GreenFORCE aims at fostering excellence in the "Western Balkans' green transition" scientific research and innovation of Co-PLAN (Albania), CEA (North Macedonia), and UB-GEF (Serbia), as a means to enhancing their research profile, strengthening research and management capacities of their staff, and contributing to convergence between Western Balkans (WB) and EU research capacities, as well as to wider policy initiatives for the WB region. This objective is reached through the twinning partnership of five organisations that will work closely to produce territorial knowledge through exploratory research and institutional learning; will transfer and exchange knowledge among partner organisations through applying the knowledge management cycle; and will engage in networking for sharing, cross-fertilizing and amplifying knowledge at the societal level. Ultimately, the ambition is to transcend from individual learning to enabling institutional learning, making sure that research and research management practices become institutionalised within the recipient organisations. GreenFORCE will contribute to the impacts of the destination "Improved access to excellence" by enabling pathways of cooperation, exchange, co-design, co-creation with academia, civil society and policy-makers at the regional level. The 5 partner organisations are: Co-PLAN, Institute for Habitat Development in Albania as the coordinating partner; University of Belgrade - Faculty of Geography (UB-GEF) in Serbia and Center for Economic Analysis Association (CEA) in North Macedonia, as the two regional partners; and Nordregio, a pan-Nordic research organization based in Sweden, together with Politecnico di Torino, Italy (POLITO), as the leading EU research institutions. POLIS University in Albania is the affiliate partner of Co-PLAN.

The DUST project will develop and operationalise novel participatory instruments for proactive and strategic citizen engagement in sustainability transitions. It will combine design-led territorial tools with digital tools for citizen deliberation at scale. The project addresses a defining societal and democratic challenge for Europe, which is to hear the voices of least engaged communities, especially in structurally weak regions dependent on energy-intensive industries, which will be most affected by transitions towards a more sustainable future. Building on the concept of ‘active subsidiarity’, the project will employ an innovative mix of research methods, and experimental citizen participation, to understand the determinants of participation in decision-making on sustainability transitions at different levels of government, and to develop effective policy recommendations for inclusive engagement of civil society.