UIA Knowledge Lab

Urban green spaces are needed for public health

The CLAIRO project demonstrates the positive impact of urban greenery on air quality. Apart from reducing air pollution, urban vegetation provides a r...

Green is health

The green interventions at “Nuovo Ospedale Santo Stefano'' of Prato will create a new urban park within the city bridging the gap between health and b...

The Healthy Households’ Office service (OHS) in Getafe, ready to face the high energy prices

Energy prices are at record highs and remain volatile in Europe. Situations of energy poverty are exacerbating and families in Europe are struggling t...

CLAIRO National Conference: A system of green spaces contributes to a sustainable and healthy city

Green spaces in a city are particularly relevant in stormwater management, as they help absorb water decreasing runoff rates. During heavy downpours b...

Contaminated air, public health and Cairgo Bike

The Cairgo Bike project is designed to boost measures being applied by the Brussels Capital Region to structurally improve air quality in the city. It...

A better way of balancing family life and work - single parent care workers in the health and social care system as a target group for poverty prevention

The Home and Care project in the German city of Landshut has set itself a goal. It wants to try out innovative ways to protect people from impending p...

Changing the lens in urban design to cope with the impacts of climate change to health - The Barcelona approach

Protecting citizens at the neighbourhood scale in the event of heat waves is at the core of the Climate Shelters project of the City of Barcelona. Rea...

Aiming for Healthier Neighborhoods in your city? The OASIS approach is probably what you have been looking for!

The vision for healthy and cohesive neighborhoods lies at the heart of the OASIS Schoolyards project. As 9 out of 10 schoolyards are now transformed, ...

Urban soil decontamination for citizens’ health

Pollution is one of the most significant environmental challenges worldwide; according to the European Environmental Agency, the management of pollute...

The Urban Commons in the era of public health emergencies: How Sevilla and the UIA community is problem-solving for safeguarding public space and public life in the face of increased risk

While images of empty cities made the world-tour and provoked understandable owe, empty and limited public space is in fact an imminent if not ever-pr...

AIR BREAK Journal Nr. 1

The Air-Break project seeks to reduce by 25% air-pollution in selected strategic areas of the City of Ferrara. The city lays in one of the most air-po...

An Alliance for Air in Ferrara

The air we breathe can contain a variety of pollutants released into the atmosphere as a mixture of solid particles, liquid droplets, and gases from a...

HOPE Journal 1: Helsinki on the path towards cleaner air

UIA Expert Alena Bartonova shares insights about the first months of implementation: “the first 16 months were dedicated to development of the complex...

USE-IT! Journal 6: Lessons Learnt and Recommendations

In his 6th and final journal, UIA Expert Nils Scheffler “focuses on presenting the lessons learned and recommendations from the 3-year long project, (...

Birmingham Zoom-in 3: Community research for a community-oriented urban regeneration

UIA Expert Nils Scheffler explores how “USE-IT! has set up a free accredited community research training programme to train interested local people do...

USE-IT! Journal 5: The project is coming to an end

Take a look at the latest developments!...

USE-IT! Journal 1: Hear from the project’s UIA Expert how it is implementing its bold solution

Get to know better what Birmingham is doing on urban poverty in this UIA Expert journal. ...

USE-IT! Zoom-In: Creation of social enterprises

In this first Zoom-In, the UIA Expert Nils Scheffler looked at one key element of the USE-IT! Project: the creation of a community of social enterpris...

USE-IT! Zoom-In 2: Jobs for overseas migrants

UIA Expert Nils Scheffler shares the project’s insights on how to qualify 180 local overseas migrants to become employees for the British health syste...

Implementing the USE-IT project in Birmingham: Find out in the second UIA Expert Journal what activities have been carried out

UIA Expert Nils Scheffler has been collecting the knowledge stemming from the implementation of the innovative solution proposed by the City of Birmin...

USE-IT! UIA Expert Journal – Progress continues on linking capital investments in deprived neighbourhoods with local communities

Third journal tells us how this complex project is being delivered and how it’s facing its challenges...

USE-IT! Journal 4: The project in its final year

Interim results, lessons learnt and further actions needed....

Final Journal UIA VILAWATT project

The VILAWATT project was implemented to secure a stable energy transition process through the setting of an innovative governance structure (local pub...

Implementing the VILAWATT project in Viladecans: the use of gamification to communicate on complex energy projects

UIA Expert Lucia Fuselli has been collecting the knowledge stemming from the implementation of the innovative solution proposed by the City of Viladec...

VILAWATT Journal 1: Hear from the project’s UIA Expert how it is implementing its bold solution

Get to know better what Viladecans is doing on the topic energy transition in this UIA Expert journal....

Vilawatt Zoom-In: Exploring the project’s communication and stakeholders engagement strategies

UIA Expert Lucia Fuselli has developed a PPT slide show to discuss how the Vilawatt project in Viladecans has approached communication, stakeholder pa...

Vilawatt Journal 3: New insights on the progress of the project

Stay up-to-date with the latest achievements of Viladecans...

An update on the implementation of the Public Private Citizen Partnership and on the virtual currency

Vilawatt is currently considered to be a Spanish example in social innovation and community energy, at a time when energy poverty and energy access ar...

5Bridges Expert Journal 3: Get to know what happened in the last 6 months!

In his 3rd Journal, Freek Spinnewijn summarizes the activities that took place in the last months in the 5Bridges project....

5Bridges Journal 1: Hear from the project’s UIA Expert how it is implementing its bold solution

Get to know better what Nantes is doing on the topic urban poverty in this UIA Expert journal....

5Bridges Expert Journal: Desiging the social restaurant and the urban farm

In his 2nd journal of 5Bridges, UIA expert Freek Spinnewijn looks into how the project has left behind a difficult period and entered one with more op...

5Bridges project and the French national Housing First strategy

This zoom-in explores the potential of a strong link being established between the 5Bridges project and the recent national Housing First strategy lau...

Rethink your monitoring and evaluation practices

You want to capture the change that your project is bringing at local level? The new monitoring and evaluation platform is now online: browse through ...

CORE Zoom-In: Video provides testimonies on Peer Mentoring Course

UIA Expert Christoph Reinprecht and the CORE team produce a video on a key part of the project’s empowerment work stream. ...

CoRE Journal 1: Hear from the project’s UIA Expert how it is implementing its bold solution

Get to know better what Vienna is doing on the integration of migrants and refugees in this UIA Expert journal. ...

CoRE project and the role of volunteering

In his third journal, UIA Expert Christoph Reinprecht guides us through the role and relevance of voluntary activity both from the angle of refugee (s...

Integration from day-one to fight de-qualification: an analysis of the CORE project

UIA Expert Christoph Reinprecht has been collecting the knowledge stemming from the implementation of the innovative solution proposed by the City of ...

Last UIA TAST'in FIVES Journal: Urban labs as a new way of creating and living the city

This last journal of the UIA TAST’in FIVES project accounts for the evolution of the project after UIA funding was stopped. It details the way it has ...

TAST'in FIVES Journal 3: State of Play after 3 years of UIA funding

This Journal accounts for the overall achievements of the UIA TAST’in FIVES project after 3 years of implementation and in light of the prefiguration ...

Testing a future Food Court by prototyping it in real-life: lessons from the experience of UIA TAST’in FIVES’ L’Avant-goût

Refugee Food Festival at L’Avant-goût (Lille) -©Charles Mangin In light of the experiences taking place throughout Europe, this article observes th...

Food-related activities as a leverage against urban poverty

Workshop on Libanese food (c)Les Sens du Goût The UIA TAST’in FIVES project, taking place in the Fives neighbourhood of Lille, France, has aimed at...

What have been the impacts of TAST’IN Fives food related activities on the inhabitants of Fives and the project partners?

This Zoom-In presents an infographic of the analysis contained in the article Food-related activities as a leverage against urban poverty. It is based...

Read the 2nd project journal of Tast'in Fives

Faced with several issues that consistently delayed the works of the community kitchen and the surrounding spaces (mainly due to additional depollutio...

TAST'in FIVES Journal 1: Hear from the project’s UIA Expert how it is implementing its bold solution

Get to know better what Lille is doing on the topic urban poverty in this UIA Expert journal....

The OpenAgri Project Journal N°6

The City government of Milan decided to set up an urban coalition with a series of partners (Universities, companies, associations) in order to apply ...

OpenAgri Journal 5: get an update of Milan's project

The last year of OpenAgri wasn’t an easy one. After more than three years, the project is coming to an end, and it is time to celebrate its results an...

Promised land, the future of urban consumption - takeaways

The Municipality of Milan organised in June a two day event to discuss the future skills, new technologies, narratives and policies with which cities ...

OpenAgri Participative Urban Metabolism- ZOOM IN 3

In this last Zoom-in of Open-Agri, UIA Expert Miguel Sousa reflects on how the project has embedded an urban metabolism approach, with the aim of ensu...

OpenAgri Journal 4: synergies and integration of the project into the broader Milan Circular city strategy

In the fourth edition of OpenAgri Journal, the UIA Expert Miguel Sousa, presents the synergies and integration of the project into the broader Milan C...

UIA projects contributing to inclusive and smart growth: Report reflecting experiences and first lessons now available

Read the final report with conclusions from the jobs and skills in the local economy capitalisation activities...

OpenAgri Journal 1: Hear from the project’s UIA Expert how it is implementing its bold solution

Get to know better what Milan is doing in this UIA Expert journal!...

Implementing the Open-Agri project in Milan: get an update on the activities carried out in the second UIA expert journal

UIA Expert Miguel Sousa has been collecting the knowledge stemming from the implementation of the innovative solution proposed by the City of Milan fo...

OpenAgri Zoom-In: In-depth look at the Experimentation Lab in Urban Agriculture

In this first Zoom-In, the UIA Expert Miguel Sousa looked at one of the innovative aspects of the OpenAgri project in Milan, the Experimentation Labor...

Milan OpenAgri's 3rd project journal

In the third edition of the OpenAgri journal, the UIA expert Miguel Sousa, gives a complete overview of the latest development and challenges faced by...

The Open Badge, an innovative tool to enhance individual skills

In this Zoom-in, Miguel Sousa, UIA Expert for the OpenAgri presents an innovative instrument developed in the framework of the project: The Open Badge...

BRIDGE Expert Journal 6: Get an update on what has been happening in the last 6 months

In his 6th journal of BRIDGE, UIA expert Eddy Adams looks into the lessons generated by the project – the ones that are left behind for other cities. ...

A Word Amongst Friends

The pandemic and its aftermath have major consequences for international work. City authorities, and those working with them, need to adapt and develo...

UIA cities Rotterdam and Madrid exchanged ideas and experience

Rotterdam and Madrid are developing innovative jobs and skills solutions through Urban Innovative Actions. Both address the challenge of raising skill...

BRIDGE Journal - the future legacy of the project

In his 4th journal of BRIDGE, UIA expert Eddy Adams looks into the future legacy of the project. To name but a few, the high-level Work Learning Agree...

BRIDGE Journal 1: Hear from the project’s UIA Expert how it is implementing its bold solution

Get to know better what Rotterdam is doing on jobs and skills in this UIA Expert journal. ...

Implementing the BRIDGE project in Rotterdam: Get an update in the second UIA journal on what is happening on the ground

UIA Expert Eddy Adams has been collecting the knowledge stemming from the implementation of the innovative solution proposed by the City of Rotterdam ...

BRIDGE Zoom-In: Video reflects conflict between school culture vs. street culture

UIA Expert Eddy Adams highlights in this video animation the main elements of the BRIDGE project set in Rotterdam-South. ...

BRIDGE Expert Journal: Get an update on what has been happening in the last 6 months

Read about the progress with a specific focus on monitoring and evaluation...

The B-MINCOME scheme during the heights of the pandemic

What happened to B-MINCOME during the pandemic when people lost their jobs or had their incomes cut? In September 2021, the Barcelona City Council an...

B-MINCOME Journal 5: A successful journey towards participative and community-oriented social welfare system

In a moment where welfare state has been retrenched and the public support becomes pivotal to respond to people’s needs arising from rapid and unstabl...

B-MINCOME Journal 1: Hear from the project’s UIA Expert how it is implementing its bold solution

Get to know better what Barcelona is doing on the urban poverty topic in this UIA Expert journal. ...

B-Mincome Expert Journal: Get an update of what has been happening in the last 6 months

With the end of the selection process of the 2000 families included in the different pilot schemes for Minimum Income, the project has now fully enter...

B-Mincome – blog post on two of the project’s Active Social Policies

The B-MINCOME project is already in place. Nevertheless, as long as this pilot is made-up of different Active Social Policies, they should be consider...

B-MINCOME and the Guaranteed Minimum Income

In this first Zoom-in, Laura Colini, UIA Expert for B-MINCOME shows the approach taken by the project of combining the Guaranteed Minimum Income to di...

US4F Journal 5: Successful and active urban community gardens

UIA Expert Daniela Patti reports on the period between February and November 2020 during which “all sorts of contests were carried out for the product...

US4F Journal 4: How cities should organise their food production and distribution systems

UIA Expert Daniela Patti explores Maribor’s experience with “what has happened to the urban gardens, mainly focusing on the possibilities of the futur...

US4F Zoom-in 2: How to setup a short food chain distribution platform?

UIA Expert Daniela Patti provides details how Maribor “wants to improve the local food distribution chain through the development of an online platfor...

US4F Journal 3: Community gardens are open!

UIA Expert Daniela Patti reports that “Urban Soil 4 Food has entered the operational phase! Just like the preparation of the soil for the planting, ju...

UrbanSoil4Food Zoom-in 1: Soil for our future!

UIA Expert Daniela Patti “explores the importance of soil and how the project is creating new one through urban organic and construction waste (excava...

Urban Soil 4 Food Journal 1: Read about the project’s initial progress

Get to know what Maribor is doing in the first UIA Expert journal!...

URBAN SOIL 4 FOOD Journal 2: The new urban gardens are blooming

Maribor is ready to open up for the next stage of the project! ...

Coventry Zoom-in 3: The unexpected results and actions of EMPOWERED MIGRANTS CREATING, DEVELOPING AND EVOLVING - positive evolutions of individuals, associations and local authorities

This final ZOOM-IN 3 concentrates on the unexpected results of the project, of which, there are many. They are surprising and show how strong individu...

MiFriendly Cities Journal 5: XXI century heroes – Social Enterprises and Social Innovations leading the way

In this Journal, UIA Expert Peter Wolkowinski shows “the incredible resilience of many of the MiFriendly Cities partners and participants"....

Coventry Journal 4: ‘Share My Language’ sessions

UIA Expert Peter Wolkowinski demonstrates “how, in normal circumstances the mixing of people coming from different countries and walks of life, can be...

Coventry Zoom-in 2: Changing Realities in the West Midlands

UIA Expert Peter Wolkowinski reveals how the project has developed its impact measurement. ...

Coventry Journal 3: Looking towards the future

UIA Expert Peter Wolkowinski shares that “MiFriendly Cities has been running for 18 months and to celebrate this interim juncture partners have been l...

MiFRIENDLY CITIES UIA Expert Journal – recognising the contribution of migrants and refugees to the wider community

UIA Expert, Peter Wolkowinski, gives a first look on how the project is being implemented ...

MiFRIENDLY CITIES Zoom-in 1: How an exemplary city/university partnership gives birth to a wellbeing FabLab

A bottom-up dominated adaptation to the needs of migrants and refugees in building a ‘Coventry for all’...

MiFriendly Cities Journal 2: Meeting, talking and confidence building

The essential elements of creating communities, innovation and social enterprises...

Journal 3 Earth Cycle

In this third journal, we will present a questioning about the replication and upscaling of the Earth Cycle model in the Parisian Region by placing it...

Earth Cycle Zoom-In 1: An urban developer for a circular economy based on ‘Georesource’

One of the key players of the project Earth Cycle is the urban developer as he is an end user and promotor of new technologies. ...

Earth Cycle Journal 2: New challenges and new perspectives

UIA Expert Youssef Diab presents “the major recent evolution of the project, regarding the new implementation site and the business model (partnership...

Earth Cycle Journal 1: Building blocks to re-localise economy

Policy context, objectives, current questions and future perspective of Sevran’s project....

Introducing 3 new projects on Integration of Migrants and Refugees

When the UIA Initiative was officially launched in 2015, the media headlines all over Europe were reporting dramatic stories of tens of thousands of r...

Gent Knap Op - Zoom in N°3 Improving Housing Conditions

The third Zoom-in dives in the representation of the life cycle of the project through infographic diagrams and explanatory illustrations. The diagram...

Ghent Knap Op Journal 3: The Seven Challenges

Like many cities, Ghent suffers a lack of affordable housing: high-quality and energy-efficient homes. Quality homes that are affordable are scarce in...

Ghent Knapt Op: Construction during Covid-19

As in most countries globally, commodity prices for building materials have risen in recent months. Anyone who is building or renovating has already s...

ICCARus (Gent knapt op): Accessible Homes, Accessible City

A view to a life-long living for seniors and vulnerable citizens. The City of Ghent puts at the forefront accessibility by making homes adaptable for...

'From House to Home' The Recurring Fund: A sustainable future for low-income housing renovations?

The Gent Knapt Op (ICCARus) pilot project focuses on the renovation of existing substandard homes of vulnerable homeowners. The project aims to renova...

Coronavirus-Proof Community Building in Ghent

How to connect people despite the current Covid-19 pandemic restrictions? Ghent Knapt Op is a pilot project that not only sets up a new financial sys...

Gent Knapt Op Journal 2: Five homes renovated and handed over

UIA Expert Martha Giannakopoulou reveals how “Gent Knapt Op launched a series of open calls (waves) and employed an intense communication strategy. Th...

Ghent Knapt Op CO-DESIGNS with residents and delivers its first housing renovations

As Ghent suffers a lack of affordable housing and rising housing prices, the Ghent Knapt Op project aims to renovate houses for vulnerable families an...

Ghent Zoom-in 1: From House to Home

UIA Expert Martha Giannakopoulou “focuses on the most intricate and complicated part of the ICCARus (Gent Knapt Op) project so far: the selection crit...

The first 25 renovations begin and a ceremony to celebrate it!

Gent knapt op’ has just concluded successfully its first phase of selection process and 25 households and participants are ready to start renovations....

GENT KNAPT OP SPREADS THE WORD AROUND THE CITY

Gent, a city of 260,000 inhabitants just outside of Brussels, Belgium, is like many cities: it faces the problem of not enough affordable and quality ...

ICCARUS (Gent Knapt Op) Journal 1: Up and running!

UIA Expert Martha Giannakopoulou shows how the project “addresses not only the provision of adequate healthy housing for vulnerable citizens but also ...

Welcome home!

Come to 59-61 rue du Delta, 1190, Forest on the 4th of September, an unexpected sunny day in Brussels, and you will find the building of CALICO celebr...

CALICO in the Brussels Capital Region - Journal 1

UIA expert Laura Colini provides a descriptive overview of the project and focuses on the 7 UIA challenges. Furthermore, she explores “the model of th...

CALICO. More than a CLT

The main objective of CALICO is to realise more than a typical Community Land Trust (CLT) but an intergenerational inclusive cohabitation focussed on ...

CLAIRO International Conference: Building human-centric cities through promoting greening and active mobility

People-friendly cities can be developed by careful and smart planning of urban mobility, by combining hard surfaces with vegetation and water, or by a...

The CLAIRO Project Journal N°3

In the past 12 months CLAIRO project has entered its final phase with key project outputs starting to materialize. This third edition of CLAIRO Journa...

Cookbooks were published by CLAIRO for cities on using vegetation to improve air quality

CLAIRO aspires to develop, test and disseminate a unique methodology for using greenery to improve locally urban air quality. With a view to summarize...

CLAIRO study on behavioural changes: Mass planting for clean air is more popular than other air quality related measures

The general attitude towards air quality and urban greening is significantly influenced by age, level of education and gender. This was one of the key...

CLAIRO Zoom-in 2: Plant hormones help planted trees withstand unfavourable environmental conditions in Ostrava

Urban greenery can be used for filtering air pollutants in an industrial area only as long as trees can survive or remain healthy for a longer time. I...

Designing greenery for pollutant capture under CLAIRO

According to a recently published international survey of the European Commission, Ostrava is one of those cities in Europe that have the most visible...

The CLAIRO Project Journal N°2

This is the second Journal of Tamas Kallay on the CLAIRO project covering an implementation period during which Ostrava was setting the scene for the ...

CLAIRO Zoom-in 1: A modular sensor network to quantify air pollutant capture by greenery

The first Zoom-in of the CLAIRO project explores how a low-cost, flexible sensor network with a high modularity supports the modelling of the future c...

CLAIRO public opinion surveys: Results reveal concerns about air quality and openness towards urban greening in Ostrava agglomeration

The majority of the people in the Ostrava agglomeration are interested in air quality and consider the topic to be highly relevant. At the same time, ...

CLAIRO Journal 1: Key activities and interim results

UIA Expert Tamas Kallay provides a first glimpse of the project’s challenges, lessons learnt and successes. ...

Passport for Work’s scientific impact study kicks off

Ever since the Passport for Work project started, it has been a key objective to support its social innovation process with a scientific impact analys...

Major milestone for P4W: national skills survey complete

In October 2020, Passport4Work started an ambitious national research endeavour: replicating the survey of the leading skills taxonomy O*NET in the Du...

Passport4Work expands target group: focus groups with University students

Striving for an inclusive labour market instrument, Passport4Work organized 2 focus group sessions with University students to establish its utility b...

Passport4Work Journal 3

Passport4Work is nearing the product delivery phase. Learn more about the state of play of the project and its contributions to a skills-based economy...

Passport4Work launches employer prototype at HR Live

Passport4Work reached a major milestone in its project, by recently finishing the first prototype of the employer interface of the tool. This prototyp...

P4W Journal 2: A phase of intensive technical development and prototyping!

In his 2nd journal, UIA Expert Ronald Lievens reflects on the current state of affairs in the Passport4Work (P4W) project, its developments, and the d...

Passport4Work completes series of tests of first prototype (video)

After a series of sophisticated user experience tests, Passport4Work launched its first prototype this month. ...

Passport4Work starts ambitious Dutch validation of US-based O*NET framework

Passport4Work has started a widespread, ambitious national study among Dutch employers, job seekers and intermediaries to contextualize and validate t...

Passport4Work: Towards a common understanding of skills

Passport4Work update: abstract skills in layman's terms

As described in the previous web article, P4W is developing tools for skills assessment, eLearnings and job matching....

From co-design to co-implementation of the OASIS Schoolyards

Leveraging on the experience gained by transforming other OASIS Schoolyards this past year, the OASIS partnership decided to explore a different parti...

OASIS Schoolyards Journal 2: Welcoming the newly transformed schoolyards

The OASIS journey: From the co-design process to the final transformation of schoolyards

In her first Zoom-in, Maria Sitzoglou, UIA Expert for the OASIS Schoolyards project, presents the project journey from the co-design phase until the a...

Back-to-School(yard)! How the OASIS Schoolyards offer a solution to the global dilemma for re-opening schools.

As the end of summer is approaching, governments around the world are seeking ways to safely re-open their schools and welcome their pupils in class. ...

OASIS Expert Journal 1: Get to know the project and what happened in the first 6 months!

In her 1st Journal, Maria Sitzoglou, UIA expert of the OASIS project, discusses all key activities that you need to know about it, what the project is...

Paris is creating an OASIS in the heart of its neighborhoods and why more cities should follow.

The legacy of IGNITION: Multiple support tools making co-investment for nature-based solutions work

The goal of IGNITION, which started in November 2018, was to develop innovative financing schemes for the implementation of large-scale nature-based s...

Ecostreets – How small-scale action can inspire large-scale solutions

Over summer 2021, the IGNITION partner Groundworks in collaboration with the charity We love Manchester organized a competition among local communitie...

First tangible results and a continuous learning loop - IGNITION Journal n3

With roughly half a year left to its end, the project’s results are taking shape, such as the fully functioning Living Lab with its multiple interconn...

The long and winding road to financing nature-based solutions

Unlocking innovative sources of finance for nature-based solutions is a critical but challenging goal facing many city regions across Europe....

The IGNITION project: How support for greenspace has increased during Covid-19 pandemic

The multiple and immensely negative impacts of the COVID-19 crisis are felt almost everywhere and at all times. When the IGNITION project started in 2...

IGNITION’s Living Lab for nature-based solutions - more than a nice experiment

“The Living Lab at the University of Salford will be a critical element of the project.” That is what I was told at the beginning of the IGNITION proj...

IGNITION Journal 2: get an update about Greater Manchester's project

IGNITION is mid-way on its journey to develop innovative financing for nature-based solutions. In this 2nd Journal, UIA expert Birgit Georgi sees a su...

How IGNITION found an innovative approach to collaborate with its diverse team

Finding innovative solutions goes beyond business as usual approaches, though the driving partner might lack the specific skills and expertise require...

Knowledgeable citizens push for more green - Zoom In 1 IGNITION

First Zoom In of the UIA project IGNITION and visualisation of the project’s citizen engagement activities....

IGNITION Expert Journal 1: Get to know the project and what happened in the first 6 months!

In her 1st Journal, Birgit Georgi, UIA expert of the GSIP project, discusses all key activities that you need to know about, what the project is about...

How to convince investors that nature-based solutions are good to invest in?

IGNITION aims to develop innovative financing of nature-based solutions for climate resilience. The lead partner Greater Manchester Combined Authority...

Actively engaging people during the pandemic: AIR-HERITAGE info points

AIR-HERITAGE aims to address air pollution in the City of Portici. A key element of the project is actively engaging citizens throughout the process. ...

Two UIA projects working together to tackle urban challenges

AIR-HERITAGE aims to address air pollution in Portici. A key element of the project is actively engaging citizens throughout the process. In this cont...

Biomonitoring: An alternative way to monitor air pollution in Portici

AIR-HERITAGE aims to improve the City of Portici’s knowledge on local air pollution so that the city can more effectively address this issue. More spe...

Air Heritage Journal 2: get an update about Portici's project latest achievements

This second Journal presents AIR-HERITAGE key achievements to date and describes how the various challenges faced, have evolved over time, as well as ...

Making better decisions, faster, to tackle air pollution

The first AIR-HERITAGE zoom-in focuses on the technical aspects of the project. It aims to present the Decision Support Tool developed for supporting ...

Air-Heritage journal 1

Andriana Stavrakaki, UIA expert for the AIR-HERITAGE project, in this journal edition describes the measures put in place by the City of Portici to ov...

Actively engaging students to improve the quality of life of residents, even during a pandemic

A blueprint of actions at the city scale for a successful adaptation plan to climate change - Recommendations from the Barcelona GBG_AS2C project

This Web article presents a blueprint of actions for cities to draft their own adaptation plan to climate change, also exploiting their local knowledg...

Evaluation - An indispensable component of innovation projects

Evaluation is an indispensable component of any project, especially innovation ones. It provides an understanding of the reliability of the applied me...

Upscaling with a vision - The school yard as a school

In this Web Article, the upscaling plan of the Climate Shelters project of the City of Barcelona is presented. The plan reflects a vision, namely to c...

Journal No. 3 The “final mile” of the Climate Shelters project: communication, evaluation and replication

The Journal (the 3rd for the Climate Shelters project) aims to provide an overview of the progress of the Climate Shelters project, with emphasis give...

Cultivating a School Culture for Climate Action - The Barcelona example

In a world that’s becoming increasingly complex, there is a need to prepare especially young people for a future that will require good knowledge, an ...

Indicators as tools for Adaptation to Climate Change at the city scale - The Climate Shelters project of the City of Barcelona

In this Web Article, the approach of the City of Barcelona towards the development of Performance Indicators as tools for Adaptation to Climate Change...

Barcelona’s pilot project to beat the heat

It is only 10 am but air temperature in Barcelona is already high; another heat wave has hit the city, causing the further enhancement of the heat isl...

Barcelona: a city in climate action

Image of the Can Fabras school yard following the conversion of the school to Climate Shelter ...

Adapting Barcelona to Climate Change: A multi-criteria approach for the selection of schools to be converted to Climate Shelters - Zoom In

This zoom in focuses on a challenging feature of the Barcelona “Climate Shelters” UIA project, namely the methodology and criteria for the selection o...

Barcelona’s Climate Shelters project The challenge of communicating unwelcome messages on climate change

To connect with people and communicate climate change effectively, one should convey more than climate facts to people. Instead, there is a need to un...

Science in the City

Image of Barcelona by Kaspars Upmanis on Unsplash...

GBG_AS2C journal: Climate shelters in Barcelona

In this journal, UIA Expert Constantinos Cartalis provides a contextualization of the Climate Shelters project within the policy context of the Europe...

Not a worm this time: a virus and the wood sector

How can a global sanitary crisis affect a single construction project in Budapest? A taste of the housing crisis in 2021 in Budapest: “The renta...

E-Co-Housing Journal 1: More than a house

UIA Expert Annette Kuhk “elaborates on the ambitions of the E-Co-Housing project, with a zoom-in on the specific location (Gizella út), the programme ...

CartujaQanat – Recovering the Street Life in a Climate Changing World Journal 2: How is Sevilla moving the needle in the fight to urban climate transformation

Sevilla in Spain, will be the battleground of Europe for extreme urban heat. A pilot space containing an amphitheatre, an underground gallery and open...

More than sewage and water pipes. How a water company in Spain becomes a driver of urban transformation

The Metropolitan Water Supply and Sanitation Company of Sevilla (EMASESA) is the coordinating Partner in the Urban Innovative Actions Program ‘Cartuja...

Bringing together the key areas of Climate change, Social Innovation and Public Space revitalisation

In this Journal, UIA Expert Kostantina Karydi explores the achievements of the first year of the Sevilla CartujaQanat project across eight selected go...

Involving citizens for better air quality measures: the 5 UIA cities leading the way

Despite the recent considerable progress, ambient air pollution remains the first environmental cause of death in the EU, still leading to about 400.0...

Preparing to land: WISH-MI about to go live

The second WISH-MI journal presents the state of play as the project prepares to go live. It draws upon material gathered during the expert visit to M...

Mapping the UIA innovation challenges with the Wish-Mi stakeholders

Building youth wellbeing through community hubs

A sneak peek of the WISH-MI hubs. City of Milan Director, Sabina Banfi. Shares her thoughts on the project’s new youth spaces with UIA Expert Eddy Ada...

Money talks: How Milan and other UIA cities are stimulating behaviour change using financial proxies.

Milan is one of a number of UIA cities exploring innovative financial tools to nudge behaviours. This article explores the Milan vouchers model, and t...

WISH-MI Journal 1

Milan is a city of 1.4 million people, 230,000 of whom are minors. It has a wide and growing rate of inequality, with 30% of its population either in ...

Co-designing services with young people. WISH-MI ZOOM-IN

This slide deck shares the content and learnings from the WISH-MI youth co-design webinar held on 9th June 2021. ...

WISH-MI: Resetting the wellbeing dial for Milan’s youth

Like many cities, Milan faces the challenge of widening inequalities. This risk particularly affect the city's most vulnerable young people. The UIA W...

Innovation and Circular Economy – Bold Approaches from UIA

Circular Economy is at the centre of many UIA projects. At the moment, UIA funds eight projects within the topic of Circular Economy under Call 2. Out...

DARE Journal #2: Unfolding stories of the Darsena

DARE is an innovative urban regeneration project that instead of focusing uniquely on the physical environment, invests in the skills of its inhabitan...

Ravenna Mapping Darsena: In search of visions, lost and found

Many urban regeneration schemes focus on architectural interventions or masterplans that aim to transform the social fabric of an area through shaping...

DARE Journal #1: The Project’s Approach

The DARE (Digital Environment for collaborative Alliances to Regenerate urban Ecosystems in middle-sized cities) project connects urban regeneration w...

Re-appropriating Ravenna’s waterfront: towards a collective story of transformation

Ravenna's Darsena area has been a delicate spot on the city’s map. After a process of deindustrialisation and a series of attempts to regenerate the f...

Green Minds Journal 1: Insights on first significant urban rewilding actions in Plymouth

This Journal 1 of the Green Minds project is providing insights on the first significant advancements in favour of rewilding and nature-based solution...

Covid as an opportunity for Green Minds & nature-based solutions

How the implementation of the Green Minds project successfully continued over the tough period of the pandemic by seizing the embedded opportunities ...

UPPER JOBS: innovative skills for employment and social inclusion

The selection of participants in the second edition of UPPER JOBS has been completed. The participants selected by the Labirinto Social Cooperative ha...

An innovative platform for environmental monitoring

Thanks to the creation of two innovative platforms developed by the partners and integrated into a common observatory, the UPPER project is able to co...

Journal 1 UPPER project

The Journal is aimed to describe the activities of the UPPER project and the results achieved during the first period of implementation. It also descr...

First activities and results of the UPPER project at Latina

UPPER project aims at transforming misused and abandoned urban green areas into Productive Parks (PP) devoted to research, technological development a...

Urban Jungle: Prato truly means it

Legambiente is a non-profit association, made up of citizens who care about the protection of the environment in all its forms, the quality of life an...

Prato Forest City: a tree for every citizen

Prato Forest City is the new strategic approach to urban planning, developed by the Municipality of Prato....

Prato rewards sustainable behaviours

greenApes is a digital platform that engages and rewards actions and sustainable lifestyles: users accumulate reward points through their sustainable ...

PUJ - Journal 2: Prato Urban Jungle implementations

Impacts of urban forestry: innovative, socio-ecological and economic added values - ZOOM-IN

PUJ - Journal 1: Project activities development

UIA Expert Daniela Patti focuses her first journal on presenting the main objectives of the Prato Urban Jungle project, the pilot sites, the consortiu...

Prato Turns Green - From the master plan approval to the creation of urban jungles

Prato Urban Jungle – PUJ – project will renew its city districts with greater social, productive and environmental dimensions turning itself into an u...

Qualification of Childminders as Part of the UIA Project "home and care"

The UIA project home and care targets the the further qualification of child minders to become educators and child day care workers. In doing so the e...

Balancing family life and work in the care sector - Experiences from the UIA project “home and care” in Landshut/Germany

The “home and care” project from Landshut between first results and new challenges

The corona pandemic meant that the first contacts between the employees in the home and care project in Landshut / Germany and the UIA expert Prof. Dr...

The home and care Project - Journal 1

Journal N° 1...

The living lab: a lab in the air, a space to create on earth

The Living lab opened its doors in October 2019 in Aix-en-Provence, one of the main cities of the Aix Marseille Metropole. It was conceived to be an i...

UIA and URBACT joint initiative on implementing the right to housing

The EU Cities Forum 2020, held in Porto, provided the perfect time and location to launch a new URBACT and UIA (Urban Innovative Actions) joint initia...

City safari and Map of opportunities – testing new co-creation forms in Breda

Breda is on the way to re-open its first pilot section of the broader river Mark projects, in which the city will bring back the old river Mark in the...

Making Breda’s nature-inclusive quays also climate-responsive

GreenQuays will be a first stretch of the reopened River Mark project in the city centre. The project will enable nature to take the space despite t...

GreenQuays Journal 2: Progress on tackling the major implementation challenges

The second Journal of GreenQuays explores how the project continues to deal with the seven major implementation challenges of innovative projects....

Making trees and wall plants thrive at steep quay walls

Building nature-inclusive quays is the task of the GreenQuays project and, at the same time, its challenge. How can nature be offered space in a dense...

Finding the right design for nature-inclusive quays

The mindset on designing and using public urban space has changed in Breda in the 1990’s. Earlier, the city had decided to cover completely the origin...

The brickwork story behind GreenQuays

Nature-Inclusive Quays (NIQ) are the core of innovative solutions of the GreenQuays project in Breda. The vertical quay walls of the reopened river Ma...

GreenQuays Journal 1: the seven major implementation challenges

The first Journal of GreenQuays explores how the project deals with seven major implementation challenges of innovative projects....

An innovative partnership for innovative GreenQuays in Breda

Coming to the GreenQuays project team in Breda for the first time in June 2020, I have been hooked by the creative design of the planned nature-inclus...

Enabling nature to take over – green quay walls in Breda

Breda is a lovely city. The dense middle-age centre has many small streets and places to stroll around. This density does, however, leave only little ...

NextGen Microcities opens DARE, the makerspace for creative ideas and new opportunities

DARE was opened in Valmiera, right before the Covid-19 crisis....

How may policy discourse influence local jobs and skills agendas? The case of the Vantaa GSIP Project

Transnational and comparative social policy research shows that integrating individuals with complex social problems (such as low qualifications, outd...

SASMoB Expert Journal: about company investments and sustainable commuting

In her 3rd journal of SASMoB, UIA expert Zsuzsanna Kravalik guides us through the last 6 months of the project. She gives the readers a taste of how ...

Community-led housing – a key ingredient of urban housing policy

Collaborative housing models that put residents' needs before private profit are raising standards in affordable and adequate housing. They are part o...

Cities engaging in the right to housing Web conference #2 - No one left behind - Introductory paper

The introductory paper provides background to the web conference “No one left behind”, the second in a series on “Cities Engaging in the Right to Hous...

Engaging cities to reject housing exclusion as a ‘fact of life’

Could Covid-19 prove a turning point in the fight against homelessness? The second URBACT-UIA web conference on the right to housing engaged cities to...

AirQon Zoom-in 1: Not only for mobility purposes– towards the car as a service

The purpose of my first visit to the city of Breda was to learn firsthand about the AIRQON project. Anyone may think that a technology-based project l...

SASMob Expert Journal 4: Get an update on what has been happening in the last 6 months

In her 4th journal, SASMob Expert Zsuzsana Kravalik discusses what could a mobility project working on sustainable commuting gain from the lockdown mo...

Incentive: Powering Cargo Bike Take-up

The Cairgo Bike project is designed to boost measures, being applied by the Brussels Capital Region to structurally improve air quality in the city. I...

The CAIRGO BIKE project Journal N° 1

The Cairgo Bike project is designed as a tool to help tackle persistent conditions of poor and damaging air quality experienced in many European citie...

Cairgo Bike working on 3 Ts: Training, Testing and Trial

The Cairgo Bike project is designed to boost measures being applied by the Brussels Capital Region to structurally improve air quality in the city. It...

Cairgo Bike extending innovative action in Brussels Capital Region

The Cairgo Bike project is designed to boost measures being applied by the Brussels Capital Region to structurally improve air quality in the city. It...

IoT’S POTENTIAL: AVEIRO'S DEVELOPMENTS IN THE AREAS OF MOBILITY, ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

Many municipalities all over the world turn to the Internet of Things (IoT) in order to prevent environmental deterioration, mitigate traffic congesti...

INNOAIR Journal 1: Towards on-demand green mobility

This journal summarizes the progress of activities of the project INNOAIR implemented by the city of Sofia, Bulgaria, with the support of the Urban In...

Blue-Green roofs as accessible space in a 1.5-meter distance world?

Photo of the De Boel smart blue-green roof at Amsterdam Zuid (photo credits: De Dakdokters)...

How Universities participate in the development of local jobs and skills agendas? Lessons from the Vantaa GSIP Project

The evolving links between the university and the local government are becoming a major focus of European regional policies in specific areas, as the ...

Ventspils and Valmiera pilot innovative EdTech solutions to prepare young people for the future of work

As this article is being published, four NextGen partners are launching new initiatives where technology becomes a tool for educating younger generati...

GreenQuays Zoom-in 1: Making Breda’s nature-inclusive quays health-inclusive

The GreenQuays project in Breda aims to develop and establish nature-inclusive quays. Although it was not in focus when developing the project, this Z...

Passport for Work Zoom-in: The Skill Based Economy

The Dutch labour market is facing unprecedented shortages, calling for a skill based economy in which skill based matching, reskilling and upskilling ...

Passport for Work Zoom-in: Skills based matching

In the second Passport for Work zoom-in (the first can be found here), the implications of skills based matching are explored among employers. We visi...

Finding innovative ways for local authorities to boost greenspace and nature-based solutions

This Zoom-in reflects on the lessons learned in the IGNITION project on the way to find wider options for local authorities – despite challenges - to ...

Experience and learned lessons from procuring innovative solutions – IGNITION’s Living Lab

A core element of the IGNITION innovation project is the Living Lab at the campus of the University of Salford. Here, different nature-based solutions...

The Climate Shelters project - Climate innovation to beat the heat

In his 2nd Zoom-in, Constantinos Cartalis, UIA Expert for the Climate Shelters (Adapting Schools to Climate Change through green, blue and grey Soluti...

DARE Zoom-in #1: Narrating urban transformation - a digital platform for Ravenna's Darsena

In this first Zoom-in for the UIA project DARE, Levente Polyak explores the digital platform conceived to support the transformation of Ravenna's Dars...

Nature Based Leadership and the Green Minds systems approach - Zoom-in

Keeping the balance between doing too much and not doing enough is challenging, implicitly necessitating an overall integrated perspective and strateg...

Green Minds – rewilding people and places

How the Green Minds team aims to put nature at the heart of our decision making; encouraging individual connection with nature and a city-wide shift t...

UPPER Stories - ZOOM IN 1

The territory changes with physical work, but also through the story, the memory, the imagination of change. The UPPER stories are a collection of n...

A Junglathon to imagine your urban forest

The City of Prato is experimenting urban forestation strategies through the Prato Urban Jungle (PUJ) project . The project foresees three pilot areas ...

Artificial Intelligence: Can smarter transit prevent Sofia from car overkill?

INNOAIR Podcast Episode #2 is covering the opportunities and challenges of using artificial intelligence in managing sustainable on-demand mobility so...

INNOAIR hackathon: How to make urban mobility in Sofia smart and green?

INNOAIR Podcast Episode #1 is reporting on a hackathon aimed at ideas and solutions making Sofia's urban mobility smart and green....