Laura Colini

Summary

PhD in Urban, Regional and Environmental Design,  Habil. in Urban Studies. My work covers socio-spatial inequalities, with a focus on public policies addressing migrants and refugees, and housing.  I am  senior urban policy expert having worked for over twenty years with EU programmes and initiatives.

At URBACT since 2004 first as Lead Expert and from 2015 to 2022  as URBACT Programme Expert attached to the Secretariat, representing URBACT as expert for  four EU Urban Agenda Urban partnerships: Urban  Poverty, Affordable Housing, Inclusion of migrants and refugees, Culture and Cultural Heritage, leading ad hoc activities as the Knowledge Hub on Housing, co-drafting the Basiline study for the EU UA on Urban Poverty, leading the action on better regulation of Short term rental for the EU UA, while providing support to many networks  in URBACT I, II and III,  more specifically on Migration (ARRIVAL Cities, RUMORLESS cities); Housing (ROOF) Education, culture and tourism (ACCESS, On stage, Playful paradigm, On Board, tourist friendly cities), urban poverty and deprived urban areas (PHYRE, URBAMECO, URB inclusion); Reuse of urban space, health and green cities (MAPS, VITAL cities), public services and deliveries (SIBdev on social impact bond, CSR4cities corporate social responsibility,  Find your greatness),  commons & public participation (CIVIC eState, Active NGO, Volunteering cities), Gendered Landscape for the action housing and probably other networks and cities over 20 years.

Throughout this extensive experience, I have had the opportunity to support URBACT in a variety of capacities, including co-designing programme  advancements, conferences, summer universities, and other initiatives that contribute to public events, studies, policy labs, and research. In addition, I have worked with JRC, DG regio, DG home, Urban Innovative Action, and other international organisations including Housing Europe, IUT, and FEANTSA as an independent researcher and inside the framework of URBACT.

I've worked in Academia in Italy, Germany, France, and the United States and I currently hold a research position at  H-City Cluster on housing and city at IUAV Venice University where I collaborates with the UNESCO chair on migration at IUAV SSIIM. I interact  as activist with a variety of NGOs, international organisations, and independent civic projects throughout Europe e.g. From Sea to the Cities working on solidarity cities for better migration policies in Europe, and INURA International network of Urban Research and Action.  Co-founder of Tesserae urban and social research,  MiMetis SRL migration research, member of the video collective Oginoknauss and  European responsible housing award jury.