Proactive since 2010, the TEIN network gathers 12 actors in training and research, working on cross-border issues in a multicultural context and in collaboration with many local, regional, national and European actors. 9 of them have chosen to jointly invest in a project of innovation transfer entitled “PAT-TEIN” (Professionalizing Actors of Transfrontier Cooperation – Transfrontier Euro-Institute Network) and chaperoned by the Euro-Institut on the basis of two “toolkits” that have successfully been tested in the Upper Rhine region: a toolkit for the moderation of cross-border meetings and a training package for cross-border project managers.

The aim of PAT-TEIN is to train future project managers but also, to a larger extend, various actors involved in cooperation at different European borders, and thus meet the growing need for professionalization of cross-border actors.

After an initial meeting in Villach (Austria) where the partners got to know the toolkits, defined common objectives and outlined a first methodological approach for the transfer – in accordance with the requirements of European funding program LEONARDO which supports the project – the second meeting in Wisla was focused on a short presentation of each border as well as on a first assessment of the situation in the 5 test border regions of the project.

The partners also reflected more in detail on the content and form of the final product in order to ensure a long-term transfer to all European borders as effectively as possible. In that perspective, the next step will be to define on the one hand the general part, that is to say the common elements directly transferable to all borders, and on the other hand the parts that need to be adapted according to the specific context of each border region, particularly with tailor-made case studies.

Received by the Euro-Institut Catalan Transfrontalier, the partners will discuss these issues and share their findings during the next meeting that will take place on the 24th and 25th of June 2013 in Perpignan (France).