EU Research FP 6: Expression of Interest for an Integrated Project

GISDE - Governance Instruments for Sustainable Development in Europe

Together with a large group of research institutes, territorial communities and the network EUROCITIES, the European association EUROIDEES has submitted an Expression of Interest for a large integrated project in the 6th Framework Research Programme. It mainly addresses the following thematic priorities:

1.1.7    Citizens and governance in a knowledge-based society

• Citizenship, democracy and new forms of governance
  ►Articulation of areas of responsibility and new forms of governance

• Knowledge-based society and social cohesion
  ► Options and choices for the development of a knowledge-based society

New forms of governance can strive for Sustainable Development (SD), dealing with the complexity of the knowledge-society and the local-global interdependencies. GISDE will enquire three fundamental issues: how to reinterpret and shape subsidiarity, how to cope with diversity and how to understand and ensure equity. Capitalising on two decades of research on SD, using the latest generation of evaluation and decision support tools, GISDE will operate on three levels (management of  SD processes, SD practice research and SD theory research) through interlaced EU networks of local communities, experts in different policy fields and sectors, researchers and acadamics of diverse disciplines. It will ensure a coherent integration of large-scale demonstration (methods and tools) and research (application-oriented and theoretical) for a EU "sustainability governance".

 The basic idea of GISDE is to achieve an new step in the discussion on Sustainable Development (SD) and governance combining:

1. the practical implementation of a coherent system of concepts and management tools in a large variety of pilot communities across Europe by local actors and consultants organised in three kinds of networks ("management of SD processes") 
2. the facilitation and the monitoring of this implementation by a network of researchers ("SD practice research") who will use the experiences for further improvement of operational tools and implementation procedures 
3. the exploitation of the resulting wealth of coherent empirical results for advanced theoretical research concerning the perspectives for governance in Europe, focusing on the issues of subsidiarity, equity and diversity ("SD theoretical research”).

The common approach to be used in the implementation will be SQM – Sustainable Quality Management. The integrated project is scheduled to last 6 years and to cost around 30 million EURO.

The initial Partners of this EoI are 16 renowned research institutes in 10 European Countries, important European networks of territorial communities and already some single regions. Many more partners, especially local communities, will be needed to carry out this proposal. If you are interested to join this initiative, please contact us (euroidees@euroidees.org).

Last update: 15.10.03