The ‘Iepen Mienskipsfûns’ (IMF) is an integrated, low-threshold fund providing grants (up to €75.000, 40% funded) to grassroots initiatives that contribute to the liveability, resilience and quality of local communities in the province.

Main features of the IMF:
1. Regional Prioritising – 5 regional advice committees consisting of inhabitants determine the regional priorities for IMF in their part of Fryslân.
2. Flexible and low threshold – Fryslân refrains from rigid policy frameworks and criteria, replacing this with the flexible IMF tool that can quickly respond to developments and needs within communities. Project applications of various natures can receive funding as long as they contribute to the local community. All
applications are assessed on the same 6 criteria: local support, continuity, collaboration, empowerment, ecology and unicity.
3. Tûk Betrouwen (Smart Trust) – Due to the local nature of IMF initiatives, the Province of Fryslân trusts the social control within the regions, limiting the need for strict provincial interference.
4. Integrated Approach– Applicants value the fact that IMF covers 9 policy themes, so they do not have to deal with all different funding schemes.
5. IMF Advisers – Each Frisian region has an IMF advisor who helps citizens with their IMF Applications - allrounders that offer advice on all kinds of subjects.
6. Learning by Doing – The IMF is built on the principle ‘learning by doing’. The Province continually seeks to improve the fund.

The policy instrument, Strategy for Rural Development, was approved by the city council in 2021, along with a new strategy of Culture and Leisure. Various organizations and institutions participated in the process. Every year a new action plan will be drawn up.

Initiatives and new project ideas directed by local residents and organizations can be supported by both grants and management. The administration can support any bottom-up initiative that improve liveability and cohesion of rural areas, e.g. create a new meeting place. The objectives described in the strategy serve as guidelines in the prioritization of the grants provided by the municipality.

The outcome of the Interreg project will bring new methods or new ways of working together to engage and empower local communities to become more resilient.

Two different strategies have an influence on the policy instrument: the Rural Strategy in the Central Denmark Region and the new policy for the Local Action Group (LAG), funded by EU Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD).

The Local Action Group – LAG Djursland – is geographically divided between Syddjurs and Norddjurs Municipality, and each municipality is represented on the board as an observer with the right to speak. Throughout the project, the three different strategies will be discussed and compared, and thereby create synergies and room for impact across levels of governance.

The Madeira Operational Program 2030 is the new ERDF Operational Programme for Jobs and Growth of Madeira Region for 2021-2027. It is managed by the Regional Government of Madeira, the Regional Management Authority (IDR) and currently under discussion with regional entities for final approval by the European Commission.

In the context of GOCORE we will zoom in on the topic of the Digital Transformation, more specifically on initiatives and projects that empower remote communities to take part in the digital transformation. This dimension is covered in the OP Madeira 2030 under:

AXIS 1: Madeira + Smart and Competitive: Knowledge and Innovation. This axis includes:
• Specific Objective 1.2: Harnessing the benefits of digitization for citizens, companies, research entities and public authorities.

Under SO 1.2., projects will be supported that contribute to the digital transition of Madeira, in line with the Action Plan for Digital Transition (PATD – Portugal Digital: From startup nation to digital nation). This plan has as its operating principles the empowerment and digital inclusion of people, the digital transformation of the business sector and the digitization of public services.

On Madeira, this plan is implemented in the Smart Islands Hub (SIH), a programme for a Digital Innovation Ecosystem that will accelerate the Digital and Green transition of the Autonomous Region of Madeira, i.a. by initiating new projects to be funded by the OP Madeira 2030.

The Regional Operational Programme Centro 2030 is structured around 4 themes:
TA 1 - People first: a better demographic balance, greater inclusion, less inequality;
TA 2 - Digitalisation, innovation and skills as drivers of development;
TA 3 - Climate transition and resource sustainability;
TA 4 - An externally competitive and internally cohesive country.

The Programme Centro 2030 enshrines the importance of integrated instruments to support territorial development across all areas of regional development, namely the Integrated Territorial-Based Interventions (IBT), as well as the Integrated Territorial Investments (ITI) .

The Intermunicipal Community of Coimbra Region (CIM-RC, Partner 4) participates in both of these 2 integrated approaches:
1. ITI for Coimbra region, based on an Integrated Strategy for Territorial Development of the CIM-RC
2. IBT for Pinhal Interior, to promote the resilience of this territory.

The CIM-RC was appointed, by the Regional Government and 2030 Centro OP, as the managing entity for the operationalization of these two Integrated Territorial Interventions. This role implies framing the interventions and initiatives of municipal and intermunicipal entities and other actors in the OP to ensure their adherence to these integrated instruments of the 2030 Centro OP.

The policy instrument promotes the Solidarity Economy addressing the priority of civil, social and economic development in 13 identified sectors. It recognizes SSD as a primary tool for the development of community resilience since it aims at enhancing the territory meant as an asset rather than as a resource to be exploited for profit.

SSD must have the following characteristics: financing, production, distribution and consumption chain; long term; multiple actors; broad governance; contact person; rootedness in the territory, social and environmental sustainability; employment of vulnerable groups. Actors involved in the SSD are: producers of goods/services – social enterprises; consumers – individuals or groups/associations; financing institutions; SSD workers; and public entities.

In this regard project partner FTC plays an important role in promotion & development of the regional SSD as representative federation of the regional coop system. Operationally the promotion of the social economy is realised through the provision of a permanent coordination table with the provincial government, a dedicated organisational secretariat, appropriate resources, various types of incentives. The policy instrument delegates the operational strategy (requiring further development to be effective) to the public and private actors involved. Currently there are 5 thematic regional SSD: green economy, social work for prisoners, services and lean solutions for industry and manufacturing.

"Development Plan for Community-Based Action in Saaremaa Municipality 2021-2030” is linked to the “Development Plan 2019-2030 of Saaremaa Municipality” that provides overall strategic objectives and tasks of the municipality for the integrated development of its territory. As the overall development plan is a statutory strategic document to be developed by each local government, any topic-related development document may be produced at the discretion of a local government.

In 2020, Saaremaa Municipality Government (SMG) initiated producing a municipal strategy addressing community-life in a more specific way and to provide the basis for strengthening community-based action and activities in mainly the 13 rural districts of the municipality for the sustainability of communities. The policy instrument addresses four sub-topics: relationships between communities and SMG, financing activities of communities, increasing the role of the youth in community action, cooperation between communities.
For each sub-topic, strategic objectives have been identified and main steps and types of activities for attaining the objectives have been provided together with indicators of achievements.

The targeted policy instrument is the Regional Development Programme of Hajdú-Bihar County (framework for the county's development scheme 2021-2027). This medium-term plan describes the development priorities, defines the specific interventions, measures to be implemented in the framework of the priorities, reviews the framework/conditions for implementation. This policy serves as the underlying regional strategic document for the definition of the national Territorial and Settlement Development Operational Programme (TSDOP) that provides the funding for the implementation of measures defined at regional level by the 19 Hungarian county governments.

The development of the policy instrument took place during the pandemia making the process more difficult; this new challenge highlighted the strong necessity to define a development direction focusing on how to properly create and support resilient communities in several aspects: economic, environmental, social angles were considered as well as the role of innovation and digitalisation.

One of the horizontal priorities of the Programme is the improvement of community resilience, strengthened by several measures:
• Providing spaces for community participation and connection
• Climate adaptation solutions for communities
• Strengthening digital resilience
• Stronger links for local supply chains
• Creating the ecosystem for acting communities
• Liveable countryside for liveable communities
• Sustainable and responsible tourism