Greetings to everyone! I am Ioannis, I am from Greece and I am volunteering in Athens for the Interreg Euro-MED “Community4Innovation” project.
For the past two months I have been an IVY Project Partner at Dynamic Vision, where I was warmly welcomed, and I already have so much to share with fellow volunteers.
Community4Innovation is a Thematic Community Project, one of the two governance projects contributing to the goals of the Innovative Sustainable Economy Mission of the Interreg Euro-MED Programme.
Community4Innovation aims at enhancing research and innovation capacities for the uptake of technologies in order to support the transition to a circular economy and consolidate a competitive innovation ecosystem. Therefore, it acts as an engaged and structured community that improves collaboration among projects, stakeholders, and relevant institutions to find solutions for common challenges and promote the transfer of novel practices to other actors and territories for their integration into policies and strategies.
My host organisation is currently leading activities mainly focused on establishing the conditions for effective identification, sharing and reuse of knowledge coming from projects related to Innovative Sustainable Economy through the mapping of potential target groups, stakeholders, networks, and innovative projects and through compiling solutions to be included in an interactive catalogue. During these two months I am supporting the implementation of these activities through desk research and by providing my view from the youth perspective on the assessed results. In parallel, I have an active role in the preparation of a youth session tackling the topic of innovative sustainable economy, organised as part of the project in the frame of a major event taking place in Athens.
My volunteering experience and involvement in Community4Ιnnovation has been highly rewarding for me, and I have managed to gain several skills despite its yet short period. I have gained significant information on all the complicated steps necessary for territorial cooperation to be established which has made me realise its importance and necessity for every citizen. Overall, my communication and cooperation skills have been improved and I have gained unique experiences that can prove useful in my future steps.
– Ioannis, IVY Project Partner for the Interreg Euro-Med project “Community4Innovation” at Dynamic Vision.
