What is it?

The Better project is an ambitious project to stimulate regional innovation through better e-governance services.  Better e-governance helps councils to improve public services while cutting costs.  E-governance can also be used to stimulate the local or regional innovation chain.

Birmingham City Council is participating in this project which will foster a policy environment to provide:

• Better support for SMEs by connecting them with innovation and digital solutions and a better skilled workforce
• Better health for the city and region through improved use of big data to tackle city health challenges.
• Better data management capability through platform tools to enable transformation across the public and private sector.
• Better air quality/transport in the city through improved infrastructure and enabling technologies.

The overall project objective is to achieve a 10% increase in regional innovation activity stimulated by e-Government initiatives by 2022

This will be achieved through:

• Improving the governance of the ERDF policy instrument and linking it to the new UK Shared Prosperity Fund
• Sharing good practice – each partner to identify
• Interregional Learning (Thematic Events)
• Study visits
• An import workshop
• The development of a Regional Action Plan
  (which is then monitored)
• Regional event

The Thematic Events will focus on:

• Physical and virtual infrastructure/assets to support the process for innovation
• Development and application of new innovative products and services
• Processes to support new business models and ways of working across private public sector and with citizens
• People and skills to make it happen

Project Partners

Genoa, Italy (Lead partner)

Nyíregyháza (Hungary)

Gävle (Sweden)

Tartu (Estonia)

Duration

Phase 1 (3 years): August 2019 – July 2022 (Interregional Learning) (semesters 1-6)

Phase 2 (call 4: 1 year): August 2022 – July 2023 (monitoring) (semesters 7-8)

Total project value: €1,285,000

For more information please follow this link: https://www.interregeurope.eu/better/

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