The GRINCOH project focuses on two major challenges facing the CEECs that are central to the goals of cohesion: they need to embark on a more innovation-driven process of development to secure long-term competitive and sustainable growth; and, at the same time, they need to create conditions for their citizens that allow them to enjoy more equal opportunities and to mobilise their full potential for economic and social development.
GRINCOH will focus on the relations between economic, social and environmental factors of development and the policies adopted in CEECs during transformation and after EU accession.
The overall objectives of the project are:
– to establish development scenarios for the CEECs for the period up to 2020 under different assumptions of political frameworks, institutional conditions and development strategies
– to identify the implications for sustainable growth – based on innovation and the development of technological capabilities – and greater economic, social and territorial cohesion in the CEECs; and
– to advise on future policy options for the CEECs, and in particular for EU Cohesion policy.
The final objective of the research is to provide policy recommendations in the light of the main results and lessons learnt from the past. These policy recommendations will be provided for several sectoral policies. They will also cover the horizontal approaches of regional policy and be tailored to the multi-level system of regional policy governance addressing: the Cohesion policy of the European Union, the regional policies of Member States, and – where appropriate – specific regional development policies of regions of different types. Thus, the project should contribute in considerable manner to policy recommendations for the CEECs so that they can achieve key objectives of the Europe 2020 strategy and its ‘flagship’ policies.