15 partners from 8 European countries (Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Germany, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina) have successfully brought to an end D-STIR project, which has in the last two years worked on understanding and bridging the gap between the scientific community and society at large. Project addressed Danube framework for responsible research and innovation using Socio-Technical Integration Research and has connected technical experts with humanists in order to leverage maximal societal and business potential – i.e. implement RRI. As such D-STIR is extremely important for Danube innovation framework conditions, as innovation does account for socio-economic impact.

Final conference of D-STIR project was organised on 26 June 2019 in Braila, Romania and brought together the representatives of media, general public, project’s stakeholders and project partners. The conference was hosted by lead partner of D-STIR project South-East Regional Development Agency from Romania. Audience had the opportunity to get a full overview of D-STIR method, outputs and contributions of the project to the whole Danube region and lessons learnt by project partners.

The conference also gave us the opportunity to listen to the presentation of ResInfra@DR project and it’s parallels with D-STIR project. Iona Spanache addressed the path the project took to linking up socio-economic actors of Research and Infrastructure. The ResInfra@DR project has aimed at upgrading the knowledge of policy-makers, policy delivery organizations involved in the funding of research infrastructures (RI) and RI managers.

It was a great honor to also host National Contact Point for the Danube Transnational Programme from the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Administration of Romania during the project final conference. They informed the audience about the Danube Programme results and the future steps for the next programming period 2021-2027. They underlined the important role of project partners in raising awareness campaigns for a large dissemination of project results among the project stakeholders. They have also congratulated the project partnership for their contribution to the project’s major achievements.

D-STIR project was approved within the Interreg Danube Transnational Programme financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) and European Neighbourhood Instrument (ENI). Value of the project is almost 2 million Euros. The main goal of this Programme is to develop coordinated policies and actions in the programme area reinforcing the commitments of the Europe 2020 strategy towards the three dimensions of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth.

Contribution of D-STIR project to Danube innovation framework conditions is extremely important as RRI awareness and capacity in the region are limited.  One of the contributions of the project are Pilot Actions and awareness growing during workshops, project presentations and stakeholder’s meeting in the Danube region, emphasizing R&I to be carried out in a socially, environmentally and ethically manner.  Besides project partners are emphasizing that RRI should become a horizontal principal integrated into all strategic documents, and it should be a criterion for granting funds in all programmes addressing RRI.

D-STIR project was designed to take advantage of RRI benefits, as stakeholders required increased knowledge and capacity, concrete strategies and improved policy framework for innovations. This was possible with transnational cooperation among complementary partners, as D-STIR partners worked with Transnational Stakeholder Groups from different fields – policy, academia, business (including SMEs) and civil society across the macro-region.

Another contribution to the region is RRI strategy for the Danube region that presents a single, strategic document with recommendations for academic and business actors in Danube Region, and consists policy recommendations for the managing – public authorities.

Project's Consortium after the Final Conference in Braila, Romania

Nina Irimia from ADRSE - LP, during the presentation at the Final Conference

The last SC meeting of the consortium in Braila, Romania