September 25th, 2019. Budapest, Hungary. ConnectGREEN project partners join in order to look back at the first project year and to bring project work further, by sharing knowledge and planning ahead.

Over 30 representatives of various project partners and, implicitly, fields of expertise gathered in Budapest on September 25th and 26th for the third Project Partners meeting in ConnectGREEN. Coming together in person increases the cohesion of the international consortium, and fosters deeper knowledge exchange and creative brainstorming for next steps to be taken.

Discussions on the first day of the meeting covered all work packages. On Work Package 1 the discussions focused on budget and administrative issues, such as new colleagues stepping in. The Communication Work Package presented the main results of the outreach work done so far, but also looked forward at the best ways in which WP Communication can support the other technical teams, but also benefit from the results of their work. Lively discussions went on around the Methodology on the identification of ecological corridors and related map developed under WP3 "Knowledge and source base" and presented at the meeting. For WP4 "Innovative pilot sites" the data collection is on its way and feeds into the modelling process. WP5 "Policy and networks" lead proposed a very engaging exercise where participants could comment on the draft of the Action Plan of the Carpathian Convention and improve and enrich the document. The work was done in smaller breakout groups who could brainstorm on different sets of priorities set in the document.

In parallel, all guests were invited in front of the video and photo camera to give their personal definitions for the technical terms included in the glossary of the Methodology. Such words as “fragmentation” or “ecological connectivity” were “translated” for a general audience. Participants also had the occasion to contribute to an EU level citizen campaign where they could send their personal messages on the need to make EU policies greener.