SIMIL Program, coordinated by the BETA TC, expands into climate change and digital transformation thanks to an Erasmus+ project

The activity of the SIMIL Program, coordinated by the BETA Technological Centre of the UVic-UCC, will be extended for two more years and will be opened to a wider range of areas, related to climate change and digital transformation, after 2023 focused on working challenges and solutions in the field of solid urban organic waste management. The continuity of the SIMIL program will be possible thanks to the new European ENGAGEgreen project, in which CT BETA participates and funded by the Erasmus+ program. The kick-off meeting of the ENGAGEgreen project, which will be coordinated by the Goethe University of Frankfurt, took place on January 25 in Lyon (France).

The main objective of the ENGAGEgreen project is to foster the creation or consolidation of spaces for dialogue between representatives from academia and the political world, in order to enhance their knowledge, skills and capacities during the elaboration phases of new evidence-based policies.

The six universities participating in the ENGAGEgreen project hope to directly enhance their capacity to promote the involvement of their own researchers and students in defining the green and digital transitions that Europe is currently undergoing. To a large extent, this will be done by organizing events, developing training materials and fostering new networks.

Continuity of the SIMIL Program

In the specific case of CT BETA, the participation in the new ENGAGEgreen project will allow the continuity of the SIMIL Program, an initiative that last year brought together a large number of local government representatives from Catalonia with scientists from CT BETA. This expansion of SIMIL’s activity is a great opportunity for the technology center, as it will allow it to continue sharing its knowledge and experience with political or technical managers of local governments from all over Catalonia, thus contributing to reinforce one of the strategic commitments that the center has had since its inception.

Furthermore, the experience of the SIMIL Program, together with the rest of the new initiatives that will be created in the framework of the ENGAGEgreen project, should allow the establishment of new forms of relationship between the scientific and political worlds, creating and disseminating examples of good practices and success stories. This effort should allow, in the long term, for a more effective transfer of knowledge between them.