In co-operation with NOFA (NL), the project Vital Rural Area will hold its third International Policy Forum on Regional Development on May 26th and 27th, 2011, in Multi-functional Village Centre de Beijer at Rinsumageast (NL).

The general theme of the forum is: youth and their expectations of living in the countryside in 2025.

For more details about the programme, organisational framework and registration/reservation procedure, please visit Vital's website: www.vitalruralarea.eu.

In the context of the European Union Sustainable Energy Week, a seminar on off-shore wind energy in the North Sea will be held at Norway House, Brussels, on 13 April.

On March 11th more than 40 students, scholars and representatives from the maritime industry cluster participated in a one-day-seminar on maritime logistics in Molde, Norway. The seminar was hosted by the Norwegian Shipowners’ Association (NSA)  in cooperation with NMU and Molde University College.

27 Partners institutions from 15 European regions have joined forces in collaboration to strengthen their regional economies. Political representatives from the North Sea and Baltic Sea regions are meeting today in Brussels at the first Political Advisory Group Meeting of the inter-regional projects Baltic Supply and North Sea Supply Connect. The objective of these European projects is to increase the competitive ability of small and medium-sized businesses in the Northeastern European Corridor.

The article "Open Linked Data to Inform Policy and Improve Services", written by Mike Thacker from Porism & esd Toolkit has been published in the European Journal of ePractice nr 12. The European Journal of ePractice is a peer-reviewed online publication on eTransformation.

The Sixth Call for Applications is now closed. A total of twelve full applications, one application for extension and five cluster applications have been submitted to the Secretariat.

Registration for the Joint Annual Conference and General Assembly 2011 of the North Sea Region Programme and the North Sea Commission is now open.

DC NOISE was promoted at the Alpine Space Forum: Coping with Demographic Change in the Alps - Shaping Policies and contributed to make it a fertile platform.

First impressions about the event are presented in a press release that you can find here.

The North Sea Region Programme 2007-2013 is inviting interested agents to submit a quotation for a short term contract regarding the production of a video / news reel for the Programme at the Annual Conference on 22-23 June 2011.

A selection of short videos on DiPol's activities at the case studies is available for online access from the projects website.

Commissioner Hahn will be available on Monday 21 March from 3-4pm to chat on-line about future EU cohesion policy.

Danish director Susanne Bier's 'In A Better World', supported by North Sea Screen Partners member FilmFyn, has won Best Foreign Language Film at this year's Academy Awards!

It is now possible to make early bird hotel bookings for the Joint Annual Conference 2011. The event will take place 21-23 June in Bruges, Belgium.

The Programme has received a number of questions concerning the ongoing tendering. Two additional information documents are reflecting on these questions to clarify the issues raised.