An objective of NASC is to facilitate the partners' participation in EU programmes and projects, either on an individual or joint basis, and to implement joint projects in areas of common interest. NASC projects fall into two categories: EU projects Research and awareness - raising activities Proposals have been submitted under a variety of EU programmes and in a range of subject areas, including local economic development, tourism, environmental protection, and coastal zone management. Beatha - an area-based environmental quality mark developed by NASC with assistance from the European Community's LIFE programme. EUROGISE - a trans-national project part-funded by the TERRA programme dealing with the application of Geographical Information Systems to land-use and spatial planning issues. NASC seeks to be proactive in carrying out and facilitating research-based analyses as an input to policy-making and programme-making processes at regional, national and European levels. It also tries to raise awareness of European issues and their implications at regional and local levels, and to facilitate appropriate responses by regional and local actors. Some NASC project initiatives in pursuit of these objectives include: Regional Planning Study Agenda 2000 seminars Regionalisation Workshop This study resulted in the publication entitled 'Undertaking Regional and Local Planning: Conceptual and Practical Considerations with Reference to the West Region of Ireland' (1998). This presents a regional planning model, which was developed by a team from NUI Galway, in discussions with representatives of the NASC Steering Group. It identifies what a strategic or regional planning approach means for the type of organisations that NASC brings together and provides advice and guidelines on how such an approach might be implemented. Regional Planning Study In the spring of 1998, NASC implemented a programme of seminars in Galway, Westport and Killarney concerned with the European Commission's Agenda 2000 proposals of July 1997. These seminars sought to raise awareness of the potential implications at regional and local levels and to stimulate thinking on the appropriate responses by way of inputs to the planning process for the new programming period for the Structural Funds commencing in January 2000. A summary of the proceedings of the seminars was published in November 1998 ('Agenda 2000: Implications for Regional Planning - Proceedings of the NASC Seminar Series, Spring 1998'). NASC Agenda 2000 seminars In view of the government's regionalisation decision, NASC organised this workshop on 25 November 1998. It brought together key actors at local, regional and national levels in order to identify: the implications of a regionalisation strategy for the work of the NASC partners, the Regional Authorities and the Western Development Commission; the key issues in integrating the plans, priorities and strategies of these bodies; and the opportunities for collaboration between these and other bodies in pursuit of regional policy objectives. Workshop on Regionalisation and EU Funding