100 peer reviews: a journey of learning and impact

We reached an important milestone—the 100th peer review of the Interreg Europe Policy Learning Platform was held on 26 and 27 February 2025 in Västernorrland!
Since 2018, our peer reviews have helped regions across Europe find solutions to their policy challenges by connecting them with experienced peers and experts.
The 100th peer review
The Interreg Europe Policy Learning Platform team went to Region Västernorrland.
The region was looking for solutions focused on enhancing strategic and operational capabilities in priority areas (S3) to ensure that the region, municipalities, and the regional business and innovation ecosystem work systematically and in a structured way to strengthen the county’s areas of strength.
To get answers, we brought peers from the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, and Finland.
Specifically, the peer review supported the process of developing relevant roadmaps for two of the region’s identified areas of strength—advanced manufacturing and renewable energy—both of which are also high on the agendas of neighbouring regions in Northern Sweden and Finland.

After two intense days, the Region Västernorrland got keys on how to move forward.
How it all started
The very first peer review took place in 2018 when the Hauts-de-France region needed advice on improving its use of EU funds for energy efficiency in social housing and public buildings. The region had just been created from the merger of Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Picardy and faced challenges in managing its funding efficiently.

Growing the peer review service
Since then, the peer review service has expanded significantly:
- All topics (Smart, Green, Connected, Social, Citizen and Governance) were covered
- 26 countries reached, including 71 NUTS 2 regions
- 452+ peers and 100 hosts involved

Over the years, we have refined our methodology to provide even better support to regions, helping them learn from each other and implement stronger policies.
What participants say
Feedback from participants highlights the added value of peer reviews, with many reporting strengthened professional skills and new perspectives. In a fast-changing world, peer reviews continue to support policymakers in adapting to emerging challenges and trends.
The impact of peer reviews is best expressed by the regions and experts who take part:

I want to thank each and every one of you once again for your contribution to the Peer Review: the two days was such an energetic and comprehensive package, and that’s a positive observation!
We are eager to process the recommendations we received, and are more than happy to share the forthcoming developments with you in due course. In the meantime, we’ll fight the chilly weather with the warm memories of our event, of you people.

Learning shouldn’t end with the graduation.
We live in a fast changing world and it is vital for policy analysts to focus on continuous learning. And this is what the Policy Learning Platform offers: an incredible opportunity to stay up to speed with what happens around Europe!

We would like to thank the program and the peers for their incredible work and very insightful and human approach.
We’ve learned a lot through this experience and hope to keep capitalising on the peers’ experiences and feedbacks: the opportunity to listen and learn from each other will hopefully be the jumpstart to a better and more fruitful collaboration in order to tackle more efficiently the issue of school dropouts and NEETs integration in the labour market.

The Peer Review came in at a very good timing as the District of Stara Zagora, being highly dependent on the energy sector, is exploring options towards cleaner coal and economic diversification.
This tool was a great opportunity for us. The 2-days event was certainly very interesting. The peers showed various interesting cases. It was a great practical experience as well, so I hope that each stakeholders has learned the most from its lessons and experience.

The peer review has been a firework of new ideas and interesting collaboration offers.
A big thank you to all for helping us to think out of the box. We see that we need to change the scale, acquire internal financial expertise, adapt our strategy and look closer into guarantees and risk.
Want to learn more?
Curious about how our peer review service works? Watch this video for a full explanation of how we help regions improve their policies through peer learning.

Peer review publication
Find more information on the methodology and experiences of previous beneficiaries in our publication.

Apply for a peer review
Start your peer review application process today and find solutions to your policy challenge with our expert and peers!