Urban Agenda for the EU

Fostering the urban dimensions of EU policies

‎@EUUrbanAgenda ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

Dear urban community,

Greetings from an unusually warm and sunny Brussels, where it feels like Spring has come early! Since our last newsletter, we've gotten well into the swing of 2021, and while this isn't quite where any of us still expected to be at this stage (still battling the effects of COVID-19), it is beginning to feel like the light at the end of the tunnel is more clearly in our sights.

Despite this, our work is all but showing signs of slowing, and below you can find numerous updates from the Urban Agenda Partnerships and beyond! This month we'd like to include an extra appeal for you to help our Security in Public Spaces and Culture and Cultural Heritage Partnerships in the implementation of their Action Plans by participating in their surveys (links below). Otherwise, we hope you enjoy the news, events, calls, and resources in this month's newsletter!

We're always thrilled to connect with you so please do get in touch - you can drop us a line at ua.communication@ecorys.com, or check us out on LinkedIn and Twitter!

All the best,

The Urban Agenda for the EU Communications Team

News

Outcomes from the online webinar on Public Procurement E-learning modules

On February 2nd 2021, the Partnership on Innovative and Responsible Public Procurement held an online webinar. The focus of the session was to present and answer questions about the Partnership's free E-learning modules. Follow the link below to view the webinar and presentations.

7th Security in Public Spaces Partnership meeting

The Security in Public Spaces Partnership held its 7th Partnership Meeting online from the 27-28 January 2021. The focus of the meeting was on the implementation of Actions, a process which has now started. The implementation phase follows the Partnership publication of its Action Plan. Read the full article here.

The EU Affordable Housing Initiative: How can we bring it to the ground?

On January 27th, the City of Vienna organised a webinar on the “Affordable Housing Initiative” of the EU, announced by the European Commission as a cornerstone of its renovation wave strategy. Read the full report and see the presentations from the webinar here!

UDN webinars on Urban Innovative Actions: material now available!

On 3, 10 and 17 February 2021, the UDN jointly with UIA held the webinar series ‘Urban Innovative actions, achievements and future perspectives’. Follow the link below to view presentations and video recordings.

An initial review of the PACTESUR project on the security of public spaces

How can cities better protect vulnerable public spaces? That is the question that the PACTESUR project, led by the City of Nice, which also Coordinates the Urban Agenda Partnership on Security in Public Spaces, has been exploring since January 2019. Read the article here!

URBACT Time to Share! Campaign

Time to Share is an opportunity for 23 URBACT networks and more than 160 city partners to share their key results and findings of the transfer practice, in a series of events culminating in the flagship URBACT City Festival on 15, 16 and 17 June 2021. Registrations open in April. More details here!

Reinventing Cities - Reshaping the urban future after COVID-19

This innovative edition of the EUROCITIES annual report takes into us to the city of Eurocity, exemplifying the best examples from real cities all over Europe, including stories of over 70 cities and more than 25 Eurocities initiatives and projects.

City-wide Public Space Assessment Tool Toolkit

The Global Public Space Programme of UN-Habitat have developed a toolkit to guide cities when conducting a city-wide public space assessment, which can help cities understand the state of the quantity and quality of public spaces, specifically the network, distribution and accessibility.

Co-designing the New European Bauhaus

The New European Bauhaus initiative connects the European Green Deal to our living spaces. It calls on all Europeans to imagine and build together a sustainable and inclusive future. Find out more and participate in the co-designing phase of the initiative here!

Help our Partnerships develop their Actions by participating in their surveys

Survey on Action 1: Developing a Framework for a Self-Assessment tool

The Security in Public Spaces Partnership is constructing a framework for a self-assessment tool on security and safety aimed at local authorities in EU Member States, with the ultimate goal being the creation of a joint dashboard urban authorities can use to gauge their progress and/or weaknesses to overcome.

Survey on Action 3: the use of Artificial Intelligence technologies in EU cities and regions

The Security in Public Spaces Partnership, coordinated by the City of Nice, has launched this survey to find out about the current uses of AI technologies and the challenges faced by cities and regions in developing and/or implementing them, in the context of their 3rd Action.

Survey on Action 5: Future recommendations for public libraries

The Partnership On Culture and Cultural Heritage is putting forward a survey under its Action 5 "Raise awareness for public libraries and their new tasks on a European and National Level".

Survey on Action 6: Developing guidance for architectural and spatial design

The Security in Public Spaces Partnership is collecting information on current security by design approaches by EU cities and regions put to include them in a hands-on guidance leaflet.

Publications

Action 3 deliverable: Recommendations to the ERDF Operational Programmes to improve the accessibility of municipalities to funds

The Climate Adaptation Partnership has published it's Action 3 deliverable, with the objective of contributing to the 2021-2027 MFF, and resulting in this report addressed to managing authorities of the OPs and to the different European institutions.

Addressing Finance And Capacity Barriers For Nature-based Solutions

The report on "Addressing Finance and Capacity Barriers for Nature-based Solutions Implementation at City Level" advocates for global action by cities to champion the call for a global policy directive for nature-based urban solutions to be at the core of cities' economic growth trajectory in the next 5 to 10 years. Read the report here!

Events

UIA event: Rethinking Monitoring & Evaluation practices

In 2020 UIA and Ecorys explored different approaches of ongoing UIA projects to measure their innovative interventions. This event will share the findings! Follow the link below to register and gain insight into innovative and flexible monitoring processes, taking place on 11 March 2021 from 10:00-12:00 CET.

REPAiR project virtual exhibition

This exhibition presents some of the results of the H2020 research project REPAiR - Resource Management in Peri-Urban Areas: Going Beyond Urban Metabolism.

Calls

JPI Urban Europe Call for Proposals

The ERA-NET Cofund Urban Transformation Capacities (ENUTC) invites researchers, cities, municipalities, businesses, civil society and other stakeholders to build transnational consortia to create challenge-driven innovation and research projects that enable and support capacity building for urban transformations. Application deadline for pre-proposals: 15 April 2021.

EKLIPSE Call for Requests

EKLIPSE has launched it's 6th Call for Requests inviting policy, research, or NGOs to identify topics or evidence needs relating to biodiversity and ecosystem services of EU policy relevance. Application deadline: 19 March 2021.

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