First meeting of the Research Advisory Board (RAB)
The first Research Advisory Board (RAB) Meeting of the GreenFORCE project was held in Tirana, Albania on March 31st – April 1st, 2023. This was the first of three meetings with these honored researchers, who advised on the conceptualisation stage and will continue to provide inputs on the intermediate and final research results stages during the project time frame.
The well-distinguished members were introduced to the Albanian and Western Balkan context during a site tour conducted between Tirana and Durrës, two metropolitan areas of Albania, especially on the efforts of these countries towards transitions. The RAB members also met with several institutional and non-institutional actors, including a meeting with the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Environment and Tourism Mrs. Vilma Bello, the Director of Development Programmes on Environment in the Ministry of Tourism and Environment Klodiana Marika, Rector of POLIS University in Tirana, Prof.Dr. Besnik Aliaj, and the community of researchers and experts working on the green transition topics.
On the 1st of April, Partners of the GreenFORCE consortium, presented for RAB members the progress and efforts so far towards the contextualization and conceptualization of Just Green Transition (JGT), as well as of the research proposals on the contextualization and assessment of JGT in Albania, Bosnia and Hercegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia.
The discussion and feedback, while highlighting an excellent first effort towards conceptualization and high relevance on the selection of the case studies, emphasized the need for greater focus on stakeholder’s involvement during the research activities, the need to strongly highlight the “just” dimension towards green transition, and the challenge and opportunities for creating an holistic regional approach towards green transition initiatives in order to better inform the policymaking processes in each of the counties, as well as in the Western Balkans as a macro region.
To read to full report on this meeting click here.
