The Irish Environmental Network (IEN), in partnership with Northern Ireland Environment Link (NIEL), is delighted to invite you to the official launch of the CORE Project – Cross-border Opportunities for a Resilient Environment

The CORE project is supported by PEACEPLUS, a programme managed by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB).

CORE is a cross-border project that will improve collaboration and knowledge sharing, enabling participating organisations to improve biodiversity, sustainability and resource management initiatives on both sides of the border. With an investment of €772,593.80, the CORE Project will provide targeted training, helping to strengthen capacity and knowledge, facilitate cross-border partnerships, and create a knowledge-sharing hub to improve access to useful information and learning.

Event details:

📅 Date: Friday 11th September 2026

⏰ Time: 10.30am – 1:00pm

📌Venue: Four Seasons Hotel, Carlingford

Please accept this save the date notification. An official invitation will be sent in due course.

We look forward to welcoming you to the launch of this important all-island initiative and to sharing how CORE will transform how we work and learn together, strengthening our connections and improving the resilience of our communities, organisations and environment. The objectives of the CORE project are further bolstered through coordination with its sister-project CHANGE, which aims to strengthen cross-border environmental governance and resilience by developing a shared framework to better understand and address regulatory divergence.

CORE Project Survey

As we know, the island of Ireland is a single biogeographic unit with shared landscapes, water sources, flora, and fauna. However, Brexit introduced some regulatory divergence and barriers to effective collaboration between environmental NGOs on both sides of the border.

The CORE project seeks to minimise some of these barriers by:

• Providing targeted training to environmental NGOs to strengthen capacity and knowledge in areas such as leadership, funding support, community engagement and advocacy
• Facilitating strategic cross-border partnerships between environmental NGOs
• Supporting a series of pilot projects
• Establishing a mentoring programme
• Creating a knowledge-sharing hub to improve access to useful information and learning

To ensure the project is both relevant and impactful, we want to better understand the current challenges around cross-border collaboration and to identify the most pressing capacity and training needs in the environmental NGO sector.

We request that your organisation’s CEO (or someone in a similar leadership position, whether paid or unpaid), complete the survey here:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NHSVC67

Your (anonymous) responses will help us to build a clear picture of the capacity and training gaps in the sector so we can directly address these in our training programme. Your input is greatly appreciated.