Nouvelle-Aquitaine

France’s first agricultural region

• 8 million hectares of forest
• 1^st forest region of France
• 1^st agricultural production area of Europe
• 1^st breeding area (beef cattle, goats, sheep)
• 1^st region for many fruits and vegetables and for crops (maize, sunflower)
• 3^rd region in Europe for vineyards
• 3^rd region in France in terms of surface area dedicated to organic farming. Leader in agriculture for quality products: 218 products (PDO, PGI, TSG)
• 76,409 farms (2016) 

Innovation and level of employment

• Sectors of excellence: aerospace, space, agri-food, building, wood, chemicals, eco-industry, energy, digital image, yachting, luxury leather goods, ceramics, cosmetics, health, laser technology, tourism, transport, mechanical engineering, silver economy
• 10 competitiveness clusters
• 1^st region in France (other than Ile-de-France) in terms of investments in ‘research and technology transfer’

The potential of an exceptional coastline

• 900 km of coastline
• A leading region for boardsports
• 1^st oyster area of France
• 2^nd region in France for maritime economy
• 3 harbours: La Rochelle, Bordeaux, Bayonne

Fish auctions: La Cotiniere, La Rochelle, Royan, Arcachon and Saint-Jean-de-Luz

The cooperation between the Aquitaine Region and Emilia-Romagna started in 1999-2000. The first Memorandum of Understanding between the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region and Emilia-Romagna was signed in 2010 and renewed on 19 February 2019, with a three-year validity. The Regions further renewed their partnership by signing a new three-year agreement (2022-2025). The agreement was signed on 27 April 2022 in France by the President of the Emilia-Romagna Region, Stefano Bonaccini, and the President of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region, Alain Rousset, in Périgueux.

The renewed agreement includes cooperation on the topics of autism and psychosocial rehabilitation. There is also a strong focus on the agri-food sector, on health and healthcare, on culture and youth, and on the ceramics industry. It is also worth mentioning the cooperation project on digital technology and Big Data for the creation of a ‘digital hub’ to support the digital transition.

Heritage

The city of Périgueux has been collaborating with the city of Parma for several years. The two communities are implementing an exchange project on the topics of heritage and gastronomy. They have already organised several working meetings and they plan to organise others in Périgueux and Parma in 2023.

Health

The Charles Perrens Hospital continues its collaboration with Emilia-Romagna on the topics of autism and psychosocial rehabilitation. Health professionals from the Charles Perrens Hospital visited Emilia-Romagna and health professionals from the Bellaria and Maggiore Hospitals of Bologna visited Nouvelle-Aquitaine in order to exchange best practices and to work together in this area.

Agriculture

Following exchanges with Agropole/Agrotec in Agen, and in line with their desire to open up to the international market, several areas of collaboration were identified. The topics on which the two Regions are working are:

• water management and its reuse (e.g. it is possible to save 25% of the 70 million m³ of water used in the dairy industry by reusing it); irrigation issues;
• the protection of quality marks, the authentication and functioning of certification bodies;
• the effects of climate change;
• energy, biomass (use of micro-methanizers) and circular economy;
• green chemistry and biocontrol; implementation of systems to protect production.

Digital technologies/Artificial Intelligence/Big Data

In 2021, the Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Emilia-Romagna Regions discussed digital technologies. Considering that there was mutual interest in collaborating, a delegation from Emilia-Romagna, led by Councillor Paola Salomoni, attended the NAIA-R forum which took place in December 2021. The talks resulted in an initial list of topics for initiating cooperation projects.

• Digital transformation of enterprises: the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region participates in the European project “DT4 Regions” led by Emilia-Romagna and selected in the framework of the European Commission’s call for tenders for the Preparatory Action “Artificial Intelligence and Big Data in the Digital Transformation of Public Administrations in Europe”.  The teams of the cooperation services and the representative offices of the two Regions in Brussels are working on this issue.
• Research and innovation: CATIE (Nouvelle-Aquitaine Digital Technology Centre) and INRIA (National Research Institute for Digital Science and Technology) for Nouvelle-Aquitaine and the ART-ER agency for Emilia-Romagna have identified several areas of cooperation, in particular on research support for companies and opportunities to join European programmes such as Horizon Europe.
• Cybersecurity: a cybercampus is being set up in Nouvelle-Aquitaine. The Italian delegation hosted at NAIA-R met with Mr. Guy Flament of the Agency for Development and Innovation (ADI), who is in charge of this project. The Nouvelle-Aquitaine cybercampus is very interested in working with similar partners in Emilia-Romagna.
• EDIH (European Digital Hubs): European regions are working on the creation of their ‘digital hub’. In this context, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, through the Agency for Development and Innovation (ADI), is getting ready to present its “DIHNAMIC” hub project in the framework of the Digital Europe call for proposals. For this project, ADI relied on the existing cooperation with Emilia-Romagna and Land Hessen to include European cooperation among the project pillars.
• Internet Of Things (IoT) and Lora (Long Range - wireless communication technology) networks. Stakeholders from Nouvelle-Aquitaine, namely a company (DFM Europe, based in the Department of Vienne) and two local authorities (Agglomeration Grand Poitiers and Agglomeration La Rochelle), are interested in working on these topics with partners from Emilia-Romagna.

Ceramics

The European Ceramics Centre based in Limoges has been put in contact with Emilia-Romagna players, namely Centro Ceramico and Confindustria Ceramica, to develop joint European projects in the framework of the Life call for proposals on the recycling of ceramic industry waste.

Culture

CAP SCIENCES, a centre for scientific, technical and industrial culture in Bordeaux, is working with the Councillorship for Municipal Museums of Reggio Emilia to implement a project selected within the Erasmus+ programme on the theme of diversity-inclusion-equity in cultural institutions.

• ALCA (Agence Livre Cinéma Audiovisuel) wishes to relaunch exchanges and residencies for young artists between Emilia-Romagna and Nouvelle-Aquitaine.
• FIPADOC (the Documentary Film Festival of Biarritz) and the Academy of Fine Arts are collaborating on a joint project on cinema.

Networks

There are active projects and exchanges in the area of agriculture in the following networks:

• AREFHL (Assembly of European Regions producing Fruits, Vegetables and Ornamental Plants)
• AREPO (Association of European Regions for Products of Origin)

Twin Towns

• Faenza/Bergérac
• Mesola/Nérac
• Migliaro/Tréveneuc
• Monflanquin/Lagosanto
• Lavardac/Tresignana