As part of the science offensive 2016, seven projects worth almost 3.4 million euros will be funded under the INTERREG V Oberrhein program as well as through a joint promotion of the states of Baden-Württemberg, Rheinland-Pfalz and the Grand Est Region in the amount of approx. 1.7 million euros. The cantons of Basel City, Basel Landscape and Aargau, as well as the Swiss Confederation are financially involved in a project with a further 410,000 euros. The project partners themselves make a contribution of 2.1 million euros.
The European Territorial Cooperation (ETC),also known as INTERREG, is an objective of European structural policy. It has been setting the framework for cross-border, transnational and interregional cooperation between European actors for over twenty years. The Ministry of Economics, Labor and Housing in Baden-Württemberg is responsible for interregional and transnational cooperation in the Alps, Danube Region, Central Europe and North-West Europe programs.
Grand Est is the name of the French region that originated in January 2016 from the territory of the previous regions Alsace , Champagne-Ardenne and Lorraine. As a temporary name was initially Alsace-Champagne-Ardenne-Lorraine used. In October 2016 this name was replaced by the Council of State by the Name “Grand Est”.
With about 57.000 km² and approx. 5.560.000 inhabitants the region is the fourth largest in France (2015). The administrative seat is Strasbourg. Grand Est is divided into the ten départements of Ardennes, Aube, Bas-Rhin, Haute-Marne, Haut-Rhin, Marne, Meurthe-et-Moselle, Meuse, Moselle and Vosges. It borders (clockwise) on Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland and the regions of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, Île-de-France and Hauts-de-France.
Within the cross-border INTERREG A program the EU funds European cooperation projects between neighboring Member States or regions – such as the Upper Rhine region – where the programs are implemented by a shared management. In the funding period 2007-2013, Rheinland-Pfalz institutions were involved in almost 100 cross-border INTERREG projects covering a wide range of topics, eg. tourism, environmental protection, energy, the labor market, research, health, culture and language acquisition.