As the largest country of Latin America with an urbanisation rate of 87% and specific urban challenges, Brazil is one very important country in the region for JPI Urban Europe’s international outreach. Since early 2018, FINEP and JPI Urban Europe with support of the H2020 INCOBRA project are working towards joint activities to bring Brazilian and European expertise and knowledge together. These efforts resulted in a joint workshop, hosted by FINEP on 7-8 November in Rio de Janeiro with the aim to identify priority challenges and approaches to support sustainable urban development in Brazil, and more specifically, to detect the main issues in topics of urban accessibility, connectivity and mobility in preparation of the JPI Urban Europe’s 2019 call.

Strengthening partnerships between public administration and research and innovation is very important to support capacity building

The joint workshop brought together around 50 experts from research and innovation, city administration, NGOs and business representing all Brazilian regions to discuss topics and approaches, which would contribute towards urban transitions. “Strengthening partnerships between public administration and research and innovation is very important to support capacity building”, says Rodrigo de Oliveira Perpétuo (General Secretary for ICLEI SAMS) in his opening statement. The need for capacity building and co-creative approaches to support urban transitions is a requirement, which has been discussed throughout the two-day workshop. Thus, the introduction of the Urban Living Lab concept by Timo von Wirth (DRIFT, JPI UE GUST Project) and the case study presentations of Joinville in Santa Catarina and Porto Digital in Recife sparked interesting exchanges on the requirements and consequences of applying urban living labs in Brazilian urban contexts.

The discussions in world café tables on the biggest issues for urban accessibility and connectivity showed that Brazilian cities are exposed to comparable large-scale challenges as European urban areas. However, due to socio-economic, demographic, historical, cultural and geographical contexts, the challenges show specific Brazilian characteristics.

The results of the workshop will inform the planning of concrete joint activities between FINEP and JPI Urban Europe

The workshop brought together the Brazilian community to jointly discuss the biggest issues for urban transitions, urban accessibility and connectivity as well as the approaches to tackle those challenges with the support of research and innovation. The results of the workshop will inform the planning of concrete joint activities between FINEP and JPI Urban Europe, in particular towards JPI Urban Europe’s joint call on urban accessibility and connectivity in 2019. Furthermore, the interest in approaches and the topics discussed in the workshop underline the relevance of internationalisation of JPI Urban Europe activities.

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