Creative regional policies addressing economic development opportunities related to ageing societies is the goal of CREATOR. We focus on maintaining/further enhancing the competitiveness of the regional economies and at ensuring the regions long-term social cohesion, mainly through exploring further the specific challenges resulting from a further aging of the regional populations and through pro-actively addressing distinct economic development opportunities that emerge from new needs of an increasingly ageing population”. In relation to goal, two sub-objectives will be pursued: (1) To exchange regional-level experiences & to establish a joint in-depth work processes on an “Adaptation and further diversification of the regional-level care/well-being sector to meet the needs of an increasingly ageing population living in rural and/or sparsely populated areas”, leading to a design of targeted policy strategies / support tools that help establishing a more adequate proximity care serviceprovision structure in the future. (2) To exchange regional-level experiences & to establish a joint in-depth work processes on “Innovative/technology-intensive SMEs developing specific products / services meeting the needs of an increasingly ageing population”, leading to a design of targeted policy strategies / support tools that help stimulating a closer interaction between existing regional innovative systems and companies active on this particular market segment.The partnership has decided to establish a strategic co-operation approach at the highest level of intensity, being the same time well-focused and cross-cutting in nature. The strategic focus of CREATOR is addressed at the two main levels of joint inter-action, i.e. a continuous exchange of regional-level experiences / a joint in-depth work process on the project’s sub-objectives and the implementation of co-operative Sub Projects. As examples three sub-topics are defined in relation to every sub-objectiveCREATOR’s overall approach is innovative, as the project brings together European regions having accentuated differences with respect to their awareness about / capacities for addressing economic development opportunities emerging from new needs of a further aging society. Also the expected co-operation results will be innovative in various respects, i.e. they (1) help taking greater advantage of distinct economic development potentials geared towards meeting these new needs, (2) to initiate new learning processes in areas that still have to built up endogenous potentials / capacities and (3) to identify & transfer good practices helping to establish innovative/ technology-intensive products & new service provision approaches in areas where this did not exist before. To maintain the innovative character of CREATOR and its complementarity, contacts will be established with approved / future INTERREG projects addressing issues related to demographic change. Achievements: The main activities in the mini-programme is preformed by the seven sub-projects which all contribute to find solutions for the challenge of the ageing population. The participating regions are Västerbotten (SE), Häme (FI), Wielkopolska (PL), North Hungary (H), Lorraine (FR), Asturias (ES) and Brescia (IT). WorkshopsThe workshops are the core of CREATOR. As of December 2011, the mini-programme has had two workshops for the sub-projects; one in Brescia in May 2011 and one in Oviedo in October 2011. (four in total). The two previous workshops (in Oviedo and Saxnäs) had prepared the working group for the coming tasks.The workshop in Brescia resulted in good discussions among the participants and a document describing the situation in different regions within the programme.The workshop in Oviedo was a little more practical and discussed the good practices under three sub-themes; human resources, products and services. These discussions were summaries in the workshop report from Oviedo which the mini-programme produced afterwards.Sub-projectsThe mini-programme has opened up for two calls for proposals up until June 2011. However, because of remaining budget for the sub-projects after the first two calls, the mini-programme decided to have a third call. In the third call the CREATOR Steering Committee approved 1 sub-project: GENERATIONS. More information about this sub-project in the sub-project list below.Seven sub-projects have been approved so far and we have allocated all funds we had for sub-projects. Description of sub-projects approved and their fields.SILHOUETTE: ICT solutions for elderly and the sub-project partners mainly consist of universities and research institutes. EFFECT: Shares ideas concerning efficient service provision and mainly involves local administration.RECO: Looks for solutions to elderly care involving volunteers and mainly involves local administration.BIO-LIFE: looks at food and nutrition for elderly and involves research institutes, universities and local administration.Second callSILVER ECONOMY: Focuses on the new market segment with the elderly consumers and mainly consists of institutes and universitiesENSURE: creates a database of seniors where their knowledge can be kept in society. Is lead by an enterprise agency,GENERATIONS: focuses on the human capital, labour market, related policies by means of a generational exchange between the young and the old. Steering Committee:The decision on approval of sub-projects is taken by the CREATOR SC which consists of regional politicians from each participating region. The Steering Committee is chaired by the governor of Västerbotten, Mrs. Birgitta Heijer and oversees the entire process. It is the Steering Committee which makes the final decision on approval of projects and other larger questions (such as budget changes). The committee meets once every year and the most recent one was in September in 2011• Västerbotten in November 2010 decision was made to approve four sub-projects; SILHOUETTE, BIO-LIFE, EFFECT and RECO. • Häme, June 2011: approved two more sub-projects; SILVER ECONOMY, ENSURE. • Phone meeting, September 2011: Approved the seventh and last sub-project: GENERATIONS. The working group has had six meetings (including kick-off) as of December 2011 • Kick-off Miskolc, Hungary February 2010; Miskolc was a kick-off meeting for the working group.• Metz, FR June 2010; Metz mainly prepared the partner search meeting held the day after.• Oviedo, ES in October 2010; Oviedo and Brescia evaluated the sub-project applications• Saxnäs, SE in Jan 2011; • Brescia, IT, in May 2011; • Oviedo, ES in October 2011.The meeting in Oviedo in 2011 resulted in a monitoring system for the sub-projects where all regional coordinators are in charge of one sub-project each.All meetings also include more administrative tasks such as regional, economic and programme updates.