Guests from two cooperating agencies from Italy and Portugal visited the Regional Development Agency in Bielsko-Biała. The visit was a part of the on-going project Go SIV co-financed by the Programme of the European Commission Horizon2020.

The full name of the project is Support SMEs innovation and initiatives within Smart Industrial Villages (SIV), an approach for renovating traditional urban industrial areas.

On 18th nad 19th December 2017, representatives of the Agencies ERVET from Bologna (Italy) and ADRAL from Alentejo (Portugal), together with the employees of the RDA Bielsko-Biała visited revitalised areas and buildings remaining after old enterprises and they learnt about the history of their recovery by the City of Bielsko-Biała, the Agency and by private investors.

Among others, participants met the Mayor of the district of Porąbka (Silesian Voivodship, Poland) who talked about CITY SEC project, the owner of Nowe Miasto initiative, Mr Grzegorz Nabagło. They visited FabLab operating by the Agency, the student research group RESET and Career Centre and academic Incubator in the University of Bielsko-Biała. The final discussion of the meeting took part in the Beskidy Technology Incubator BIT, where the guests learnt about the origins and activities of the Technology Park and the Incubator.

Later next year, two further peer learning meetings will be organised to exchange the experiences and good practices. Based on the gathered material, a guidebook will be prepared on revitalisation of brownfields, equipped with examples how various local governments and institutions dealt with this issue in various countries. The guidebook will be available in an electronic form free of charge.

---