2ND

NEWSLETTER

July 2020

You are reading the 2nd SinCE-AFC Newsletter!

In this issue we want to give you an overview of what happened in the life of the project

during the second semester.

You are welcome to our website for more project news and there you can subscribe to our

Newsletter as well.

Visit: https://www.interregeurope.eu/since-afc/

SinCE-AFC project timeline:

As you can see from the project’s timeline the main focus in the 2nd semester was on the:

• collection of good practices

• interregional meeting with study visits in Bologna, 19-20.02.2020.

• 1st questionnaire for the stakeholders’ consultation process

• organization of local stakeholder group (LSG) meetings

2nd Interregional Meeting, 19-20.02.2020, Bologna

The Metropolitan City of Bologna organized the 2nd interregional event on 19-20.02.2020.

The transnational meeting was divided in two sessions.

The first session was marked by two main speeches held, respectively, by IFOAM (International

Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements) Europe's delegate Antonio Compagnoni and by

the Coordinator of the Milan Food Policy inside the Mayor’s Office Andrea Magarini Pellini.

In the second part, the session on the theme of sharing good practices related to sustainable

production, Francesca Cappellaro from ENEA (Italian National Agency for New Technologies,

Energy and Sustainable Economic Development) introduced the European/Italian Circular

Economy Stakeholder Platform.

This session also included: Luca Michieletto from the Humus Network; the SinCE AFC partners’

representatives who presented good practices from 7 different countries (Italy, Bulgaria, Greece,

Hungary, Ireland, Poland, Romania and Ireland).

After the meeting SinCE AFC partners’ representatives carried out a number of study visits on

important ongoing practices in the field of innovative approaches to the agri-food sector, which

allowed the European partners to acquire in-depth knowledge of these conversion experiences.

The study visits were organized to:

• the Future Food Institute and in the Granarolo S.p.a. headquarters where Vittorio Zambrini

presented the project AgrofoodBIC, a start-up accelerator in the food & beverage and agro-

industrial sectors.

• Local Action Group of the Bolognese Apennines (GAL). GAL is a Public Private Limited

Liability Consortium that manages resources allocated by the Rural Development Programme for

Emilia Romagna, and is involved in a project for the creation of an Bolognese Apennines Bio-

District. This project involves many operators in the area including the social agricultural

cooperative COpAPS and the Corte d'Aibo wine company. More info about the meeting here.

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Study vist at Corte d’Aibo winery

Local Stakeholder Group Meetings

Due to the COVID-19 situation majority of the LSG meetings were organized on-line.

• Italy

The 19th February 2020 in Palazzo Malvezzi (Metropolitan City of Bologna headquarter), was

the first day of the 2nd Project Partners’ Meeting in Bologna, in which the Metropolitan city of

Bologna organized its 2nd Local Stakeholder Group Meeting. The event was an important

opportunity to deepen the project with stakeholders and analyse the most relevant addressed

project issues. Stakeholders attended the LP’s presentations and presented to the project

partnership their organizations and activities, offering important inputs and food for thought on

which to work and discuss. After the welcome address by Mr. Giuseppe De Biasi, the Head of

the Mayor Staff of the Metropolitan City of Bologna, it was an introduction into the main project

principles lead by the lead partner. Then started the keynote speech chaired by Marino Cavallo

of the Metropolitan City of Bologna, in which took part: Mr. Antonio Compagnoni from IFOAM

Europe, Mr. Andrea Magarini, City of Milan Food Policy Coordinator, who presented the

experience of Milan on food system transformation.

In the second semester Metropolitan City of Bologna carried out other activities within the project,

including:

- bilateral online consultations with stakeholders and experts, by email and telephone exchanges

and interviews for the collection of information related to good practices and for the collection of

answers related to the stakeholder consultation questionnaire about circular economy in the agri-

food sector.

- internal meeting between MCBO and UNIBO, to discuss the common activities related to

the project. The meeting was held on April 14, 2020 from 10:00 to 12:00 am.

• Greece

The 2nd LSG meeting took place online due to the restrictions of COVID-19. ANATOLIKI SA,

with the cooperation of the Regional Development Fund of Central Macedonia host the

meeting on Tuesday June 2nd 2020. The first part of the meeting started with listing the

activities of the project implemented so far in Greece. Furthermore, the representative of

ANATOLIKI presented selected good practices identified in all partners’ countries, as well as

how COVID-19 affected the agro-food chain. During the 2nd part of the meeting the

representative of the Regional Development Fund of Central Macedonia presented the

integrated circular economy plan of the Region. Moreover, the representative of Aristotle

University of Thessaloniki presented the new EU Action Plan of circular economy. Finally,

ANATOLIKI presented the questionnaire concerning the needs and perspectives of circular

economy developed in the context of SinCE-AFC project and asked from the stakeholders to

provide their answers.

More than 20 representatives of municipalities, regions, universities, associations and

chambers attended the

meeting.

• Romania

South Muntenia Regional Development Agency organized the 2nd Local Stakeholder Group

Meeting on June 25th, 2020, online, through the ZOOM application.

More than 17 participants attended the event, representing the national and local public

authorities, business associations, SMEs, clusters, research institutes.

During this meeting, the stage of SinCE-AFC project was presented, together with the study visits

in Italy, good practices identified in the South Muntenia Region, analysis of the Stakeholders

Consultation process in the field of agri-food circular economy.

Two stakeholders, representing National

Research and Development Institute for

Chemistry and Petrochemistry - ICECHIM -

Călărași branch and the Dâmbovița Chamber

of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture,

presented their impressions regarding the 2nd

meeting of the project partners, offering

practical examples that they learned during

study visits.

• Hungary

The LSG meeting in Hungary took place on 19 June via Skype. During the meeting the progress

of SinCE-AFC was presented to the stakeholders, the good practices of the Bologna meeting

were presented and the participants discussed the consultation process specially the

questionnaire to be filled out by the regional concerned enterprises and entrepreneurs. Among

the participants were the University of Debrecen, Chamber of Agriculture, municipalities and

Young Farmers division of the Association of Hungarian Farmers' Clubs and Farmers'

Cooperatives.

• Bulgaria

On June 29, 2020 at 10.30 in the Plenary Hall of the Municipal Council - Devnya the second

meeting of the local stakeholder group on project “SinCE- AFC” was held.

The first part of the meeting, the project team presented the best practices shared and visited

during the second interregional meeting held on 19 February in Bologna. The exchange of

knowledge also focused mainly on the issue of cooperation within the thematic conference “The

circular economy as a model of virtuous economic development for policies aimed at small and

medium-sized enterprises in agriculture the food chain “at Palazzo Malvezzi.

During the second part of the meeting, Representatives of Devnya Cement AD and Agropolichim

AD presented their good practices "Commitment to Sustainable Environment, Global Strategies

and Sample Projects" and "Circular Economy for Straw".

Moreover, the meeting was attended by representatives of the Regional Information Center -

Varna, who introduced to the participants

the activities of the center and the

opportunities for obtaining information and

advice on project financing under the

individual Operational Programs.

The third part of the meeting was devoted

to discussions and comments of the

participants to further stages of project

implementation.

The event involved the participation of

several local stakeholders.

Upcoming in Semester 3

The 3rd interregional event and study visit will be held in South Muntenia, Romania in September

2020. Due to the present uncertain situation SinCE-AFC project partners discussed the possibility

of meeting online. Update about this event will be on our website and facebook account. Follow

us!

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you can subscribe on our website here.