Three regions in Germany, Finland and Austria which moved from the periphery to the middle of new economic areas due to the EU enlargement, together with partners from the new EU Member States, united in the project CHANCE. The object is to analyse the regional effects resulting from change processes due to the EU enlargement and global developments and, as reply, to develop an active regional future management system. This is then used as a basis for the development and testing of network-oriented model projects with 30 regional leading companies, 125 SMEs and 60 business founders in order to support them in restructuring and seizing new opportunities.
The overall object of the project is to elaborate a joint transnational model for sustainable economic development of a region which takes into account economic and social change processes and considers the structural change to be an active resource for the implementation of future-oriented transformation processes.
According to this integrative approach, all regional actors playing a decisive role in the development of a region are taken into account within the scope of the project. Among the actors there are in particular public institutions, regional development agencies and representatives of employers and unions as well as the three important levels of the regional economy, regional leading companies, SMEs and business founders.