WINNET 8 involves regions in 8 member states i.e Bulgaria, Finland, Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Sweden and UK engaged in policy development to address the problems with low employment rates among women in combination with horizontally segregated labour markets and the lack of women in entrepreneurship, innovation and technology, Problems constituting obstacles for regional competitiveness. The participating regions from the Nordic countries has among the most horizontally segregated labour markets in EU-27, whilst the regions involved from South and East Europe is less segregated. On the other hand the employment rates among women is lower. The consortium builds on a successful practices from the III C project W.IN.NET- mentioned in the Operational Program for IV C - and the III B Baltic Sea project FEM were several of the partners has been involved.The partner regions involved in these Interreg projects have since 2006 discussed how to capitalize the successful results from cooperation initiatives between Women Resource Centers and regional actors. The Nordic Conference 19 October 2007 in Stockholm, was one event for this dialogue WINNET 8 involves local and regional authorities, Managing Authorities, research institutes and NGOs. The overall objective is to contribute to regional growth by enhancing the labour market participation among women and especially promotes women in entrepreneurship, innovation and technology. WINNET8 will reinforce the Roadmap for Equality between Women and Men and the gender dimension in the Lisbon Agenda. The project will build capacity for implementation of policies, practices and Women Resource Centres (WRC)Regional action planning will be at the core of the project supported by a number of interregional exchanges such as a Launching Conference during the Swedish EU Presidency, a training for process coaches in order to facilitate both drawing up of action plans and implementation after the project period. Regional action plans taken as a point of departure validated practices and state of the art research, mobilize actors, each Regional Multi-Actor Group established will also be engage in a an advanced bench learning and study visit program capitalizing on successful results of similar actions in Interreg III C. Expected results are besides the actions plans are reformed and improved policies for local and regional development, increased knowledge in the regions how to design policies and practices promoting women in entrepreneurship, innovation and technology and counteracting horizontal gender segregation. Achievements: Winnet 8 is an Interreg IVC Capitalization project with 18 partners in 8 countries. The priority is to address the problems with: low employment rates among women, horizontally segregated labour markets, lack of women in entrepreneurship, and lack of women in innovation and technology. Methods and goals: Analysis of regional conditions and identification of obstacles and potentials. Identification and highlighting good practices. Exchange of experiences trough study visits and work shops. Developing Women Resource Centres as a tool for tackeling the problems. Developing of regional strategy and actions plans (ROP). Progress of the project during the first six months: The 15th - 17th of February approximately fifty persons, partners and stakeholders engaged in the Winnet8 project met at the launching conference in Tällberg, Sweden. Partners from seven countries, Finland, Poland, Scotland, Greece, Portugal, Bulgaria and Sweden, participated.The Web-site www.winnet8.eu was launched in May and is being used for all exchange of information between partners and stakeholders.Regional Multi Actor Groups has been formed to act as an arena for co-operation between Managing Authorities, local and regional authorities, businesses, research institutions, Womens's Resource Centers and other NGO's. The MAG's are the core of the project and plays a very important role as they are responsable for creating the Regional Action Plans.At the first MAG-meeting the stock of good practices, base line studies and SWOT-analysis was discussed. The 20-23th of June 2010 , an Interregional training for process coaches was planned by Ruralia Institute, Finland, responsible for C3, and arranged by the University of Évora, Portugal. The participants consisted of partners and MAG-members who learnt about group processes and interaction. They also shared experiences of gender relations in different regions, women in the power structures.The exchange of Good Practices started with the Study Visits for the MAG's during Sept-Nov 2010 and all regions hosted one visit and went on one. SE to PT, PT and BG to GR, IT to UK, UK to FI , FI to IT and GR to PL. A reference group of gender researchers developed an indicator and benchmark model for the study visits.The head-researchers,from Sweden and Finland, has experience in gender research on WRC's in regional development and growth. At the Study visits good practices from the regions was presented. Two work shops took place in Venice, at the end of Nov 2010, were the experiences from the Study visits were shared. A reseach work-shop was held in Seinäjoki, Finland in March 2011 on the "Potential of Women Resource Centers to Influence Gender Equality in Regional Growth Policies".During the 2nd and the 3rd MAG-meetings the results from the study visits and work shops were discussed and the GP, from other regions to be implemented, were chosen. The first drafts of the AP's weremade. Regional Round Tables, were more input was given to the process, were held in all partner regions during April and May 2011. At the partnership meeting in Szczecin, Poland in June 2011 the drafts of the regional Action Plans were presented and discussed. Several local and regional dissemination events has been organized in all participating countries to inform about the project. Information have also been spread through articals in newspapers and appearances in TV and radio. 4 European Round Tables were held in the North Zone, in May, East and South Zone, in July and West Zone in August. The ERT gave the input to the Policy recommenations that were handed to the Commission in connection to the Final Conference in Greece, in September. A dissemination seminar was also held in Brussels , in Septemnber, were the Policy recommendations also were discussed.