Cross-border cooperation is one of the key topics in federalism studies, particularly in local contexts such as the Autonomous Province of Bolzano. For this reason, the Institute has been conducting comparative research and publishing on CBC over the last years. Since 2012, the research focus allows to be the centre of expertise for the local administration and politicians but also for the international scientific community.

In 2006, the EU introduced the new and ambitious legal instrument “European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation" EGTC (then modified in 2013), which widens the possibilities for cross-border cooperation. In 2011 the Statute of the EGTC "European Region Tyrol-South Tyrol-Trentino” was approved.

The research project studies from a comparative legal standpoint whether and in what terms the EGTC "European Region Tyrol-South Tyrol-Trentino” has expanded and improved the already existing collaboration in the Brenner area at the border between Austria and Italy. The analyses focusses, for example, on the objectives and tasks listed in the EGTC Statute which clearly show that the EGTC can exercise more competences than the Autonomous Region Trentino-South Tyrol.

The comparative method allows for a deeper insight in other EGTCs in Europe, some of them located in a similar ethnic sensitive area like the local reality. Indeed, while, in the past, CBC was applied in such minority territories as an instrument for a soft reunification with the kin-state, today the EGTC defines as its priority the economic, cultural and social development of the interested area. Another crucial research question: Is the framework of an EGTC a potential setting for new forms of governance and institutional innovation (such as direct democracy and democratic participation)? The project thus presents linkages with the activities of another research area of the institute, namely “Institutional innovation”.

The Institute carries out also research on the topic of crossborder cooperation in the health sector, particularly in the Brenner area, being part of the Italian Network for Crossborder Cooperation the health sector (RI-COST) coordinated by ISSIRFA-CNR (Rome).

The Institute regularly collaborates with the common office of the EGTC "European Region Tyrol-South Tyrol-Trentino" based in EURAC.

Some activities:

• In-depth analysis on macro-regionalstrategies as new research field: Comparison of the Macro-Regional Strategies of the European Union 
• Publication of on-line article in the EDAP series: Greta Klotz and Martina Trettel, Grenzüberschreitende Zusammenarbeit im Alpenraum: Wechselwirkung zwischen EUSALP und EVTZ? (No. 2/2016)
• Discussion with experts from University of Erlangen/Germany and from the EURAC- Institute for Regional Development on CBC in the Alps, 25.09.2015, see article on http://regdev-blog.eurac.edu/ueber-grenzen-hinweg-zusammenarbeiten-alpen/
• Workshop “Comparing Experiences of Cross-border Science Regions: EGTCs and other Forms of Transnational Networks”, 08.06.2015, EURAC
• Publication: “Functional and More? New potential for the European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation - EGTC”, edited by Alice Engl and Carolin Zwilling, EURAC book 63, Bolzano-Bozen 2014.
• Conference on fiscal federalism and autonomous regions ("Fiskalföderalismus und autonome Gebietskörperschaften: Der Ist-Zustand in der Europaregion Tirol-Südtirol-Trentino"), 14 May 2012, EURAC.
• Expert meeting on the European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation in pluri-ethnic border regions, 20 April 2012, EURAC.
• Publication: "Federalismo fiscale e autonomie territoriali: Lo stato dell'arte nell'Euregio "Tirolo-Alto Adige/Südtirol-Trentino", Francesco Palermo, Sara Parolari and Alice Valdesalici (eds.), Cedam 2013.