During the period 2-4 April in Sarajevo, our lead partner PACT and representatives of partners NEUM, LINK and ORZ had the incredible opportunity to exchange ideas, and connect with like-minded innovators working towards a more sustainable and circular economy!
PACT’s Executive President, Professor Soumodip Sarkar and representatives of NEUM, LINK and ORZ attended the 3rd ISE Community of Practice (ISE CoP) in-person gathering in Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina on 2, 3, and 4 April 2025.
The ISE CoP was a key element in building a strong network within the ISE Mission to increase the projects’ impacts. It comprised 14 Thematic Projects (TPs) and 2 Governance Projects, offering a space for collective knowing and learning. The ISE CoP was organized around four actions: connect, learn, share, and collaborate. In addition, new Thematic Working Groups (TWGs) consisted of structured discussions that led to White Papers on the four focus areas of the Mission. This key in-person gathering served as an opportunity to learn in more detail about the circular and innovative solutions offered by the TPs and to engage in hands-on work to find synergies and collaborative pathways.
A specific training tackled practical approaches to influencing citizen behaviour, as it was one of the topics identified as highly interesting by the TPs’ partners. By the end of this session, participants were able to share and learn from existing behaviour change approaches across different focus areas; identify common barriers and success factors in citizen engagement; apply behavioural insights to enhance project outcomes; and design measurement approaches for behaviour change initiatives. In addition, a parallel session was held on Friday, 4 April 2025 to further engage and collaborate with local actors, while addressing other important matters through collaborative conversations.
This workshop aimed to strengthen collaboration between local partners and Interreg Euro-MED ISE Mission projects, explore joint opportunities, and create pathways for sustainable industrial, agricultural, and economic transformation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Finally, the meeting saw the launch of the Mentoring & Twinning programme, which will help projects guarantee their results are adopted by other regions in focused pilot tests.
Professor Soumodip (PACT) presented the project’s goal and the problem we’re trying to solve, explained how we differentiate in e-waste valorisation, and explained our methodology of engaging stakeholders and promoting policy unification.
ЕWAsTER project partners NEUM (PP6) & LINK (PP10) had the opportunity to present their institutions and engage in discussions to scale up regional innovation: Gaps, Challenges and Opportunities.
ORZ (PP5), with the collaboration of REUSE center Slovenia, presented initiatives and successful practices that contribute to a more sustainable and circular economy, and showcased the impactful innovative solution WEEE REUSE which will be tested in Portugal, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovenia during 2025.
The event was a strong sense of community building and reinforced commitment to joint work, highlighting the value of collaboration between partners in driving forward innovative and sustainable solutions across the MED regions.
