BOLSTER kick-off meeting

The BOLSTER project (Bridging Organizations and marginalised communities for Local Sustainability Transitions in EuRope) officially started at the beginning of September with the successful kick-off meeting that took place on 7, 8 and 9 September in Tilburg, southern Netherlands, hosted by the project coordinator, Tilburg University.

Representatives from 13 organisations involved in the project gathered together in Tilburg university. The meeting allowed the partners to introduce themselves, their backgrounds and their expected contributions to BOLSTER, but also made possible and easier the alignment of methodologies, the design of the research methods, and the definition of basic ground rules and guidelines for future work.

The meeting was accompanied by dynamic discussions, brainstorming sessions, presentations of the involved regions, definition of main concepts and methodologies, followed by a special tour to a local neighbourhood that is an example of renovation and regeneration towards greener and more sustainable practices in a complex social context.

The 36-month project is funded by the European Commission’s Horizon Europe Framework Programme. The main role of ECAS is to connect the consortium of partners with civil society organisations, to provide expertise for the capacity building program and to coordinate the organisation of three EU-focused policy dialogues and 10 regional policy dialogues hosted in target regions.