Northern Ireland Community Relations Council - About Us - News - Conference on Cross-Border Training and Impact Assessment in Ireland and Europe

19 September 2011

The Centre for Cross Border Studies will host a major European conference on cross-border training and impact assessment at the Radisson Blu Farnham Estate Hotel in Cavan on 27-28 October 2011.

Speakers and participants will come from at least 10 border regions: the German-French-Swiss border; the Austrian-Italian-Slovene border; the Czech-Polish border; the French-Spanish border (Catalonia); the French-Spanish border (Basque Country); the Danish-German border; the French-Belgian border; the French-Italian border; the Caribbean space, and the Irish border.

The conference is being organised as part of the Ireland/Northern Ireland Cross-border Cooperation Observatory (INICCO), a package of research and information projects funded under INTERREG IVA Programme through the Special EU Programmes Body.

Further information about this conference or if you would like to register for it please contact Patricia McAllister at p.mcallister@qub.ac.uk or 0044 (0) 28 3751 1550 or simply fill in the reply form below.

DRAFT PROGRAMME (subject to amendment)

Download a copy of the draft programme.

Thursday 27 October 2011

Chair: Pat Colgan, Chief Executive, Special EU Programmes Body, Belfast (to be confirmed)

10am	Opening by Minister of State with Special Responsibility for European Affairs, Lucinda Creighton TD
10.20am	Andy Pollak/Ruth Taillon (Centre for Cross Border Studies, Armagh) on cross-border training and impact assessment in Ireland
10.40am	Dr Joachim Beck (Euro-Institut, Kehl, Germany) on the Transfrontier Euro-Institut Network (TEIN)
11am	Coffee
11.30am	Parallel ‘good practice’ workshops. These 45-minute long workshops will be repeated so that each conference participant has a choice of attending two workshops Cooperation and Working Together – health training in the Irish border region (led by Linda Saunderson and Larry McGrath, CAWT, Derry) Trade Links – business mentoring in the Irish border region (led by Kieran Mathers, Trade Links, Newry) Raising the Participation of Women in Public Life – women’s capacity building in N.W. Ireland and Scotland (led by Noirin Clancy, Women into Public Life, Donegal) Euroscola – teacher training in the Czech-Polish border region (led by Hynek Boehm, Trinec, Czech Republic ) Intercultural training in the Upper Rhine (led by Anne Thevenet, Euro-Institut, Kehl, Germany)
1pm	Lunch
2pm	Speaker from INTERACT, Denmark (tbc)
2.30pm	European achievements and challenges in cross-border training and higher education Cross-border local authority training in Ireland (John Driscoll/Caroline Creamer, International Centre for Local and Regional Development, Armagh, N.Ireland) Higher education and research cooperation between France, Germany and Switzerland (Professor Jean-Alain Héraud, University of Strasbourg) Beyond needs analysis in the Carinthia-Slovenia-Friuli region (Professor Stanka Setnikar-Cankar, University of Ljubljana/Eithne Knappisch, Carinthian University of Applied Sciences, Austria/Milena Grion, Forser, Italy)
3.30pm	Questions and discussion
4.30pm	Close

Evening: Conference dinner, drinks reception and Irish traditional music session

Friday 28 October 2011

Chair: Helen Johnston, Chair, Centre for Cross Border Studies

9am	Mr Antonio Ruiz-de-Casas, European Commission, DG Regional Policy, Brussels (tbc) First respondent: Mr Martin Guillermo Ramirez, Secretary General, Association of European Border Regions Second respondent: Professor Michel Casteigts, University of Pau and the Pays d’Adour
10.15am	Launch of the Pilot Impact Assessment Toolkit for Cross Border Cooperation in Ireland (with contributions by Ruth Taillon, Centre for Cross Border Studies, and Sebastian Rihm, Euro-Institut)
10.45am	Coffee
11.15am	Round table discussion with panel: Jim Higgins MEP (tbc), Jim Nicholson MEP (tbc), Marian Harkin MEP and Shaun Henry (Director of Programmes, Special EU Programmes Body) with contributions from the floor.
12.30pm	Marian Harkin MEP to close
12.45pm	Close and lunch
2pm	Afternoon excursion to Newgrange