On 31.12.2022 we have finished our Bavarian-Czech Interreg project “Smart Academy”. Herewith, we look back on one year of project duration and cooperation.
This international and cross-border structural project took place between the cluster Smart Pilsen Region z.s. as lead partner and the Es-geht! as project partner. In addition, twelve associated partners were involved, including SWW Wunsiedel, the district of Wunsiedel and a large number of communities on the Czech side.
“There is knowledge on both sides of the Bavarian-Czech border on topics such as post-covid, smart technologies and digitalization. But because these are not shared sufficiently, the various stakeholders keep starting over again, which is extremely inefficient. There is no need to keep reinventing the wheel. That’s what our structure project aims to change and wants to provide guidance for.” – Šárka Kuthanová, Smart Pilsen Region Cluster.
The goal was to establish a functional network for proactive digital development throughout the Danube Region. The focus was on two main physical locations, so-called polygons. One of these was located in Bavaria and one in the Czech Republic. These focal points of cooperation were to serve to bring smart technologies closer to a wide variety of stakeholder groups. In addition, a co-working space in the real world and a platform for knowledge exchange in the digital world were to be created to support these efforts. The result should be a facilitated knowledge exchange between different rural regions to find efficient solutions faster. This avoids that every interested party has to start from scratch and “reinvent the wheel”, but, on the contrary, uses existing knowledge and thus can work more efficiently.
“We can proudly say that within the short project duration of one year, we were able to hold workshops and information events in which we were could introduce smart and renewable technologies to interested people. In addition, we were present at trade fairs, such as the Hydrogen Days in Wunsiedel. We were also able to establish the co-working space and launch the digital platform. In addition, we have established a cross-border network that will continue to accompany us and enrich our work even after the Smart Academy and outside of projects.” – Lisa Ziemer, Es-geht!
In the future, we want to further develop the results of the Smart Academy project. Therefore, we are striving for a follow-up project that builds on the content of the Smart Academy and develops it even further. Together with West Bohemian University Pilsen, DragoG@dgets and IDF we work on this goal, in which we are supported by SWW Wunsiedel and the administrative district of Wunsiedel.
Because sustainable project results are important to us in a variety of ways.
Your Es-geht! Team