• NETWORKING EXPERIENCES

The best practices and the needs collected from NMS have been analysed and grouped following the principles agreed on by the partners; a more detailed analysis has been carried out during the TWG meetings, where the best practices grouped under the same themes have been discussed.

TWG Partnership - experiences focus on the methodologies to create/stimulate and manage partnerships, to co-ordinate partners, and also on the benefits delivered by partnership

TWG programming strategy and project development - experiences refer to integrated and co-decision approaches adopted in programming as well as to tools used to implement strategies

TWG Technical assistance - experiences focus on the different kind of support provided to the Managing Authority when implementing and developing programmes

During the working groups discussion each partner has assessed the innovative characteristics of each experience and some first conclusions were drawn on transferability mechanisms. The report on the first round of TWG meetings gathers all these elements and sets the methodological framework for the second round of meetings, which is meant to highlight the critical success factors and the conditions for the transferability of the experiences, setting the pace for study tours and staff exchange.

The final report on Networking Experience is the final output of the analysis carried out, including an analytical description of the experiences, an assessment of them in terms of innovative aspects, strengths, weaknesses ad critical success factors. These elements have been the basis on which operational transferability of the experiences has been evaluated during the staff exchange phase of the project.

The final publication entitled "Methodology and Results of a comparison exercise in the field of Structural Funds: Technical assistance, Programming strategy, Project development and Partnership" highlights the methodology used for the compared analysis of selected practices, and lessons learnt both on the use of Structural Funds and on the concrete transferability of analysed experiences.

• NETWORKING INFORMATION

In the past months S3 has worked as a framework for the organisation of events where issues emerged during project meetings have been further developed and discussed.
Seminars organised within the framework of S3 (see Events web site section) have been the occasion to discuss single experiences or groups of experiences shared within the project, which focus on Structural Funds programming and managing issues. Most of the seminars have been organised by New Member States who have asked for partners' contribution to the ongoing discussion about new programming period in their countries.
The revolving fund, the partnership approach, the integrated projects, the urban recovery and SMEs support programmes have been the favourite subjects.
These seminars have been a great chance to know more about partners' programmes and to enlarge S3 contribution to issues not fully analysed during project meetings.

• NETWORKING PEOPLE

Through study tours and staff exchanges, partners worked on the practical implementation of relevant approaches/tools and examined the feasibility of transferring good practices and innovative programming/managing tools.
During the 11 study tours (pop up con il documento "Study tours programme and methodology") that took place between February and July 2006, partners looked at developing solutions for the practical problems associated with implementing different experiences in their own regions. The results of the exchange (pop up con il documento "Study tours preliminary results") have been significant in terms of concrete experience transfer from one region to another. A number of tools analysed and exchanged have been in some cases already successfully transferred and most of the approaches are currently being adjusted to be adopted in different contexts. Bilateral contacts are underway to continue staff exchange experience.
The Final Report on the Study tours programme is composed of various sections that provide exhaustive information on the Networking people component and methodological considerations on the transferability of analysed practices.