A guidance event in preparation for the 9th Call for Applications was held 7 February in Copenhagen. The presentations from the event are now available online.

A new and more integrated view on electric mobility is beginning to appear in Europe.  That summarizes the outcome of the recent e-harbours conference on e-mobility in Malmö.  The conference, shed a new light on a range of e-mobility topics, showing that electric cars, boats and harbor cranes begin to be considered as more than just stand-alone innovations. As the e-harbours team at Robert Gordon University noted in their concluding remarks at the end of the conference, electric vehicles can become  an indispensable balancing element in Smart Energy Systems. An important side-effect of this integration is, that the business case for electric mobility will become more profitable.

New recreational routes, improved green spaces, increased urban and rural connectivity and areas for economic growth are some of the opportunities for the urban edge highlighted in the final report of the Sustainable Urban Fringes (SURF) project.

A new Toolkit aims to inspire and stimulate sustainable development at the urban edge. The publication, produced by the Sustainable Urban Fringes (SURF) project pulls together an inspiring collection of approaches to managing the zone between urban and rural areas. 

The online changes system has been updated, and Lead Beneficiaries are advised to check the FAQ for the new information.

On 16th January 2013 GSA partners met at Schiphol Airport Amsterdam to discuss project progress on the topic of CO2 monitoring at Small and Medium Airports (SMAs). Following a detailed and very informative presentation, by Susannah Fitzherbert-Brockholes of the WSP Group, on the ACI Air Carbon Accredition Scheme the participants discussed the various aspects of accrediton for smaller airports. Representatives from Groningen Airport Eelde, Billund Airport and Bremen Airport each presented their approaches and experiences to date in terms of CO2 Monitoring. Status, methodologies for compliance, challenges and outlook  were discussed in depth. CO2 monitoring is regarded as a substantial element in the overall sustainability strategy. The GSA project aims to provide a toolkit dealing with this subject.

European and regional water policy makers meet here. The WaterCAP cluster has focused on climate change and its effects on the hydrological cycle in the North Sea Region and how we can deal with the challenges to society and natural habitat. At this workshop you’ll meet European and regional (water) policy makers and together we’ll discuss examples from the North Sea Region on climate change adaptation.

New guide on film tourism published by North Sea Screen Partners member Filmby Aarhus

The 9th Call for Applications will be launched in spring 2013. A pre-announcement paper is now available with background information, including a preliminary timeline.

MTC official lifetime ended on 10^th December 2012. To put stakeholders in a position to follow our experiences with the cluster work we as well as with our challenges and opportunities we expired during cluster’s lifetime we draw a self-evaluation report.

We are pleased to share our viewpoints with all stakeholders planning to create similar projects or taking part in such and hope they will be of value in their development processes.

The DANS cluster "Good practice guide" is now available. 

Relevant professionals are hereby invited to submit a quotation for a contract regarding a feature tool for the North Sea Region Programme 2007-2013.

The DANS Cluster has been invited by the EU Presidency to present the project at the Plenary Session of the Ministerial e-Government Conference, 3-4 December 2012, in Nicosia, Cyprus.

MTC partners coordinated a successful dissemination event at the Scottish
Parliament (Holyrood) in Edinburgh on Wednesday 21^st November. The Policy Paper “Maritime Transport and Future Policies - Perspectives from the North Sea Region”, offering a compilation of results generated by the North Sea Region Programme’s project Maritime Transport Cluster, was presented to an audience comprising the maritime industries, public bodies, Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSP’s) and research institutions.

The third issue of the e-harbours newsletter is now released. Besides updates from the different showcases of the e-harbours project you may also read about the e-harbours expert group on Smart Energy Networks that has produced an extensive analysis of the business cases that can make a Smart Grid profitable.

The Maritime Transport Cluster (MTC) of the North Sea Region bundled forces with the Baltic Sea Region Transport Cluster, called “BSR Transport Cluster for Sustainable, Multimodal & Green Transport Corridors”, which is part-financed by the European Union (ERDF).