Bringing industry back to life along the Danube
A rich industrial heritage stretches back hundreds of years along the stretch of the River Danube from the Black Forest to the Black Sea. This includes traditions in manufacturing in diverse industries, including textiles, chemicals, ceramics, furniture and more. Yet, globalisation, technology and political shifts have led to the closure of many of these industrial plants. The closures impacted the entire regional socio-economic fabric of the region, with the displacement of workers affecting wider communities and harming local economies. The EU-funded RIS4Danu project aimed to reverse this trend and breathe industrial life back into this stretch of the river by creating business development plans to reopen 21 old industrial sites across the area. “The project conceptualises the industrial sites as inclusive hubs, where a wide range of regional stakeholders can bundle their knowledge and develop innovations that support green and digital transitions,” says Oliver Ziegler, RIS4Danu project coordinator. “They could serve as innovation anchors, unleashing opportunities for the entire region to strengthen their capacity to develop innovative solutions to place-specific ecological, social and economic challenges,” he adds.
Revising the Smart Specialisation approach
The RIS4Danu project adopted and expanded an evidence-based approach to regeneration known as Smart Specialisation (S3 ). This strategy is used to transform regional economic structures, by defining specific goals and enacting structural change. RIS4Danu incorporated sustainability, along with broader societal challenges including climate change and other environmental issues, to create a next-generation approach: the Smart Specialisation Strategies for Sustainable and Inclusive Growth (S4+). The five project partners that made up the RIS4Danu consortium developed this approach to revitalise the region through green growth, in alignment with local interests and challenges.
Stakeholder workshops for sustainable transformation
To progress the sustainable transformation of the region, the project team held a series of workshops with local stakeholders. “In a nutshell, RIS4Danu connects the industrial site and the regional system by putting local and regional stakeholders in the lead of a structured discovery process,” explains Ziegler. Based on extensive research and analysis – the ‘Base of Evidence’ – regional and local assets, capacities and challenges were put into perspective with sustainable transformation opportunities for each of the disused industrial sites. “By doing so, stakeholders can formulate a vision for each site, the transformational goal (such as a new function or a new business model), and facilitate the discovery of new activities to achieve this transformation,” notes Ziegler.
Achieving goals and shaping policy
RIS4Danu delivered on all five expected project outcomes: providing strategic business development plans for the reopening of industrial sites; proposing networks of key players, stakeholders and projects; analysing the regional cross-fertilisation potential; promoting the establishment of a new sustainable and inclusive regional industry ecosystem; and finally identifying innovation barriers and creating recommendations for policy support. Of the 21 development plans, at least six are being considered for implementation, while an additional three have triggered follow-up activities by the relevant regional authorities. “RIS4Danu managed to shape the thinking of various policy stakeholders and helped to lift the topic of sustainable brownfield revitalisation on the policy agenda,” says Ziegler. “In general, we strongly believe that the RIS4Danu Preparatory Action has the quality and innovative capacity to be turned into a standing EU funding programme.”
Keywords
RIS4Danu, industry, revitalisation, stakeholder, sustainable transformation, policy, funding
