ECOREGIONS
ECOREGIONS was born from a common need of regional authorities from the Rur@ct European network: Limousin, Jämtland, Kainuu Regions, joined little by little by other public organizations: Picardie Region (Fr) -exporting partner in Rur@ct and today ECOREGIONS Lead Partner (LP)-, District of Forcheim (De), State Development Coporation of Thuringia (De), Regional Agency for Energy of Eszak Alfold (Hu), Chamber of commerce of Cremona (It), Malta intelligent energy management agency (Ma), County of Hordaland (No) and ERRIN (European Regions Research and Innovation Network), working on  EU dissemination.

They had the same objective: improving their governance of ecoinnovation and green technologies private sector (in particular SMEs) and using for this the good practices (GP) transfer approach, already experienced by some of them.

They referred to European definitions to define the project outline: green technologies are those that are less harmful for environment than other techniques.
Ecoinnovation gathers technological/non technological green innovations, both of high interest for the EU and defined as priorities in SDD, ETAP, EMAS & SCP/SIP.

In order to produce practical results, 4 sub-objectives were fixed:
.To put at the disposal of the partners a stock of successful GPs, among those 11 have been chosen before the start of the project, to be transferred. 5 of these GPs support ecoinnovation, 6 green technologies, on the following themes : sustainable energy (biomass, wind, biofuels, photovoltaic, geothermal energy); measurement and monitoring systems; optimization of industrial processes; low carbone vehicules; green chemistry; eco-housing; recycling and valorizing wastes; storage of electric energy / batteries; valorization of CO2.
.To precisely define and validate the implementation plans of the tranfers, in order to guarantee the integration into importing partners regional policy systems, of the GPs transferred, following a predefined transfer methodology.
.To integrate the good practices transfers within a larger thought process, targeting the direct improvement of local and regional policies in strategies  thanks to the involvement of elected members .
.To encourage other EU regional & local authorities thanks to improve their policies in the field, through the policy recommendations, website, newsletters, and the assistance of ERRIN.
ECOREGIONS is innovative, because it proposes a specific approach of transfer :going very far way in the process (until the policy improvement) in starting to prepare the transfers before the project starts, in involving policy-makers, in designing ambitious implementation plans; targeting local ownership of project results through the involvement of local stakeolders ; and integrating into the partnership various & complementary profiles of partners, likely to directly contribute to the policies improvement.