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The green and digital transition is not just a technological issue: it also requires creativity, new skills and collaborative business ecosystems.

Capacity2Transform (C2T) was a capacity-building project that supported the digital and green transition of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the cultural and creative industries and sustainable tourism. The project stemmed from the premise that many businesses would like to shift towards more sustainable, digital and innovative operations, but often lack the necessary skills, methods, support structures and cross-sectoral collaborations. C2T complemented this with a third dimension: creativity. The Digital-Green-Creative approach demonstrated how technological advancement, sustainability and creative innovation could be interconnected.

Who is it useful for?

Capacity2Transform is for those who treat the green and digital transition not as separate development tasks, but as a creative, entrepreneurial and collaborative opportunity.

For cultural and creative industry players
It helped them to use their creative knowledge in digital and green innovation processes as well. For SMEs operating in sustainable tourism
It has provided new methods and cooperation models for making services more sustainable, digital and experience-based. For business support organisations
It provided usable tools for incubators, innovation agencies, clusters and business support organisations. For local and regional decision-makers
It provided policy lessons on how to integrate creativity-based innovation into green and digital transition programmes. For training institutions and higher education stakeholders
The DGC competency assessment and training logic can also be utilised in developing entrepreneurial, digital, sustainability and creative skills.

Why is this needed?

There is plenty of innovation potential in the creative industries and sustainable tourism, but smaller players often do not receive enough methodological, digital and business development support for the transition.

The green and digital transition is inevitable for many businesses, but smaller creative and tourism players often lack sufficient digital, green, entrepreneurial or management competencies. The problem is not just a skills shortage. Creative industries, digital technology providers, green economy actors and tourism often operate in silos, even though true innovation is frequently born at their intersection. Therefore, Capacity2Transform did not function simply as a training project, but as an experimental, capacity-building and ecosystem-development programme. It linked the digital, green and creative dimensions into a joint transformation model. For Central Transdanubia, this is particularly relevant because the region simultaneously requires the development of creative industries, the strengthening of sustainable tourism, the digitalisation of businesses and the support of the green transition.

How does the project help?

Capacity2Transform did not just provide training courses, but tested a digital-green-creative approach in which businesses, creative actors and support organisations learn together.

The aim of the project was to establish a transnational support network that strengthens the skills of business support organisations, cultural and creative industries players, and sustainable tourism SMEs. The main elements of C2T were:

  • Development and testing of the Digital-Green-Creative, or DGC, approach;
  • training courses, workshops, e-learning and peer exchange sessions;
  • strengthening the capacities of business support organisations;
  • Transforming Capacities and Building Bridges pilots;
  • Development of MediaFactory and KnowledgeFactory platforms;
  • generating transformation and transferability results.
Following the close of the project, the emphasis shifted to the reuse of results, methodologies, platforms and policy lessons.

Practical application

The project becomes tangible when a creative or tourism enterprise sees not separate digital, green and business problems, but a joint development opportunity.

Let us imagine a Balaton Uplands tourism business that would like to reduce its environmental impact, improve the guest experience, and better reach visitors using digital tools. The business does not have its own development team, is unfamiliar with green technology opportunities, and does not know how to involve creative professionals in rethinking its service. According to the logic of C2T, the solution is a joint development process: the business identifies its challenge, creative professionals bring new experience and service logic, and green and digital actors show practical solutions. Thus, the transition can be not an isolated development, but a creative, business and community collaboration.

Our role

The role of KDRIÜ was to make the digital-green-creative transition visible not just as a project concept, but as a methodology, communication content, and usable knowledge.

KDRIÜ participated in the Capacity2Transform project as a Hungarian project partner, work package leader and project communication coordinator. Its tasks included coordinating the joint development of the DGC transition approach, supporting professional cooperation between partners, and planning and implementing project communication. KDRIÜ also played a key role in the development and operation of the MediaFactory, alongside participating in pilot actions, Hungarian stakeholder involvement and supporting the capitalization of results. The project strengthened KDRIÜ's competences in the fields of the creative industries, sustainable tourism and digital-green business development.

Partnership

The Capacity2Transform partnership connected business support organisations, innovation agencies, universities, research institutions, and creative and tourism actors in Central Europe. 11 partners implemented it from 8 countries, covering 9 Central European regions.

Managing partner:

  • Primorska Technology Park Slovenia
Project partners:
  • Consorzio Friuli Innovazione – Società Consortile a Responsabilità Limitata Italy
  • Central Transdanubian Regional Innovation Agency Nonprofit Ltd. (KDRIÜ) – Hungary
  • build! Gründerzentrum Kärnten GmbH – Austria
  • IUAV University of Venice Italy
  • Museum of Architecture and Design / Centre for Creativity – Slovenia
  • University of Split, Faculty of Economics, Business and Tourism – Croatia
  • Steinbeis Europa Zentrum Germany
  • IRI Centar d.o.o. – Croatia
  • BizGarden Ltd. – Czechia
  • Technical University of Košice – Slovakia

Are you interested in the project?

For further information, please visit the official project page or contact the project manager.

Official project page

Programme

  • Interreg Central Europe

Full project title

  • Activating the transformative potential of cultural and creative industries and sustainable tourism in boosting the twin green and digital transition for the competitiveness of Central Europe

Status

  • Closed

Maturity period

  • 1 March 2023 – 28 February 2026.

Project
ID

  • CE0100048

Project participants

Viktor Hegedűs, Senior Project Coordinator of KDRIÜ

Viktor Hegedűs

lead project coordinator

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Gábor Kinizsi, communications manager of KDRIÜ

Gábor Kinizsi

communications manager

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Results and related knowledge base materials

The most important outcome of Capacity2Transform is not a single document, but a reusable approach: how to integrate the digital, green and creative transition into a shared business development logic.

DGC transformation approach
Connecting digital, green and creative innovation in a joint business development model. DGC competency measurement tool
A tool supporting the measurement and development of digital, green, and entrepreneurial competences. Training and support methodologies
Methods that can also be used by business support organisations, incubators, innovation agencies and clusters. Transforming Capacities and Building Bridges pilots
Practical testing of the DGC approach in entrepreneurial, creative, tourism and support ecosystems. MediaFactory
A communication platform featuring stories, good practices and thematic content. KnowledgeFactory
A platform to help long-term preservation of knowledge sharing and training materials. transformational and transferability compendiums
Summary materials for transferring project experiences, methodologies and lessons learned that are also applicable in other regions. Policy recommendations
Proposals for integrating creativity-based innovation into digital and green transition programmes.

Related communication content