At the third projects meeting the JPI Urban Europe projects gathered to share experiences and discuss together with representatives from the European Commission and JPI Urban Europe.
The meeting was held at La Tricoterie in Brussels on May 31st with over 100 representatives from the ongoing and finished JPI Urban Europe projects taking part. For the ENSUF projects this was the official kickoff and a welcoming to the JPI Urban Europe community.
The meeting was led by moderator Amy Rader Olsson who welcomed the participants to the former factory turned into an event arena and meeting place for the local community in the Saint Gilles neighborhood. Margit Noll, chair of the JPI Urban Europe Management Board, presented the JPI Urban Europe long term vision and was followed by Jonas Bylund, Research & Innovation officer, JPI Urban Europe Management Board who talked about JPI Urban Europe’s approach to tackle the fragmented landscape in urban sustainability.
Many of the calls from the first calls have been finalized and at the Projects Meeting three calls presented their results. Nicole Rijkens-Klomp, ICIS, Maastricht University, presented the URB@Exp project and was followed by Yvonne Franz from the Interethnic Coexistence in European Cities project. The presentation round was finished by Arnoud Lagendijk, Radboud University and the Gentrification 2.0 project. All three gave interesting insights in the development, lessons learned and outcomes.
ENSUF projects premiere
Spread accross all five of the SRIA thematic priorities, projects from the ERA-NET Smart Urban Futures call focus on three topics:
– Concepts and Strategies for Smart Urban Transformation,Growth and Shrinkage;
– New Dynamics of Public Services;
– Inclusive, Vibrant and Accessible Urban Communities.
Introducing the ENSUF projects started with Maria Del Pilar Gonzalez Pantaleon, Project officer for ENSUF at the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation presenting the Horizon 2020 and the approach focused on addressing complex societal challenges that require interdisciplinary solutions. This was then followed by speeds presentations of the 15 ENSUF projects where each project had 90 seconds each to pitch their project.
Arenas for knowledge-sharing
Support activities and training sessions for the participants offered arenas to share knowledge and skills in specific areas, for example writing policy briefs, keeping stakeholders engaged over time and setting up and managing urban living labs.
In the afternoon, a workshop was held with the participants working in groups on topics on urban challenges. There was also a workshop, Bridging the gap between research & real life in cities – How can science respond to urban challenges? on how to successfully implement research results into practice. The meeting was concluded by Pia Laurila and Eric Lécomte from the European Commission who gave their views on JPI Urban Europe. Pieter Hooimeijer, Chair of JPI Urban Europe Scientific Advisory Board, summoned his impressions from the day and gave his reflections before Amy Rader Olsson closed the meeting.
Read more
The ENSUF projects
Pictures taken by Michael Chia (copyright). www.michaelchia.eu
