PROJECT STORIES
THE SURFACE PROJECTTHE SURFACE PROJECT
The SURFACE project is a project funded within the Interreg Central Europe Program, coordinated by the Austrian company ATM, and which is supported by the company Nerosubianco Srl, which I cooperate with.
As already seen in this article, the purpose of SURFACE is the creation of Smart Re-use Parks (SRPs), in order to improve environmental management and the quality of life in urban areas. Launching SRPs involves providing a combination of services that are aimed at reusing materials, in the context of urban waste prevention strategies.
One of the most interesting aspects of SRPs is versatility, as they can adapt to the urban scenarios in which they are used. These scenarios include rental services, repair and recycling workshops, collection points and shops dedicated to reuse, exchange platforms, repair cafes, Fab Labs, as well as online reuse markets and dedicated cultural initiatives for diverse targets (e.g. schools and associations).
For SURFACE, I followed activities related to external monitoring (for the verification of the expected results achieved by the consortium partners), as well as activities related to the creation of tools for communication and dissemination.
My services
- Monitoring: creation of project reports (deliverable), elaboration of online questionnaires for the collection of information from the project partners and verification of the objectives and results achieved, as well as questionnaires concerning critical issues and risks faced during the project.
- Dissemination: development of presentations regarding the results achieved, as well as managing the involvement of stakeholders and strategic partners.
Work period
April 2019 – June 2020
Overview of the situation
The SURFACE project needed to find a professional who would coordinate activities related to external monitoring of the project, as well as some elements relating to the communication and dissemination of results. Such a professional needed to have the following characteristics:
- Specific skills in the field of Euro-planning, to analyse what is stated in the project proposal regarding the objectives and expected results to be achieved, as well as skills for the development of reports to be presented to the Joint Secretariat.
- Skills in the digital field to carry out online analyses through tools such as GoogleForm and Surveymonkey, in order to prepare the final report.
- Skills in digital marketing for the creation of communication tools with Prezi.
- Language skills (the vehicular language in this case is English, even if the knowledge of other languages used by the partners is certainly useful).
- The ability to work in a team with international partners.
My activity
As an external expert, my task was to identify the objectives, results and outputs defined in the project, and verify their effective achievements. Furthermore, I needed to underline any problems or critical issues, as well as related risks and mitigation measures. For the communication and dissemination of results, I created interactive tools to present the results achieved and the involvement of stakeholders.
The specific activities that I was responsible for included:
- Analysis of the project and of the objectives/results to be achieved.
- Planning of the activities to be carried out for external monitoring and communication/dissemination.
- Coordination with the various project partners.
- Creation of reports and interactive tools.
The results
The results were positive in general, and included:
- Production of proper reports, which revealed an optimal development of the project by the partners involved.
- Creation of interactive and usable tools for communication and dissemination.
The project ran from July 2017 to June 2020. The experience was positive, and the consortium formed by the international partners was very motivated. Furthermore, I was able to follow a project which is in line with the theme of the circular economy, in which I strongly believe and which I also develop in other projects.