The 2nd Interreg Euro-MED Italy Forum successfully concluded on Friday, May 15, 2026, in Rome at the FH55 Grand Hotel Palatino. Organized by the Tuscany Region in its capacity as the Italian National Contact Point for the Interreg Euro-MED 2021-2027 Programme, the event brought together over 100 participants, including project partners, institutional representatives, and local stakeholders.
The initiative consolidated the valuable dialogue within the Italian network initiated during the 2024 Florence edition, transforming it into a solid platform for permanent cooperation and strategic co-design.
A New Operational Format: Beyond the Traditional Conference
Unlike traditional front-facing events, the 2026 Forum was designed as a true laboratory for collective and transdisciplinary work. The day was structured around 8 thematic tables coordinated by representatives of Governance projects, divided into two synergistic macro-sessions:
- Morning (Intervision Workshops)
- Afternoon (Mission-Specific Sessions)
Our Mission’s Focus:
Our mission, the Natural Heritage Mission, discussed how to implement the Solve the Challenge 2026 awareness campaign through a joint initiative to be organized next autumn.
“Water Crisis” thematic table: shared strategies against water crisis
The operational heart of our Mission centered around Table 4 _ Water Crisis, a crucial meeting among Italian partners of projects dedicated to water governance, drought, and communication and policy strategies.
The debate was driven by the urgent need to structure the campaign “Solve the Challenge 2026. Water crisis: what WE can do”, conceived not merely as an awareness campaign through digital channels, but as a driver to generate direct territorial activities and impact regional and national political agendas.
Going Beyond Digital
Participants unanimously agreed on the need to move past the limitations of online communication alone to implement offline and on-the-field actions capable of:
- Harmoniously capitalizing on individual outputs and technical results produced by the various transnationals projects.
- Building a common, consistent, and impactful narrative on the issue of water resources in the Mediterranean.
- Actively engaging citizens, educational institutions, economic stakeholders, and policy makers.
- Creating stable, structured connections between the scientific research community, governance bodies, and local territories.
- Making the methodological and technological solutions developed by the projects tangible, visible, and immediately applicable.
Operational Ideas and Action Proposals
The collective brainstorming generated numerous proposals for local implementation, optimizing available resources and reducing logistical complexities:
- Organizing major national events, thematic conferences, and local info days.
- Carrying out awareness activities in schools and universities, study visits, educational exhibitions, and open days (e.g., leveraging the “Water Museums” network).
- Setting up interactive stands and showcases for technological and application tools developed within Euro-MED projects.
- Organizing hackathons for young innovators and roundtables with water sector experts.
- Creating synergies and integrating with existing national trade fairs and sector events to reduce costs and reach a wider audience.
Overcoming challenges: the core issue of policy relations
An honest and in-depth analysis highlighted several historical barriers in European cooperation, such as limited budgets, organizational asymmetries between universities and public bodies, and the risk of fragmented communication. However, the most complex challenge lies in the gap between those who generate knowledge and those who hold decision-making power.
Project results often struggle to feed into actual public policies. To bridge this gap, the Forum outlined a clear paradigm shift in our Mission’s institutional communication:
- Less generic communication;
- More direct dialogue with specific individuals and institutions;
- Building long-term, continuous relationships;
- Precise identification of the target audiences to be engaged.
Next steps: towards a joint action
To overcome fragmentation, the shared strategy aims to map the “flagship products” of each project and transfer them to priority targets (regions, local authorities, and key stakeholders) through direct dialogue with specific focal points, using plain language and showcasing real-world applications rather than theoretical presentations.
From an operational standpoint, the goal is to shift from mass events to targeted meetings and final conferences, also utilizing common frameworks, back-to-back days, or evocative public spaces like “water museums”. This local synergy will give rise to a genuine national network of initiatives distributed over time.
Cooperation is not just about sharing ideas, but about turning knowledge into concrete political and territorial actions.
