Twinning Partnership

Consortium & Partners

Co-PLAN is a well-known professional, non-governmental, non-partisan organization involved actively in the field of urban development through participation in initiatives that promote sustainable development, as well as a new vision for civil society in Albania. Co-PLAN, originated in 1995 as a growing program in the field of social development and infrastructural improvements in the low-income areas of the Tirana region.

The experience of Co-PLAN has been selected for one of the UNCHS Habitat Best Practice Awards, in 1998 and has been established by the World Bank since 1999. Today, Co-PLAN is a professional NGO with national and international experience, active especially in Albania and Kosovo and with a good reputation among its Albanian and international partners operating in Albania. At the core of Co-PLAN’s activity is the work with people and institutions, to foster tangible social transformation and positive change on the ground by inducing change-driving knowledge in our society for smart management of our habitat.

Co-PLAN has also established intensive curricula at national and international conferences and seminars, and has published a series of research - professional publications. Co-PLAN aims to improve the economic, social and environmental conditions of Albanian inhabited centers, by promoting local resource mobilization and civil society development. Co-PLAN undertakes project preparation and implementation, conducts policy and sector studies, supports activities for institution building and lobbies decision-making levels, organizes events that mobilize public opinion and sow knowledge and innovative conception of development, planning and community management.

University of Belgrade - Faculty of Geography (UB-GEF) is one of the oldest institutions of higher education in Serbia and unique educational and scientific institution of this kind in this part of Europe, with a tradition spanning over 120 years. It has had а leading position in the development of scientific and applied geography. It is the parent institution in Serbia and in the Western Balkan region for the study and teaching of Geography, Tourism Studies, Spatial Planning, Demography, Geospatial and Environmental Sciences and GIS.

Тће organisational structure of the UB-GEF consists of the Institute, six departments (Geography, Tourism Studies, Spatial Planning, Demography, Geospatial and Environmental Sciences and GIS), ten chairs (Physical Geography, Social Geography, Regional Geography, Cartography and GIS, Didactics and Methodology of Geography Teaching, Tourism Studies, Spatial Planning, Demography and Environmental Sciences), library, four laboratories (Laboratory for Physical Geography, Laboratory for Cartography, Computing Laboratory and Laboratory for environmental research) and Education and Science Centre in Kopaonik National Park. The laboratories are well-equipped in terms of personnel and technology and they аrе used for teaching and scientific research of the teaching staff, teaching associates and students.

The UB-GEF for the purposes of implementing projects, with the aim of developing and commercializing innovative solutions, methods, techniques, research, software, products, processes and services in the field of geography, tourism, spatial and urban planning, demography, environmental science and GIS, provides a wide range of expert and consulting service.

Center for Economic Analyses- CEA (founded in 2003) is a think-tank, a research center comprised of economists sharing a common vision of the Republic of North Macedonia as a European emerging economy integrated with regional and global markets.

CEA’s mission is to continuously research economic development and public policy in the Republic of North Macedonia and to offer recommendations, suggestions, and measures the governmental and non-governmental institutions.

CEA’s goals are: to provide quality policy analyses; to support viable economic policy in North Macedonia; to help foster an environment that brings about higher investment, accelerated development and growth of the Macedonian economy, and EU accession; to achieve financial sustainability; to encourage regional cooperation and collaboration in the Balkans; and to strengthen civil society, social capital and trust.

CEA has almost two decades of proven expertise in the areas of public finance, decentralization and local governance, macroeconomic policy, business & competitiveness, etc. often crosscutting with the essential pillars for good governance, rule of law, etc.

Visit our website to find numerous: policy documents and research papers on various subjects and issues: www.cea.org.mk. More detailed and specific track-record of projects and activities can be found in the website’s section About Us. Follow us also on the fan page: https://www.facebook.com/ceaorgmk

Nordregio is a leading Nordic and European research centre for regional development and planning, established by the Nordic Council of Ministers. We conduct solution-oriented and applied research, addressing current issues from both a research perspective and the viewpoint of policymakers and practitioners. Nordregio’s primary research focus and competence areas are: regional Innovation and Green Growth; Regional Rural and Demographic Development; Governance and Policymaking; and Urban Planning and Sustainable Development.

Nordregio works on commissioned projects that help policymakers and practitioners to tackle economic, social, planning and governance challenges. This involves active participation in European, Nordic and national research programmes (e.g. ESPON, Horizon 2020, Interreg, NordForsk, Formas, The Research Council of Norway). We develop new knowledge and data, perform territorial analyses on a transnational and pan-European level, as well as conduct evaluations of various European and national support programmes. Operating at the international, national, regional and local levels, Nordregio’s research covers a wide geographic scope, with an emphasis on the Nordic and Baltic Sea Regions, Europe and the Arctic.

Politecnico di Torino is an academic community committed to generating and sharing “polytechnical knowledge” for effective and sustainable development of society at global, national and international level.

The Regio Politecnico di Torino (Royal Turin Polytechnic) was founded as institution in 1906, but its origins go back further. It was preceded by the Scuola di Applicazione per gli Ingegneri (Technical School for Engineers) founded in 1859 after the Casati Act, and by the Museo Industriale Italiano (Italian Industry Museum) founded in 1862 under the aegis of the Italian Ministry of Agriculture, Trade and Industry. Famous scholars and researchers, authorities in different subjects with characters to match, gave a decree to new subjects such as Electrotechnics and Building Science. They were the first to have a vision of founding a school which dealt with the needs of people and society.

Following the model of the most famous European Polytechnic Schools, at the beginning of the 20th Century the Regio Politecnico di Torino moved in different directions. It began to contact both the European scientific world and the local and national industries. Aeronautics was born and in the new laboratories, from Chemistry to Architecture, young people, who came to Turin from all over Italy, were building their professional future in a lively and creative atmosphere.

The Politecnico di Torino, which in 2009 celebrated its 150th academic year from its foundation, has become over the years an international school, where traditions and future, past and modernity are all interlinked.

Polis University is a new independent and non-public university specialized in the areas of Architecture, Design, Territorial Planning and Development Policy. U_POLIS strongly believes that success lie in that form of education that precedes the future. Inspiration, exploration, positive thinking and the challenges to reality – are some of the main principles on which the school relies on in the education process.

U_Polis aims to equip the new generation with the tools, technics and strategies to create the professional leadership most capable to create “livable spaces”. Cities that are more equal, more sustainable in time and more environmentally friendly. At U_POLIS we believe that the education process is a joint effort.

Openness to student ideas and student-lecturer collaboration is the basis of a new communication at U_POLIS. The great energy accumulated as a result of the oppression in the past years must be managed in such a way as to leave a positive mark on the history of our cities.

U_POLIS believes in the positive energy that the city and our whole society are generating. In this scenario which is complemented by the image of a society that "vibrates energy" to overcome absences in the past, U_POLIS tries to stay at the forefront of contemporary thought and practice. A new way of thinking about architecture, such as the creation of new professions of urban planner and touristic manager with environmental sensitivity, so necessary for the Albanian reality, are part of the change for a country that runs towards the future, and the philosophy of POLIS to contribute to society.