underground water deposits by building multi-level and multi-territorial governance models of managing natural spa resources. A crucial element of the project was the construction of common, innovative and web-based tool for the assessment of threats and pressures on mineral and hot water deposits. The main objective was to improve current management practices of mineral & hot water and other valuable natural resources at SPAs.

See more: https://programme2014-20.interreg-central.eu/Content.Node/healingplaces.html

EUREGA (EUropean REgions of GAstronomy building resilience and creating economic growth) project (2018-2022) was funded by INTERREG EUROPE Programme. EUREGA’s main objective was to have food, food habits and gastronomy included and recognised in EU, regional and national strategies and policies both as a cultural asset and strong element in regional cultural identity and as a necessary tool to boost sustainable products and services. This led to creating stronger and more resilient regions by protecting and stimulating gastronomy as part of their cultural heritage and also by identifying new opportunities for economic development.

See more: https://projects2014-2020.interregeurope.eu/eurega/

OUR WAY (PreservatiOn and promotion of cUltural and natural heRitage through GreenWAYs) project (2018-2022) was funded by INTERREG EUROPE Programme. The project aimed to contribute to the conserving, protecting, promoting and developing natural and cultural heritage in Europe using Greenways by means of the improvement of policy instruments related to the cultural and natural quality of the territories involved, including tools for their governance and developing specific measures for their promotion and preservation.

See more: https://projects2014-2020.interregeurope.eu/ourway/

Night Light (Improving regional policies to reduce light pollution and protect and valorise dark night skies) project (2017-2022) was funded by INTERREG EUROPE Programme. The project addressed light pollution by focusing on policy measures for designation of nature areas with protected dark skies and by exploring opportunities for eco-tourism in such areas.

See more: https://projects2014-2020.interregeurope.eu/nightlight/

CitiEnGov (Cities for a good energy governance) project (2016-2020) was funded by INTERREG CENTRAL Programme. CitiEnGov aimed to improve the capacity of public administrations to implement new energy planning strategies through a new comprehensive concept based on the acknowledgement of a political mandate for energy; definition of a working group with roles and activities and real horizontal service made of experts about energy issues enabling the efficient realisation of the foreseen actions and results. The expected results covered the improvement of public authorities’ capacities to define and implement low carbon energy planning and strategies. Seven pilot actions were tested in seven countries, targeted to citizens, schools and municipalities.

See more: https://programme2014-20.interreg-central.eu/Content.Node/citiengov.html

CLUSTERS3 (Leveraging Cluster Policies for successful implementation of RIS3) project (2016-2019) was funded by INTERREG EUROPE Programme. The project focused on cluster policies, regional innovation systems, smart specialization strategies (RIS3) and SMEs struggling to achieve global competitiveness, sustainable growth and development. The cooperation among SMEs, large companies and the Regional Innovation System within a given cluster or cross-cluster is a major driver to enhance innovation and internationalization capabilities. The project aimed to improve cluster policies and the performance of cluster organizations having in mind their important role in the insertion of SMEs in global value chains.

See more: https://projects2014-2020.interregeurope.eu/clusters3/

PURE COSMOS (PUblic authorities Role Enhancing COmpetitiveness of SMeS) project (2016-2020) was funded by INTERREG EUROPE Programme. PURE COSMOS brought together two of the big challenges the EU faces: the need to stimulate and support SMEs and the need to reduce the weight of public administration. The project focused on the role public authorities could play in enhancing the competitiveness of SMEs by making the business climate more transparent and reliable supporting the needs of SMEs and promoting administrative modernization of public services. Improved governance was achieved through IT administrative solutions, regional legislation review, simplifying processes and influencing funding calls for businesses.

See more: https://projects2014-2020.interregeurope.eu/purecosmos/

PRACTYCE III project was co-financed by the COSME Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs Programme. Hajdú-Bihar County Government acted as an Intermediary Organisation. Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs is an exchange programme for entrepreneurs run by a network of local contact points, including Chambers of Commerce, incubators and other organisations supporting businesses. Host Entrepreneurs had the opportunity to get input from the fresh ideas and new skills of a motivated new entrepreneur while having the opportunity to gain information and knowledge on other European markets and develop international relationships without moving from the office. At the same time, young entrepreneurs were offered the possibility to work alongside an experienced entrepreneur in another EU country and strengthen the skills needed to develop their own business. The opportunity covered a duration of 1-6 months.

SMILE project (Smart Innovation Living Environment) was financed by the International Visegrad Fund. The partnership of Czech, Polish, Hungarian and Slovakian institutions aimed to promote the implementation of PCP- Pre-commercial Procurement and PPI- Public Procurement of Innovation while examining the obstacles of their application in V4 countries. The networking targeted potential PCP/PPI suppliers to pay attention to these new types of processes. Several encouraging seminars have been organized in different countries – the presentations of these events are available at www.smart-pcp.eu.

B-TEAM (Brownfield Policy Improvement Task Force) project (2010-2013) was funded by INTERREG IVC Programme. The main objective of B-Team was the improvement of regional policies influencing Brownfield redevelopment through transfer of best practice. This best practice of more experienced partners were transferred to lesser experienced. This project, based on previously related activities focusing on Brownfields, intends to move further and deal with exchange of experiences and good practices on regional policies, methods and dissemination tools, addressing the benefits of sustainable Brownfield regeneration. The project offered policy support in the regions that help to develop Brownfield sites prior to Greenfield land as a principal. Through the involvement of a number of experts within and outside the partnership, B-Team encouraged international networking, trans-disciplinary and trans-sectoral cooperation.

PERIA (Partnership on European Regional Innovation Agencies) project (2010-2012) was funded by INTERREG IVC Programme. The overall objectives of PERIA were to contribute to the collaborations of the local and regional actors in order to strengthen the effectiveness of regional development policies, to enhance the level spent for Research Development and Innovation and to contribute to the transformation of knowledge into new and marketable products and services.

UNICREDS (University Collaboration in Regional Development Spaces) project (2010-2012) was funded by INTERREG IVC Programme. UNICREDS was a three-year project looking at how different models of higher education can benefit regional economic development. The project aimed to transform regions with underperforming economies into centres of research and innovation, through the creation of a new toolkit for economic development based on the triple helix model. At the heart of the model is the interaction between universities, government organisations and the private sector.)