The project Connecting Regions (ConnReg) AT-CZ aims to bring together regional development in the programme area, which is currently still very much organised at district and country level. A common challenge is not only the coordination of regional policy fields of action (transport infrastructure, nature conservation, culture, spatial development, etc.) but also the improvement of the overall quality of cross-border projects.

As the programming of the next INTERREG funding programme AT-CZ is in the start-up phase, meccas task is to analyse the needs, potentials, themes and absorption capacity of the programme region and to identify key project proposals for the future programming period. To achieve this, mecca screens documents and data on the programme region and conducts several national and bilateral workshops with Czech and Austrian experts and project promoters, potential new project partners and other stakeholders.

Employer:

Catalogue of services:

NAFES (Lower Austrian working group for the promotion of shopping in town and city centres) supports activities aimed at increasing the attractiveness of urban shaped village centres and gaining new circles of customers. During the funding period 2013-2016 207 projects were funded with a total investment volume of € 12.4 million and public funds in the amount of € 3.3 million.

mecca conducted an impact analysis regarding the funding period 2013-2016 with the aim of deducing suggestions for NAFES 2017+.

Employer:

Catalogue of services:

• Preparation of a questionnaire and sampling
• Quantitative analysis, conduct of the surveys
• Coducting a interpretation workshop
• Evaluation and elaboration of recommendations
• Transnational research of best practice examples (securing local amenities in rural regions, securing commerce in city centers)
• Compiling a draft report, reality check, inclusion of feedback and compiling the result report

Lower Austria has committed itself to reduce the energy consumption and the greenhouse gas emissions. Measures are defined in the NÖ Klima- und Energieprogramm 2020 (Lower Austria Climate and Energy Programme). They are consistent with European, Austrian and Lower Austrian climate protection measures.

The aim of the study commissioned by EVN is the question how regional and communal development and energy supply could be better coordinated in order to generate benefit regarding security of energy supply, energetic and economic efficiency, climate protection and minimising environmental impacts. mecca conducted a data analysis, and developed usage suggestions for model communities.

project partner: Environment Agency Austria (Umweltbundesamt)

Employer:

Catalogue of services:

• Data analysis: new Classification of environment regarding energy supply
• Depiction of possible uses and development proposals for model municipalities

The Project “Education grows” in the region Buckelige Welt-Wechselland is a initiative by educators, parents and the economy. It is financally supported by the LEADER Region Buckelige Welt-Wechselland.

Aims of the project:

• Impulses and advanced education for everybody interested in it (f.e. network meetings for parents)
• Cooporation and exchange between local businesses and schools
• “Education days” with a practical orientation and interesting lectures (f.e. by Margret Rasfeld, Gerald Hüther, Alexander Pointner)

mecca supports the LEADER Region Buckelige Welt-Wechselland with project development and implementation.

Employer:

Catalogue of services:

• Project development and support with the project submission
• Project management
• Preparation, moderation and postprocessing of events
• Quality assurance and documentation, evaluation

The Austrian Rural Development Programme (LE Programme) 2014-20 combines all measures of supporting rural areas. As a part of a consortium formed by metis, mecca is assigned to the evaluation of the achievement of objectives regarding the following topics:

–   Model projects in rural tourism
–   Rural tourism
–   Village renewal
–   Civic participation
–   Vitalisation of town centres, revitalisation of buildings and infrastructure for leisure, culture and education

project partner: Metis

Employer:

Catalogue of services:

• Evaluation of assistance measures
• Conducting of interviews

The austrian “Building Report” is issued regulary. The main aspects of the 3rd edition of the report are landscape, residential building and communal construction. Hannes Schaffer is one of the experts for the chapter “landscape” alongside Sybylla Zech. They develop case scenarios which should illustrate a probable future development. This expert evaluation is used as a basis for decision making for federal and regional politics. The report will be released end of 2016.

project partner: Plattform Baukulturpolitik (Platform Building Culture Policy)

Employer:

Catalogue of services:

• Expertise regarding the subject of landscape
• Development of case scenarios
• Organisation of workshops

The aim of the roadmap “Agenda For Urban Regions in Austria” is to establish urban regions as fields of political action.

The roadmap shows the next steps, containing the main focuses as well as specigic guidelines and time horizons. The roadmap relies on an interaction to the ÖREK recommondation “Für eine Stadtregionspolitik in Österreich”, which arised from the ÖREK 2011. It focus is on measures which strengthen the political weight of planning and acting in an urban region.

Employer:

Catalogue of services:

• Data Research concerning current topics in the city region
• Involvement of and coordination with participating actors
• Discussion and answering of the following questions:
  • What is/is not the aim?
  • What are possible measures?
  • What could be further steps: including Who? When? What?

The project Connecting Regions (ConnReg) AT-CZ aims to bring together regional development in the programme area, which is currently still very much organised at district and country level. A common challenge is not only the coordination of regional policy fields of action (transport infrastructure, nature conservation, culture, spatial development, etc.) but also the improvement of the overall quality of cross-border projects.

As the programming of the next INTERREG funding programme AT-CZ is in the start-up phase, meccas task is to analyse the needs, potentials, themes and absorption capacity of the programme region and to identify key project proposals for the future programming period. To achieve this, mecca screens documents and data on the programme region and conducts several national and bilateral workshops with Czech and Austrian experts and project promoters, potential new project partners and other stakeholders.

Employer:

Catalogue of services:

Cross-border waterways as the Raab are characteristic for the Austrian-Hungarian border region. To maintain an appropriate environmental status and to guarantee a sustainable use a bilateral coordination and cooperation is needed. In the INTERREG AT-HU project „RaabSTAT“ the chemical-ecological status of the Raab is analysed and evaluated in the course of joint investigations. On the basis of the results measures for achieving and maintaining a good status can subsequently be worked out.

mecca supports the Province of Burgenland (Department 5 – Building) in the implementation of this INTERREG AT-HU project.

project partner: Projektberatung Schlögl

Employer:

Catalogue of services:

• Project coordination (Organisation and documentation of partner meetings and workshops)
• Project administration (INTERREG-compliant reporting, processing of procurement procedures)
• Project monitoring (ongoing monitoring of the project implementation)
• Communication and public relation activities (Organisation and moderation of events)
• Translations (DE-HU, HU-DE)

A wide range of bilateral projects in the Austrian-Hungarian border region are funded by the current INTERREG VA programme. In order to measure the programme’s success, we evaluate the cooperation quality and intensity by an online survey among the actors.

Employer:

Catalogue of services:

• Technical setup incl. live-testing, online activation and usage
• Telephone interviews with the most important project owners
• Documention of results (export of results, report, abstract)

The INTERREG project “regionet competitive” builds on the activities of the pior project “regionet aktiv”. The aim is to strengthen the competitveness especially of small and medium-sized enterprises in the border regions by cross-border networking, education and cooporation. Ten austrian and hungarian partners work together implementing this project.

mecca supports the Lower Austrian regions Region Bucklige Welt-Wechselland and Römerland Carnuntum in the implementation of this INTERREG VA project.

Employer:

Catalogue of services:

Consulting and professional support of the project partners concering:

• Detailled project planning, design and coordination of activities (incl. attendance at workshops and assistance with designing a joint frame system)
• Preparation, moderation and protocolling of project meetings and working groups incl. attendancies at these workshops)
• Processing of procurement procedures
• Administrative project execution
• Elaboration of a bilateral economic development strategy and development of sustainable cooperation frameworks
• INTERREG-compliant reporting and processing (five financial reports, five project progress reports)
• Monitoring and quality assurance (assistance with interim evaluation and end evaluation)

The pollen of the Ambrosia artemisiifolia plant, commonly known as Ragweed, are regarded as especially agressive in triggering alergic reactions. They are responsible for  substantial economical losses. While Hungary is fighting the plant by applying organisatorical and juridical measures, there are no measures implemented against the plant in Austria up until now. There is neither a regulated procedure for recording and combating ragweed nor any cooperation with the Hungarian authorities. This imbalance in the administrative systems’ ability to act represents a major challenge for the border region – especially Burgenland is affected. As Ragweed does not stop at the border, the problem can only be tackled through joint action.

The aim of this project is the establishment of a sustaibable cooparation between Austrian and Hungarian administrative and research institutions dealing with Ragweed control. This transfer of know-how leads to benefits for both sides and improves the quality of public service and thus the quality of life for the citizens.

mecca supports the Province of Burgenland in its administrative tasks.

Employer:

Catalogue of services:

• Project management
• Communications, event management
• Coordination meetings

The REBEN project is implemented by the Province of Burgenland and the Hungarian North-Transdanubian Water Directorate ÉDUVIZIG as a part of INTERREG AT-HU in 2017-2019.

The aim of the project is the preservation of the high water quality and the good ecological and chemical condition of Lake Neusiedl as well as to formulate essential measures. As Lake Neusiedl region is separated by the Austrian-Hungarian border, a joint approach is necessary.

By investigating the exchange of water and matter between the reed belt and the open water as well as their importance for water quality, a major knowledge gap is to be filled. The management plan forms the basis for a long-term, integrative concept for the sustainable protection of water quality and provides recommendations for bilaterally coordinated monitoring for the assessment of the condition of the lake.

Employer:

Catalogue of services:

• Project coordination
• Project administration
• Project monitoring
• Moderation
• Translations

Health care provision in Austria, especially in border-regions, faces the challenges of providing cost-efficient and high quality health care due to issues like periphery, demografic change and others. Cross-border cooperation is one solution to face these challenge. By sharing infrastructures, efficient use of resources or shorter distances the health care provision of residents can highly be improved.

Lower Austria is a pioneer in cross-border health care provision. It is the only region in Austria which has a long termed strategy concerning healthcare provision in border regions. The Health and Social Fund of Lower Austria (NÖGUS) has been working on cross-border health care for many years and has implemented numerous successful projects. Unfortunately, short- to midtermed projects represent the performance/output and activities only temporarily and not for a longer horizone.

By developing the brand “Lower Austria – Cross-border Health Care”, Lower Austria concentrates its cross-border activities in the region – and can be recognized by public and experts. Concentrating these ativities enables the government of Lower Austria to represent itself in public and on a European level.

mecca supports the Health and Social Fund of Lower Austria (NÖGUS) in developing the brand “Lower Austria – Cross-border Health Care”

Employer:

Catalogue of services:

• Market analysis
• Target group identification
• Network analysis – project partners
• Marketing concept

Lower Austria has committed itself to reduce the energy consumption and the greenhouse gas emissions. Measures are defined in the NÖ Klima- und Energieprogramm 2020 (Lower Austria Climate and Energy Programme). They are consistent with European, Austrian and Lower Austrian climate protection measures.

The aim of the study commissioned by EVN is the question how regional and communal development and energy supply could be better coordinated in order to generate benefit regarding security of energy supply, energetic and economic efficiency, climate protection and minimising environmental impacts. mecca conducted a data analysis, and developed usage suggestions for model communities.

project partner: Environment Agency Austria (Umweltbundesamt)

Employer:

Catalogue of services:

• Data analysis: new Classification of environment regarding energy supply
• Depiction of possible uses and development proposals for model municipalities

The city of Schwechat has about 17,500 inhabitants. The increase of the population is approximately 1,000 people per year. Green and open spaces are essential for the quality of living in the city.

The project “Green City Schwechat” concentrates solely on green and open spaces and collaborates with citizens, the city government and politics. The most important questions are: “What role will green and open spaces play in the year 2050?” and “How do the citizens imagine Schwechat in der future?”. Possible answers to these questions are to be integrated in the city development process in order to find solutions for green, livable ans resilient cities.

project partners: Green City Lab Schwechat, township of Schwechat, LEADER region Römerland Carnuntum

Employer:

Catalogue of services:

• Project management
• Participation processes
• Climate check
• Design and implementation of visions, ideas and goals

Since a few years, there are ambitions to improve the cycle path along the river March and to find new routes, which are more suitable for touristic use. Since the new routes pass through ecologically sensitive areas, this entails certain nature conservation requirements. To meet these reqirements, a set of measures to safeguard the visitor guidance need to be undertaken and subsequently monitored regarding their efficiency.

In close cooperation with the concerned municipalities, we elaborate the necessary measures in detail (e.g. visitor information, enclosures…), define their location and outline them in a code of practice.

project partner: Karl Reiner (ÖAR)

Employer:

Catalogue of services:

• Development of measures for visitor guidance
• Elaboration of a guidline for touristic experiences

The outdated wastewater treatment plants in Frauenkirchen and Podersdorf are to be replaced by a new, innovative approach, which fullfills along with the standard tasks of wastewater treatment new aspects by reusing wastewater as a pool of resources, which is in Austria and also internationally trendsetting (“NEW-facility”).

To implement the project, it is intended to seek funding by the EU LIFE programme: LIFE is the EU’s financial instrument supporting environmental, nature conservation and climate action projects. Together with the Vienna University of Technology, mecca takes care of the LIFE application.

project partner: Vienna University of Technology

Employer:

Catalogue of services:

• Elaboration of the LIFE project concept
• intern and extern project communication
• technical and substantial elaboration of the LIFE grant application
• Submission of the project proposal (“eproposal”)

Hannes Schaffer gives lectures at Vienna University of Technology for students in the fields of regional development and spatial planning.

Focus is on the develpment of rural areas and energy planning. The lectures are supplemented by field trips.

Employer:

Catalogue of services:

E_PROFIL is a set of methods (an IT-supported toolkit) for the elaboration of neighbourhood profiles. The aim of the project is to facilitate an energy and resource efficient development in the planning practice of Austrian cities. Furthermore, the project is an important asset for research and planning activities in Europe and can also be applied to other neighbourhoods.

project partners: Institute of Spatial Planning (Vienna University of Technology; Research Units: Urban and Regional Research, Public Finance and Infrastructure Policy), Department of Building Physics and Building Ecology (Vienna University of Technology), Research Institute of Urban Management and Governance (Vienna University of Economics and Business), City of Linz (Geschäftsbereich Planung, Technik und Umwelt), Linz AG, Ars Electronica Center, Linz

www.nachhaltigwirtschaften.at, www.eprofil.at

Employer:

Catalogue of services:

• Profile building for selected neighbourhoods
• Identification of measures packages for selected neighbourhoods
• Identification of the most important potentials and barriers to implementation
• Discussion and coordination of the action plan, development of a roadmap
• Summary of the results in a guideline

mecca produces two thematic maps on recycling in the Danube Region. One map shows the amount of waste material in more than 40 significant cities and sites withinin the Danube Region from Germany to the Ukraine.
The second map shows where recycling companies are settled in the Austrian Danube Region.

Employer:

Catalogue of services:

• Selection of 30-40 locations
• Research on waste generation for the selected locations: Waste and discarded metal, waste paper, waste glass, plastic waste
• Research of relevant companies in the Recycling sector in the Austrian Danube corridor
• Cartography and layout, maps and tables in German and English