North Sea Commission

INNOVATION AND EDUCATION GROUP

Meeting in Lille, France – 14^th – 15^th November 2007

Draft minutes

Meeting venue

Region Nord-Pas de Calais offices,

Lille - France

Attendees

Cllr. Mr. Ole B. Sørensen, IEG chair	Region North Denmark	Denmark
Cllr. Ms. Kate Dean, IEG vice-chair	Aberdeen City Council	Scotland
Cllr. Ms. Stella Duneufjardin, IEG vice-chair	Nord-pas-de-Calais Council	France
Mr. Erik Lindboe, IEG adviser	Rogaland County Council	Norway
Ms. Runa Coxeter	Region North Denmark	Denmark
Mr. Yasa Ratnayeke	Aberdeen City Council	Scotland
Ms. Helle Bækkelund Jensen	Region North Denmark	Denmark
Ms. Dominique Robertson	Fife Council	Scotland
Ms. Lorna Reith	Dundee College	Scotland
Mr. Martyn Livermore	Norfolk County Council	England
Ms. Karen Gibson	Norfolk County Council	England
Ms. Ann Brown	Abinetwork	England
Ms. Anne Sandum	Buskerud County Council	Norway
Mr. Thomas Petit	Region Nord-pas-de-Calais	France
Mr. Craig Lafferty	Angus Council	Scotland
Ms. Hilde Ballière	Buskerud County Council	Norway
Mr. Thrond Kjellevold	Telemark County Council	Norway
Mr. James Knowles	Aberdeenshire Council	Scotland
Mr. Lave Thorell	Region Vãstra Gõtaland	Sweden

Apologies

Ms. Fiona Jurk

Ms. Judith Robinson

Mr. Neil Prentice

Mr. Bernard Godding

Mr. Johann Gelder

Ms. Carmen Dahl

Mr. Robert Vik

Wednesday 14th November 2007

13:00 Lunch

The IEG was welcomed by Ms Martine Filleul, Vice President of the Nord-Pas de Calais Regional Council, who also gave an introduction to the region.

14.30 Meeting

- IEG chair Cllr Ole. B. Sørensen welcomed everybody to the meeting. Thereafter there was a short round around the table to present all the attendees.

- Mr. Craig Lafferty from Angus Council in Scotland presented The “North Sea Regional Food Initiative project”. This is an Interreg IVB program, planned to run for 5 years with a budget of 3 million Euros.

Project Objective: Develop regional food product and knowledge distinctiveness across the North Sea area to deal with the common transnational issues.

Partners have already been involved in developing the initial project concept/issues from Scotland (Angus Council, Aberdeenshire Council, Perth & Kinross Council, Dundee College and Fife Council), the Netherlands (Province of Zeeland), Sweden (Region Vastra Gotaland), Norway (Hordaland County Council and Sogn og Fjordane County Council).

For more information, please contact

Mr.

Craig Lafferty

Telephone: - +44 1307 4737288.

E-mail: - laffertyc@angus.gov.uk

- Mr. Erik Lindboe presented the “North Sea Schools Sustainability project”, which had the kick-off meeting in Stavanger, Norway, 2nd – 3rd october 2007. The North Sea Commission as well as the Innovation and Education Group will monitor/shadow this project, and information will be disseminated to group members as the project developes.

For more information, please contact Lead partner: Mr. Neil Morgan, ecoscape@talk21.com

Saxmundham Middle School

Seaman Avenue

Saxmundham IP17 1DZ Suffolk, England

- Ms. Dominique Robertson from Fife Council in Scotland presented the “Job Shadowing Scheme”, which should be interesting to the whole North Sea Commission. There are possibilities here to develop Interreg projects, also it may be possible to get EU funding (Leonardo). Information re. the Job Shadowing Scheme will be put on the NSC website, also to be promoted in the next IEG newsletter.

For more information, please contact Ms. Dominique Robertson, Dominique.robertson@fife.gov.uk

Phone: +44 1592583270 / 07803926577

- Life Long Learning:

Two examples of Life Long Learning schemes were presented:

• Nord-Pas de Calais presented The Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning (APEL)

• Denmark: a Danish perspective on national and regional strategies and challenges, presented by Ms Helle Bækkelund Jensen.

- Erik Lindboe had a short introduction to the Passive House+ Project, a new Interreg project which is being developed by the region of Västra Götaland, Sweden. The vision is a North Sea Region (NSR) where PassivHaus designs and techniques are adopted by all the players in the building supply chain as normal.

Read more about the Passive House+ here: http://www.passivhausplus.net/

Contact person: Ms Åsa Lindell, asa.lindell@vgregion.se

Region Västra Götaland

+46 33 17 48 21

+46 76 109 91 33

Future events:

Strategic Group:

- 1^st – 2^nd February 2008: The I&E Strategic Group (chair, vice-chairs, adviser + supporting officers) will have a joint meeting with the leaders of the Culture & Tourism Group.

Innovation and Education Group:

- 31^st March – 1^st April 2008: I&E Group meeting in Ålborg, Denmark.

- Autumn 2008: I&E Group meeting in Gothenburg, Sweden

Theme of the I&E Group meeting in Denmark: Innovation.

Some issues were suggested to put on the agenda of our next group meeting, like:

EU funding, the Viborg Interreg secretariat, transnational issues, longterm perspective of innovation, SMEs, Young entrepreneurship, urban/rural/agriculture development, cooperation with the Baltic Sea Commission, links to the other NSC thematic groups.

The Strategic group will discuss this and make a draft agenda for the next meeting.

All IEG members are hereby invited to bring forward any suggestions for this event.

Cllr. Kate Dean pointed to the fact that we from time to time may need translator(s). Thanks to Ms. Dominique Robertson, who did a great interpretor job in Lille.

18:00 End of the meeting

19.30 Dinner hosted by the Region Nord-Pas de Calais.

Thursday 15th November

09.00 Departure from Lille

09.30 Visit to the Lycee Pasteur (in Henin-Beaumont)

10.30 – 14.00 Visit to the Lycee Senez (in Hénin-Beaumont)

The IEG visited the Lycee Pasteur, and the Lycee Senez in Henin-beaumont, just outside Lille. It was very interesting indeed to learn about their schemes regarding Lifelong Learning. At 12.00 we were served lunch at the Lycee Senez, prepared and served by young students.

Due to the train strikes we had to change our agenda a bit each day, but our French hosts were very helpful, also in supporting the bus and taxi to take us to the airports in time.

Thank you!

Cllr. Ole B. sørensen closed the IEG meeting and thanked all attendees for making this a creative event.

The Innovation and Education Group wants to thank Vice President Ms. Martine Filleul, Cllr. Stella Duneufjardin, Mr. Thomas Petit, the schools and supporting officers for helping out in organising and hosting the meeting, also thanks to the speakers for their contributions.