I look forward to leveraging my extensive experience in regional policy practice, research, and EU policymaking to further advance our association's mission.

The strong focus of the new EU term on boosting competitiveness amidst critical geopolitical, technological, environmental, and economic challenges places the role of regional development agencies firmly in the spotlight. In this context, the expertise of our members and secretariat can make a substantial contribution to the design of future EU initiatives on regional development and innovation. Our team look forward to working in this direction alongside our members and partners, starting with the current discussions on post-2027 Cohesion Policy, Horizon Europe, Smart Specialisation Strategies (S3), etc. Our goal is to further establish EURADA as a relevant voice in EU debates.

Additionally, we will work to strengthen EURADA’s peer exchange and learning activities to cement our association’s reputation as a key platform for practitioners and experts. To this end, we need to enhance existing initiatives and explore new ones together. Potential topics of interest for future work may include the use of innovative instruments to support R&D and the embedding of societal goals in innovative strategies.

Finally, we will be keeping up with EURADA’s strong participation in EU-funded projects and initiatives, leveraging the critical expertise in our secretariat and across our members. I believe these three strands—policy influence, peer learning, and projects—are what make EURADA attractive to its members and partners. I also count on your renewed support to help disseminate our activities to prospective members and interested stakeholders. The larger the association and its network of contacts, the greater the benefits it can deliver.

I look forward to working with you all!