700 Applicants advised during UIA Applicant Seminars

UIA organized 4 Applicant Seminars in Brussels (13th of January), Riga (20th of January), Rome (26th of January) and Krakow (03rd of February), to support applicants from all over Europe wishing to apply to its 1st Call for Proposals.

Overview of the events

700 participants from 25 different countries attended the events. More than half of them were urban authorities, and the other half came from not for profit organisations, the private sector, and research institutes. The repartition of the UIA topics among their project ideas was quite balanced, take a look at the pie below!

What was on the agenda

During the morning session of each event, the Secretariat, together with the DG Regional and Urban Policy from the European Commission and the Entrusted Entity Region Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie, introduced the Initiative, its main objectives, the eligibility criteria and the thematic coverage from the EU Urban Agenda.

“An excellent bottom-up instrument, a great invitation to city organizations to participate, innovate, experiment, learn and to start making things in projects to produce great impact in real life. In my opinion every effort to engage the city organization to do projects is a step ahead in European dimension” – a participant in Riga

The afternoon was dedicated to the application process, and the Permanent Secretariat provided applicants with a guided tour inside the Application Form and its 5 work packages. It ended up with a detailed presentation of the eligibility rules under UIA, and we could even hear some relief reactions in the audience when the new calculation mode for staff costs was introduced!

The seminar gave participants the opportunity to ask questions, and the UIA team was available off-stage for side questions and informal discussions with participants.

“Of special interest were the explanations on how to intend innovation in terms of concept and examples” – a participant in Rome

Key lessons

The key lesson of the day was clear: be innovative and bring on the table a solution that has never been implemented elsewhere in Europe before! Applicants were invited to dare taking risks by proposing a solution that wouldn’t be financed by the traditional schemes.

“We fully believe in the imagination of cities” Olivier Baudelet from DG REGIO.

Forseeing a highly tensed competition, UIA Director Tim Caulfield concluded on the importance of setting up well balanced and well thought at proposals.

“Highly innovative project applications are expected, it is an urban laboratory!” – a participant in Riga

The UIA team was happy to welcome you during these events and looks forward to receive and assess your creative applications!