TRANSFER Danube: First Year Review Meeting in Bulgaria

The First Year Review Meeting within the frame of the TRANSFER Danube project (InTegRAted moNitoring System For agro-climatic risks within DanubE Region), co-funded by the Interreg Danube Region Programme, was organised in Pazardzhik, Bulgaria, on the 21^st and 22^nd of April 2026. The host of the event was the Bulgarian project partner – Association Centre for Sustainability and Economic Growth (CSEG).

The conference was opened by the event’s organisers and followed by a welcome speech from the project Lead Partner, the National Meteorological Administration of Romania.

The first working day was dedicated to reviewing overall progress during the first year of the project implementation. In the first session, the Lead Partner made a recap of all project activities and an overview of the outputs that should be achieved. Also, they discussed with the rest of the partners the main challenges they encountered during that year.

Each activity responsible partner presented their implementation status, the achieved activities’ progress and key lessons learned. In addition, the TRANSFER Danube e-platform was mentioned. It aims to provide professional tools and indices that support the monitoring and assessment of agro-climatic risks and phenological monitoring. The next sessions included the following topics: Financial Implementation, Project Management, Monitoring and Communication. The main focus was on reporting practices, quality assurance mechanisms, and communication and dissemination activities at project and partner levels.

A representative of the Interreg Danube Region Programme Managing Authority/Joint Secretariat attended the meeting, providing project partners with feedback on how to maximise the overall performance during the remaining periods of the TRANSFER Danube project.

The first day concluded with a Management and Steering Committee meeting, during which a review of activities and progress on Specific Objectives 1 and 2 was made, and next steps were discussed.

The second working day continued with an overview of the activities under Specific Objective 3, and each partner’s responsibilities in the upcoming phases.

A Financial management session followed, which included a discussion of partner-level and project-level forecasts.

The conference concluded with a project Communication session focusing on project communication activities, national dissemination events and how to increase stakeholder engagement. A final debate was organised to outline the monitoring and evaluation, as well as the upcoming events of the TRANSFER Danube project.