Representatives from 15 INTERREG Ireland-Wales projects met on the 9th of December 2020 to introduce themselves and their projects at our inaugural Operation Matters Forum. Of the 21 people who met, most were Operation Managers. Principal Investigators, Research Managers and Communications Leads also joined the group.
Projects varied from some that had started within the year and others that were coming to Project Closure and it was acknowledged that there is a huge opportunity here to draw on the experience of others and share best practice. We heard from each of the attendees and noted both the diversity of the projects within the group as well as the overlaps and common areas of interest.
During the break-out room sessions, the future purpose of the forum was discussed as well as some logistics items; how often we should meet for example. These discussions were reported back in brief to the full group afterwards and in more detail via email to the forum organiser, Crona Hodges. Crona collated the results of this initial discussion and circulated these across the group.
Identifying areas where there could be future collaboration was noted as something that everyone was keen to explore further, as was the opportunity to come together and share ideas and experience. Identifying areas of common interests and focussing meetings on those was also noted.
Common interests could include publicity, procurement, extensions, coping with Covid-19, claims, project closure, community engagement, external evaluations and social media. Cross-promoting events and social media posts was mentioned during the open discussion and efforts have begun to ensure that everyone has the links to each of the project websites and each of the Twitter handles, so that this can happen more often going forward.
Information on NRW’s Marine Area Statements event coming up in Jan was circulated to all prior to the meeting, along with a link to the recently published Regional Investment in Wales: Framework document. The forum will meet again early in the New Year.
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