The EU Strategy for the Alpine Region «EUSALP» was adopted by the European Council in 2015. EUSALP includes 48 regions from seven countries, five of which are EU member states: Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, Slovenia and Switzerland. As its main objective, EUSALP aims «to ensure that this region remains one of the most attractive areas in Europe, taking better advantage of its assets and seizing its opportunities for sustainable and innovative development in a European context.»  To this end, the strategy focuses on three priority policy areas, economic growth and innovation, mobility and connectivity, environment and energy, as well as a fourth, cross-cutting priority policy area, sound macro-regional governance and institutional capacity building. The AlpGov project, implemented in the frame of the Interreg Alpine Space Programme from 2016 to 2019 under the leadership of the Bavarian State Ministry of the Environment and Consumer Protection (StMUV), aimed at supporting efficient EUSALP implementation in a systematic transnational multi-level governance approach. The consortium of 13 partners, representing all Action Groups (AG), started to design appropriate governance structures and mechanisms mainly on AG level. At the same time, it was tried to create synergies with the General Assembly and Executive Board (EB) as well as with further institutional actors in alpine policy. AlpGov 2 is the follow-up project, running from 2020 to 2022, again in the Alpine Space Programme, with Lombardy Region as the Lead Partner. StMUV leads the thematic Work Package 1: «Skills development and EUSALP Action Groups empowerment». The overall objective of WP1 is to professionalize AG work and to ensure a proper decision-making, based on given expertise and appropriate capacities of EUSALP actors. One of the main outputs should be the prototype of a «Learning Environment for building capacities for such topics which are of specific relevance also for the successful implementation of the other WPs». planval has been assigned by the Bavarian State Ministry of the Environment for external support to develop the EUSALP Learning Environment (LE). In the frame of this challenging process, we strive to achieve the following objectives:

• Prototyping, implementation and ex-post evaluation of an exemplary LE for the EUSALP
• Design of the LE as a well-structured, module-based and innovative learning system, comprising the co-creation of adequate educational contents and didactic methods
• Professionalization of AG work and proper decision-making by capacity building and empowerment of AG members and other relevant actors to implement the EUSALP Action Plan and the AG work plans more effectively and sustainably
• Build upon the learning experiences gained in the frame of other MRS, especially in the Baltic Sea Region
• Coordination with other AlpGov 2 WPs, to create synergies
• Outline of ways to transfer and improve the results into activities beyond AlpGov 2

planval regards a Learning Environment as a substantial contribution to a successful transition from the initial EUSALP phase (2016-2020) towards consolidation, professionalization and increased impact (2021+). To achieve the set goals in an efficient way, we combine three fundamental approaches:

• We fully focus on the capacities, resources and especially the needs of the key target groups
• Together with these key target groups, we co-create and prototype the EUSALP Learning Environment and the capacity building modules for topics of strategic relevance, based on an iterative Design Thinking process
• We apply agile learning principles, thus stimulating agile organizational development of the Action Groups and providing respective incentives for the whole EUSALP governance system.

Agile learning, related to the principles of agile working, aims at increasing the adaptation and innovation capacities of people and organizations. Agile learning processes are determined by short and clear sequences, flexible and individualized contents, collaboration, self-steering, high dynamics and a no-blame-culture. Agile learning seeks to optimize the intersection of learner, organization and environment - which we call the «sweet spots of learning».  

  More information can be found at the websites of EUSALP and the AlpGov project.