The Joint Research Centre (JRC) is inviting European regions to express their interest to contribute to the Pilot Project "REGIONS2030: Monitoring the SDGs in the EU regions – Filling the data gaps", supported by the European Parliament.
As one of its priorities, the European Committee of Regions (CoR) supports this call for expression on a project shedding light on the key role of regions in the localization of SDGs.
The REGIONS2030 Pilot Project will be carried out through the involvement of up to 10 European regions, which
i) share a strong ambition to monitor the achievement of the SDGs and
ii) are willing to explore the synergies of SDGs monitoring, policy-making and sustainable regional development.
The participating regions are expected to work with experts and partners to develop, test and improve a framework of indicators for monitoring the achievement of the SDGs at regional level. They will contribute to define the method and identify the relevant indicators at NUTS2 level, which will be eventually used in the whole of the EU. Where relevant, regions could propose additional customised indicators to reflect different contexts. The overall aim is to cover all SDGs and the majority of the 169 targets.
At the same time, regions are expected to enhance the relationship with national authorities and other stakeholders that could help to enrich the Pilot Project output and contribute to future collaborations.
Furthermore, the REGIONS2030 Pilot Project includes training and dissemination activities that the selected regions are expected to actively participate in.
How to apply
Interested regions are invited to complete the application form provided in Annex 1 of this Call with maximum 10 pages, describing:
- the reasons why the region wishes to participate in the project and what it aims to achieve through its participation;
- a short description of the region's and its stakeholders' involvement in the localisation of the SDGs, if any;
- a description of the SDG monitoring activities already carried out, if any;
- the application should also include a statement of support from a high-ranking elected official (e.g. the governor, president of a region or a relevant minister, commissioner) assuring that the participating region will count with a strong commitment in the activities relevant to the Pilot Project;
- other relevant documentation, also in form of hyperlinks to official documents, webpages, etc.
The application should be signed by a region official having the power of legal representation of the territorial entity. The application form shall be completed in English. The expression of interest should be submitted electronically to the following email address:
JRC-URBAN2030@ec.europa.eu
The deadline for submitting an expression of interest is 30 September 2022 (midnight CEST, Brussels time). The lack of previous activities on the regional monitoring of the SDGs will not be a reason for exclusion.
The call and the annex to apply are available here.