The RIS4Danu Peer Group online meeting and Policy Forum on 17 January 2023 was a great opportunity for all regional Support Partners to i) hear about the current status of the project (in particular, regional analyses, identification of additional disused industrial sites and workshop preparations), and ii) discuss potential funding and support instruments for brownfield revitalisation, such as the EC’s Just Transition Mechanism (JTM) with its three pillars Just Transition Fund, InvestEU and EIB Loan Facility or the Catching-Up Regions Initiative, which is implemented by the EC and the World Bank. Project partners used the opportunity to also discuss barriers to innovation in their regions as well as success factors for the (sustainable) revitalisation of disused industrial sites. The next online Peer Group meeting and Policy Forum is scheduled for August/September 2023.

AGENDA:

• Status Quo of regional analyses, Vienna University;
• Update on confirmed industrial sites, all regional Support Partners;
• Status Quo workshops, VDI/VDE-IT;
• Sharing experience from the preparation of the first regional workshops in Baden-Württemberg and Lower Austria;
• Policy Forum:
  • Financing: Learning from the experience in cooperation with EIB (soft loans for rehabilitation of coal mines), Zdenek Husek, ICUK Ústi region;
  • Short recap discussions at Vienna conference, input requested from Regional Partners, Anteja;