On 30 October 2026, the Development Agency of the City of Prijedor (PREDA) held the first local workshop “REVIVE for Prijedor”, bringing together potential members of the local 4-helix: representatives of public authorities, businesses and business support organisations, research and education institutions, and civil society. For PREDA, which joined the partnership at the start of the Transfer Phase on 1 July 2026, the workshop marked the first direct step in bringing REVIVE to the rural area of Prijedor (Bosnia and Herzegovina).
Over the last decades, many inland and rural areas across the Mediterranean have lost population, as people have moved to urban and coastal areas with more economic opportunities. Limited economic activity, fewer public services, a lack of jobs, weak digitalisation and poor accessibility are challenges shared across the REVIVE partnership, from the pilot areas to the new receiver territories, and they are just as familiar in rural Prijedor. This common ground is what makes cooperation between these territories so valuable: the questions are similar, and answers already tested in one rural community can open new possibilities in another.
As REVIVE is new to the local community, the workshop opened with an introduction to the project and its approach, in which territories develop their own business models together with local stakeholders. The experience of the seven pilot territories showed how this works in practice: how each developed its own model around local needs and resources, and what results it achieved.
The focus then moved to Prijedor, with the presentation of the territorial analysis that PREDA prepared as the basis for the transfer process. Stakeholders recognised their territory in its findings and confirmed them, which shifted the conversation to a more practical question: what could these solutions look like here? The answer will not be a copy of someone else’s model, but what works elsewhere, shaped around what Prijedor already has. Interest in REVIVE was clear, as was the willingness to take part and work together.
Through the Transfer Phase, Prijedor gains direct access to solutions tested in other Mediterranean territories, along with mentoring and training from experienced pilot areas, tailored to local needs. The cooperation also aims to strengthen connections among local stakeholders, increase the international visibility of the area and its local initiatives, and link Prijedor with other Mediterranean territories through the REVIVE network of Innovative Community Cooperatives. PREDA will support local stakeholders throughout this process and work with them on a territorial roadmap and local cooperation agreements, turning the interest shown at the workshop into concrete steps for the revitalisation of rural Prijedor.
