What is Gr-RAC

Establishment of Gr-RAC

In order to facilitate the implementation of the Global Initiative “2016 – International Year of Global Understanding– IYGU” and the pursuit of its objectives, “Regional Action Centers – RACs” in a range of countries around the world were established (http://www.global-understanding.info/people-behind/continental-centers/).

The goal of these centers is the undertaking of initiatives and cooperation at the local, regional and national level for promoting:

  • Institutional- and people-targeted communication as well as increase awareness actions with respect to challenges emerging at the global level and the need to tackle them at the local level, by shedding light on locally-based good practices in a variety of sectors that are associated with these challenges.
  • Initiatives at the educational level, aiming to enhance the knowledge stock on contemporary global challenges and link the emergence of these challenges to personal everyday decisions and behaviour.
  • Research cooperation and initiatives that are focused on critical issues raised by IYGU actions / Confrontation of these issues, implying the need of addressing them to the research community.

In this framework, on December 2015 the Greek Regional Action Center – Gr-RAC was established, with the ambition to become the ambassador of the IYGU international initiative in the Greek territory, joining efforts towards the pursuit of the above IYGU objectives. Gr-RAC was established at the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), School of Rural and Surveying Engineering, Dept. of Geography and Regional Planning. Towards this end, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Dean of the School of Rural and Surveying Engineering, Prof. Marinos Kavouras and the Executive Director of IYGU, Prof. Benno Werlen.
Scientific responsible and coordinator of Gr-RAC is Anastasia Stratigea (stratige@central.ntua.gr), Associate Professor at NTUA. The whole Gr-RAC effort will be supported by the scientific staff of the Dept. of Geography and Regional Planning, but also the scientific staff of the School of Rural and Surveying Engineering, NTUA.

Goal of Gr-RAC

The goal is to promote cooperation between Gr-RAC and a variety of public and private institutions as well as research centers, in its effort to bolster the IYGU initiative and objectives. More specifically, cooperation will be pursued encompassing the following:

  • A range of public institutions for communicating the IYGU initiative and joining efforts towards a common goal, namely the promotion of the IYGU objectives, taking advantage of their institutional role.
  • Educational institutions and research centers promoting scientific knowledge and good practices that focus on a variety of sectors, considered as the pillars of the Greek current state and future development (e.g. tourism sector, transport sector, agricultural sector, marine resource management, urban resource management, etc.).
  • A range of private institutions for shedding light on good practices in various aspects of their activities that are aligned with the IYGU objectives; and widely promoting these practices and relating knowledge through a variety of properly selected communication channels.
  • NGOs active in fields of interest of the IYGU initiative and Gr-RAC work, which can contribute towards the dissemination of information of the IYGU objectives and the initiation of cooperation with Gr-RAC for jointly undertaking relevant actions.
  • Local administration agencies of the Greek territory (Municipal and Regional authorities), through which good urban management practices, falling into IYGU objectives, will be communicated to relevant recipients.
  • Other institutions that will possibly be identified during the course of Gr-RAC work.