The closing forum within the project „Smart schools“ was held on the 18^th June 2019 in the Technical School in Slavonski Brod. The project „Smart schools ” has been implemented since June 2017 within Brod Posavina County and Tuzla Canton in order to support and promote the innovations and researches done by young people, increase the energy efficiency in school buildings and raise the public awareness on social and economic benefits of energy efficiency and use of renewable energy sources.

Within the project, energy reconstruction of 7 primary and high school buildings was done in Brod Posavina County and Tuzla Canton, several educational activities were implemented, schools competition in energy saving was held in which 105 primary and high schools from both countries participated, 42 school and public institution employees were trained in energy management, and 19 young innovators were supported in use of renewable energy sources through investments and mentorship at the solar camp where they upgraded their innovations. 

However, something that cannot be expressed in numbers but surely is enormous assets are the personal and institutional contacts made within the crossborder region, which during this project implementation have resulted with new cooperation, project proposals and stronger networking of these regions. In the beginning, the short movie was broadcasted about the project activities and Edin Zahirović from the Centre for Development and Support from Tuzla presented the Cost Benefit Analysis of the project. The analysis is available HERE.

Afterwards, the panel discussion was held for the representatives of municipalities and cities of Brod Posavina County, users of public buildings (educational, health, culture and other), managers of utility companies and interested citizens. In addition to the moderator Bernard Ivačić from the Green Action, the following panellists participated in this event: Damir Mirković – deputy governor of Brod Posavina County, Dragan Jelić – assistant minister in the Ministry of regional development and EU funds, Boris Čagalj – head of the regional office for Slavonija and Baranja HBOR, Tomislav Ilić from the Fund for environment and energy efficiency and Daniel Rodik from the association DOOR. The topic of this panel discussion  was sustainable energy management in public and other buildings, and available opportunities for achievement of that goal.

This forum was organized within the implementation of 1,6 million Euro worth crossborder project titled „Innovative minds for smart schools“ or abbreviated SMART SCHOOLS. The project is funded within INTERREG IPA CBC crossborder cooperation programme Croatia – BIH – Monte Negro 2014-2020 and is implemented by the leading partner Centre for Development and Support (CRP) from Tuzla with the project partners: Tuzla Canton; Brod –Posavina County; Green Action and Brod Ecological Association -BED.

See more photos of the forum HERE,