Advantage West Midlands encourages the sharing and exchange of knowledge through transnational working, where this brings visible benefits to our region. We assist in the development of regional projects under European transnational funding programmes and also promote region-to-region links, through transnational networks such as ERRIN (innovation), EASN (automotive), URBAMECO, DISTRICT, PURPLE (rural and peri-urban links) and RURIPOLITAN (rural).
The West Midlands has a particularly close collaborative relationship with Lower Silesia, a region in the South of Poland which shares many structural similarities to the West Midlands. Our work focuses on three main thematic areas:
Currently, we are a partner to the Lower Silesia's 'Partnership for Good - P4G' project financed under Norwegian Mechanism and also developing region to region relationships with Lodz in Poland and Shandong in China.
The trans-national priority of the 2007 - 2013 Regional Competitiveness and Employment programme will also enable the Region to explore further collaboration with 'leading edge' regions in Europe.