| Expected effects and impacts | The different objectives contribute to the following impacts:
P1: Robust and smart economies in the North Sea Region
- SO 1.1: Developing and enhancing research and innovation capacities and the uptake of advanced technologies
- Improved framework conditions for innovation and reduction of barriers to innovation.
- Strengthened innovation capacity across the region.
- Increased interaction between innovation centres and actors.
- Increased SME/public sector innovation and initiation of new products, services, and processes.
- Increased uptake of novel technologies.
- Reduced gap in innovation support and performance in non-urban areas
- SO 1.2: Developing skills for smart specialization, industrial transition, and entrepreneurship
- Increased and improved human capital in Smart Specialisation focus areas, especially in terms of up-to-date and digital skills and knowledge.
- Strengthened entrepreneurial competencies and increased competitiveness in Smart Specialisation sectors and SMEs.
- Improved alignment between skills development and labour market demand
- New jobs and increased productivity.
- Increased level of education in rural areas.
- Increased interaction between different parts of the education system, civil society, and the smart specialization sectors, for example in new or strengthened clusters and networks.
- Increased cross-sectoral and interdisciplinary learning.
P2: A green transition in the North Sea Region
- SO 2.1: Promoting energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions
- Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
- Increased uptake of novel technologies in all relevant energy sectors and fields of operations.
- Strengthened renovation & refurbishment in an energy & resource efficient way.
- Strengthened regional energy cooperation.
- Increased readiness for the continuous uptake of digital solutions in relation to energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions
- SO 2.2: Promoting renewable energy in accordance with Directive (EU) 2018/2001, including the sustainability criteria set out therein
- Increased uptake of renewable energy technologies in all relevant energy sectors and fields of operations.
- Increased employment in renewable energy sector.
- Improved air quality and public health.
- Long-term contribution to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
- Positive contribution to other environmental impacts, such as water, circular economy, and ecosystems
- SO 2.3: Developing smart energy systems, grids, and storage outside the Trans-European Energy Network (TEN-E)
- Increased readiness for the continuous uptake of digital solutions in North Sea energy systems.
- Efficient, sustainable, and reliable grids.
- Storage solutions that will increase reliability of electricity supply and increase efficiency.
- An increase in solutions between different energy carriers.
- SO 2.4: Promoting the transition to a circular and resource efficient economy
- Improved framework conditions for maintaining the value of products, materials, and resources so they are preserved in the economy for as long as possible.
- Reduced environmental impact of resource consumption and improved societal benefits in the long term.
- Reduced use of primary resources (recycling and efficient use of resources).
- Improved utilisation patterns (behavioural and shift in consumption patterns).
- Strengthened regional uptake of circular solution by improved availability and a behavioural shift in consumption patterns.
- New business models.
- SO 2.5: Promoting sustainable multimodal urban mobility, as part of transition to a net zero carbon economy
- Improved liveability and emission free accessibility in the North Sea region.
- Uptake of green and smart technologies in all relevant transport modes.
- Decreased traffic congestion in urban areas.
- Better transnational integration of future transport demands in spatial development.
- Long-term reduction of CO2 and pollution emissions and positive contribution to air quality
P3: A climate resilient North Sea Region
- SO 3.1: Promoting climate change adaptation and disaster risk prevention, resilience, taking into account ecosystem-based approaches
- Uptake of nature-based solutions to manage flooding and water.
- Improved resilience against flooding and erosion including landslides in coastal and mountain areas.
- Improved resilience of towns and cities against flooding risks adapted to their location in specific landscapes and sites.
- Improved resilience against other climate change related effects, such as heat stress, drought, salinization, land consumption and sealing.
- More appropriate protection of fresh-water resources (quality and quantity) for healthy and clean drinking water supplies.
- Adapted ground and surface waters to wider fluctuations in seasonal precipitation.
- Restored fresh-water ecosystems, including peat soil and wetlands with potential to capture and store carbon.
- SO 3.2: Enhancing protection and preservation of nature, biodiversity, and green infrastructure, including in urban areas, and reducing all forms of pollution
- Improved and mainstreamed monitoring methods and technology, such as digital solutions, delivering better quality and/or cost-effective monitoring of North Sea marine or landscape ecosystems.
- Management methods improving conservation and restoration of degraded marine ecosystems.
- Ecosystem services integrated in maritime spatial plans in the North Sea.
- Joint actions delivering solutions on environmental problems (marine pollution, migrating wildlife).
- Take-up of methods and actions used to restore degraded biotopes and ecosystems in urbanized and rural landscapes.
- Enhancing ecosystem services of green infrastructure for the public good.
- Improved protection of threatened species with key functions in ecosystem services (e.g., pollination).
- Restoration of green infrastructure in urban and peri-urban areas.
- Long-term risk management of lost containers from shipping, wrecks, chemical waste from munition and its impact on marine ecosystems.
P4: Better governance in the North Sea Region
- SO 4.1: Other actions to support better cooperation governance
- Better coordination through new or strengthened cross-sectoral networks that facilitate multi-level governance.
- Improved integration of marine and maritime solutions and activities.
- Increased capacity in governance stakeholders to engage in transnational governance processes.
- Improved integration and up-take of solutions in challenge-driven fields.
- Increased societal support for policy decisions.
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| Expected results | The programme proposes the following (non exhaustive list) types of measures:
P1: Robust and smart economies in the North Sea Region
- SO 1.1: Developing and enhancing research and innovation capacities and the uptake of advanced technologies
- Developing innovation support measures and transnational innovation networks and clusters, complementary to networks that already exist.
- Developing and implementing new technologies, products, processes, and services to address transnational challenges.
- Supporting knowledge partnerships of innovation actors and stimulating transnational cooperation between businesses, research institutions, governments, and social institutions to develop new or improved links.
- Fostering technology and innovation transfer from research to business.
- Stimulating the commercial take-up of research results and entry of innovations onto the market.
- Supporting public administrations to use public investments as a driver for innovation, e.g., through better incentives and capacity-building workshops, and facilitating SMEs’ participation in (public) procurement processes.
- Enhancing the cooperation between innovation actors and civil society that support the uptake of innovation technologies to shape the innovation ecosystem.
- Developing transnational support tools for SMEs and entrepreneurs to increase their innovation capacity and incorporate research and technological innovations.
- Exploiting new sources of SME growth such as the green economy, health and social services and promoting place-based development opportunities, e.g., in tourism and blue growth.
- Improving access to innovation support for actors in rural areas to reduce innovation gaps in non-urban areas and reinforce urban-rural linkages in the innovation support field.
- SO 1.2: Developing skills for smart specialization, industrial transition, and entrepreneurship
- Identifying and overcoming skills gaps in green technology sectors (as common Smart Specialisation focus areas) to support the development and uptake of new innovative products and processes.
- Developing knowledge and skills for improved decision making in the transport sector to increase the uptake of alternative fuels and multimodal transport solutions.
- Providing training schemes for entrepreneurial skills to SMEs to support lifelong learning and help them identify and adopt new sustainable and smart business concepts.
- Promoting cross-sectoral learning to close the linear model of producing and consuming goods and services in the transition to a circular economy with a specific focus on the development of rural areas.
- Improving digital skills in the tourism and cultural heritage sectors to prepare for the digital transformation and to develop sustainable housing concepts in touristic areas.
- Improving SME access to digital know-how and technology by providing an incentive to connect with ICT knowledge and service providers.
- Improving educational curricula for maritime and inland waterway shipping crews to meet the growing demand for a workforce trained in new tools or methods.
- Preventing brain drains in rural regions by developing and building on strategic priority areas and developing tools to retain talent and entrepreneurial skills.
- Helping SMEs to access opportunities in the single market, in the global market and to international value chains by developing entrepreneurial skills for internationalisation.
- Supporting citizens to become social innovators by developing their skills and competences related to social entrepreneurship and innovation.
- Developing skills to enhance regional innovation ecosystems (entrepreneurs, public administration, science, and civil society) and to support the development and uptake of new products and services.
P2: A green transition in the North Sea Region
- SO 2.1: Promoting energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions
- Fostering the deployment of renovation of buildings with a clear added value to already existing initiatives. Supporting the continuous growth of nearly zero-energy buildings (NZEB).
- Stimulating measures for health and well-being (e.g., self-regulation equipment in new buildings).
- Increasing energy efficiency in ports.
- Eliminating emissions in logistics chains.
- Helping to develop energy supply chains on local and regional levels, e.g., 'waste heat' in urban areas, closed energy supply chains.
- Awareness raising of greening methods and results.
- Implementing pilots to identify energy resource savings through innovative industrial design and manufacturing processes.
- Reducing overall energy use by changing behaviour and increasing take-up of energy-saving technologies.
- Encouraging cross-disciplinary, systems-level approaches to secure higher energy efficiency in the urban environment.
- SO 2.2: Promoting renewable energy in accordance with Directive (EU) 2018/2001, including the sustainability criteria set out therein
- Supporting the uptake of renewable energy technologies through transnational exchange of knowledge and good practices.
- Increasing cost-efficiency of renewable energy systems by implementing smart maintenance concepts.
- Developing and piloting dual use concepts for offshore wind farms.
- Developing new demand side concepts to increase the share of renewable energy in the total energy demand of energy consumers.
- Exploring the potential for rural regions of novel renewable energy technologies, such as tidal energy.
- Supporting the bridge between the technologies of renewable energies of today and those of the future.
- Stimulating the increased use and production of fossil-free energy systems.
- Adapting the renewable energy infrastructure to mitigate its impact on environment, in particular on biodiversity, as well as on human health and well-being.
- Mapping areas suitable for renewables development and developing methods for reducing conflict with other land uses.
- SO 2.3: Developing smart energy systems, grids, and storage outside the Trans-European Energy Network (TEN-E)
- Demonstrating the application of smart grid technologies as a way of saving energy and integrating more renewable power in the energy mix.
- Supporting the uptake of smart energy systems and technologies in the construction and building sectors.
- Developing electrification of the energy system that is in line with the Commission's 'Clean energy for all Europeans package,' i.e., pilots and demonstrations are necessary to define scale, regulatory issues, technical issues, and economical feasibility.
- Supporting the energy value chain to ensure that both costs and benefits are kept in the local and regional energy systems.
- Implementing pilots and demonstrations on aspects of Power-to-X and other energy transformation technologies.
- Supporting the opportunities for companies and individuals to supply to the grid at peak times and use electricity from the grid when needed.
- Protecting digital energy systems and supply, including threats to cyber security.
- Stimulating a “future proof” energy storage value chain.
- SO 2.4: Promoting the transition to a circular and resource efficient economy
- Providing support to pilots, demonstrations, and test beds in order to scale-up the use of product and service innovation to support circularity.
- Improving land and sea ecosystems by supporting circularity in agriculture and forestry.
- Providing improved production methods for packaging that enhance circularity of the material used.
- Fostering initiatives on circular procurement methods to encourage long-lasting change.
- Encouraging a transition to circular production in rural areas to encourage new business opportunities and reduce the urban-rural divide.
- Encouraging circularity of renewable energy infrastructures, e.g., through the dismantling and recycling of wind- and off-shore constructions.
- Enhancing the development of new value-chains of circular economy, especially for rural regions.
- Utilising open data access to encourage development and accessibility of spare parts.
- Recycling of legacy of materials or extraction of hard to recycle substances.
- Improving waste management practices to reduce the threat of plastic in the North Sea.
- Developing efficient ways to achieve re-use of products or collection and recycling of materials.
- Encouraging resource-efficient design, digitalisation, or sustainable business models where producers keep ownership of products to encourage attention on durability.
- Assisting the phasing out of current conventional technologies and implementing new technologies that fit into circular economy systems.
- SO 2.5: Promoting sustainable multimodal urban mobility, as part of transition to a net zero carbon economy
- Supporting the development of sustainable logistics for urban areas and interconnected territories by integrating local supply chains and reducing transport distances.
- Supporting the development, implementation, and monitoring of Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans and/or Sustainable Urban Logistics Plans and other measures to develop urban consolidation centres for greening city logistics.
- Enhancing sustainable mobility services in urban areas and their surroundings by developing and testing innovative IT solutions.
- Promoting the deployment of green last-mile solutions, e.g., use of cargo-bikes.
- Developing “green-accessibility” through soft modes of transport like cycling, e-biking, and walking.
- Supporting the development of mobility hubs in urban and non-urban areas.
- Enabling start-ups and SMEs working in zero-emission transport industries to take advantage of business opportunities by piloting and assessing new initiatives in sustainable mobility measures.
- Supporting solutions for electric/alternative propulsion mobility at urban and regional levels by contributing to existing or pilot networks of charging/distribution infrastructures, and testing for infrastructure bottlenecks.
- Encouraging social innovations in the mobility sector, such as shared mobility and co-creation by boosting capacities and supporting the application of already available concepts.
- Improving/upscaling sustainable and locally produced batteries and vehicles and alternative/new fuels.
- Improving sustainable mobility between urban and rural areas.
- Promoting automation and autonomous transport on land and water by creating awareness of the advantages of these solutions.
P3: A climate resilient North Sea Region
- SO 3.1: Promoting climate change adaptation and disaster risk prevention, resilience, taking into account ecosystem-based approaches
- Improving protection of coasts, estuaries, rivers against erosion and storm surges by applying Nature Based Solutions.
- Integrating water management to mitigate the impact of more intense rainfall events and flooding from rainwater, groundwater, water courses and rivers in, e.g., mountainous and coastal areas.
- Improving the management of groundwater and surface waters, including pressures from discharges in riverbeds caused by peak loads.
- Strengthening urban resilience by using space in a multifunctional way, as for example by investigating into blue-green infrastructure as part of urban design.
- Facilitating the maintenance of soil moisture and supply to ground- and surface waters.
- Testing methods and solutions to cope with impacts of sea level rise (such as erosion, flooding, saltwater intrusion).
- Initiating nature restoration measures in water management at rivers, lakes, wetlands, or groundwater (rewinding of water courses and rivers or rewetting of wetlands).
- Implementing ecosystem services such as carbon storage, soil formation as well as water quality and flows.
- Predicting climate change impacts and the effects they have on societal values and exploring the cost of such measures and stimulating the involvement of business opportunities for SMEs.
- Promoting social innovation, e.g., by actively engaging communities, stakeholders, and citizen’s participation in implementation of pilots and measures.
- Piloting small-scale technical solutions as part of integrated coastal zone management.
- Mainstreaming of successful measures and monitoring methods in strategies and management guidelines.
- Adopting improved methods for tackling other effects of climate change such as drought, heat stress on road infrastructure or energy systems, salinisation, etc.
- SO 3.2: Enhancing protection and preservation of nature, biodiversity, and green infrastructure, including in urban areas, and reducing all forms of pollution
- Testing methods addressing a range of pressures on biodiversity and ecosystems, such as invasive species, marine litter, and contaminants.
- Strengthening methods to accommodate off-shore renewable energy production to meet requirements of marine ecosystems - such as potential use of subsea off-shore wind park infrastructure as artificial reefs and breeding grounds for marine species, while fulfilling all applicable environmental standards and ensuring proper environmental monitoring.
- Testing nature restoration methods for management of degraded ecosystems.
- Deploying new methods and technologies for environmental monitoring and management and mainstreaming successful approaches in line with approaches and methodological standards developed under the MSFD.
- Working with ecological corridors and green infrastructure in rural and urbanized landscapes to improve ecological connectivity.
- Implementing environmental measures and improved management of ecosystems by use of participatory processes.
- Developing and testing solutions for the development and enhancement of green infrastructure in urban areas.
- Initiating cooperation on reducing marine and coastal litter on beaches; contributing to the goal to keep litter under the threshold value of 20 items per 100 meters of coastline as decided by the EU MS experts.
- Innovative pilot actions to increase biodiversity in cities with a positive impact on the wellbeing of citizens.
P4: Better governance in the North Sea Region
- SO 4.1: Other actions to support better cooperation governance
- Bringing together stakeholders, developing integrated and widely supported strategies and action plans in challenge-driven fields, and addressing regulatory and legal barriers.
- Developing innovative concepts and tools that support better transnational coordination between existing and new actors involved in marine and maritime governance, including MSP and MSFD.
- Developing tools to foster citizen knowledge and engagement to improve their position in multi-level governance processes and participation in decision-making.
- Building institutional capacity for actors on all levels to adapt to territorial needs and challenges, e.g., marine protection, digitalization, social innovation.
- Supporting new and existing networks to translate international strategies and policies into joint transnational action plans.
- Bringing together actors to address regulation-free spaces and the absence of adequate regulations in fields such as drones, robots, and data-driven innovations in order to develop joint strategies, approaches, and standards.
- Setting up and fostering transnational partnerships between urban and rural actors as well as civil society and developing strategies to overcome the urban-rural divide in the region.
- Building thematic communities for topics addressed in Priorities 1-3 in order to transfer findings and scale-up cooperation around shared issues, with the aim of embedding project results in a wider framework and ensuring take-up.
- Developing and promoting new or improved governance mechanisms for upscaling, transferring, and mainstreaming key innovations in challenge-driven fields in regional and local economies.
- Building platforms for governance actors to harmonise technological standards and certification for (digital) infrastructure and equipment.
- Supporting the integrated coastal zone management with maritime spatial planning in conflicting uses of spaces.
- Developing measures for public-private partnerships to foster financial incentives that will lead to an increased use of energy efficient technologies.
- Implementing participatory processes for winning stakeholder support for environmental measures.
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