Progetto CaDEC: final report (Contibuto University of Tor Vergata)

The CaDEC strategy has been to use territorial development concepts implemented in ESPON reports as a vehicle to capitalize and disseminate ESPON results to stakeholders across various member states. To attract stakeholders interest on ESPON reports, a limited number of people called ‘target group members’ were selected in each participating country that occupy strategic positions in their professional environment. These people would serve as springboards for further dissemination and capitalization. The target group members subsequently filled in a questionnaire in order to identify the general level of knowledge and use of ESPON in the country and to estimate the needs of stakeholders as regards knowledge on ESPON concepts. Starting from an analysis of the answers to the questionnaire, project partners were able to attune their dissemination strategy to the needs of stakeholders. This step was important to identify and select a list of concepts and the ESPON reports dealing with the very same concepts. Brief and operational concept notes were then drafted in national languages. The delivery of these briefs on concepts became a cornerstone to the dissemination process of CaDEC. It directly supported the different members of the target groups by providing them with a tangible and accessible means by which to further disseminate ESPON results. With concept notes as a basis for the discussions, stakeholders were asked to react on both on the concepts and on ESPON reports during national workshops. This feedback has allowed to assess, both for concepts and for the ESPON reports, their understanding, their actual and potential uses, their needs and the level of dissemination. Although the activities took place at the national and sub-national level, the approach taken in the CaDEC project has been fundamentally transnational. This was achieved by a synthesis of the analysis of the questionnaire and by means of transnational workshops, which aimed to identify common features in terms of dissemination, uses and needs.