In 2016, the Grand Paris Metropolis (FR), in partnership with the government and the public body responsible for building the new automatic Metro, launched the “Let's reinvent the Grand Paris Metropolis” challenge for its municipalities and for the private sector (companies, designers, promoters, investors). 
The challenge included two phases. First, mayors proposed public land and sites in need of transformation. Following visits to these sites and consultations with locals, private sector companies submitted innovative projects for the sites’ economic, social and environmental transformation. 
In March 2017, 164 projects out of 420 were successful, focusing on 57 sites, 27 of which are around future Metro stations. These projects are made up of more than 326 innovative startups, associations and SMEs. In total, 6.4 billion euros will be injected by the companies acquiring the sites in the coming years.

The implemented solutions have brought together elected representatives and professionals. The sites were proposed by the relevant mayor or territorial president, who presented them to the President of the Grand Paris Metropolis. Where appropriate, the site developer was included in a letter of intent addressed to the Grand Paris president. An advisory elected representative–technician pair has been appointed and a fact sheet has been drawn up with:

• Information on the site location;
• Its surface area;
• Guidelines on the provisional programme and the developer;
• Whether they have already been selected;
• The type of innovation expected (intermodality, energy efficiency, urban services, digital technology, construction, culture, etc.);
• The town planning restrictions.

The devised solutions also aimed to cater to new city dweller habits, with shared services proposed in half of the successful projects (co-living, co-working, etc.).

The decision to launch a call for projects has revamped the city's production methods by creating public/private partnerships, as the projects are led by professionals who assume the risks in return for land development potential.

Given the scale of the experiment, the territorial impact can be measured, as it is led at metropolitan level. Finally, as all metropolitan territories were free to participate in the call for projects, the small towns with limited resources were able to optimise land in the same way as the larger towns.

The Let's reinvent the Grand Paris Metropolis call for projects illustrates both the process and the purposes – reinventing the city differently – of the integrated sustainable urban development drive. And while the organisers have given the team substantial freedom in terms of the programming, the economic and social model for their project and the urban or architectural styles, they have nonetheless set out a number of URBACT principles, including:

• Involving the projects in the search for an innovative, sustainable, united and intelligent metropolis with a view to sustainable urban development;
• Devising projects within an integrated strategy in order to:
  • boost economic vitality and job opportunities in the metropolis;
  • respond to residents’ housing and service needs;
  • set an example in terms of energy and the environment;
  • contribute to the artistic, cultural and social reach of the metropolis;
  • suggest new concepts, new locations, new uses and new services with a focus on functional diversity and reversibility;
  • suggest models to ensure efficiency in the projects and the residents' association.

To ensure the integrated approach of the projects, they must be led by groups offering a range of skills, with designers, promoters, developers, investors, companies and even citizen communities or associations, in a bottom-up approach.

As France’s largest metropolis, with a population of seven million inhabitants and an entrepreneurial pull, the Grand Paris Metropolis wanted this call for projects to be an example of co-constructing the metropolitan project. To ensure extensive professional participation in the call for projects, the organisational committee – co-chaired by the Grand Paris Metropolis President and the Regional Prefect for Ile-de-France, responsible for the political management of the process – organised the call-up as early as possible in the process. In October 2016, an event was organised for all potential company candidates in order to present the 59 sites chosen by the organisational committee and invite them to respond to the consultation.

Site visits were organised in October and November 2016 alongside national and international communications campaigns. The consulting website went online during the property show in December 2016, coinciding with the start of the official application submission process. A large-scale citizen debate took place in conjunction with the call for projects in order to bring residents together and make this good practice a founding act for the metropolis and a badge of its identity. The winners were chosen by a panel for each site chaired by the President, who had the option to delegate this responsibility to the mayor of the town or territory in question in order to ensure control of the site’s future.

In terms of impact on the Metropolis (the Grand Paris Metropolis was created in January 2016, see the video), the “Let's reinvent the Metropolis” call for projects has raised its profile and substantially increased its attractiveness among investors, thus enhancing the diversity and quality of projects.

In terms of results, 164 company groups were selected from 420 candidates to acquire the 57 sites involved in the call for projects. The innovation goal was well reached as the groups of property and development professionals (architects, promoters and investors) place huge emphasis on urban innovation companies and a strong local presence, with more than 326 innovative start-ups, associations and SMEs.

If we consider the method, the 420 applications received proposed exceptional innovative ideas with a view to transforming the Metropolis into a real “sustainable and smart city laboratory”. The “Let's reinvent the Grand Paris Metropolis” consultation has thus established itself as the urban innovation pioneer and Europe's largest smart city consultation process. In terms of governance, the call for projects method, bringing mayors and territorial presidents into contact with teams of professionals to work on the projects, has helped create synergies between towns and territories.

This good practice may be of interest to other cities as they are all faced with the two-pronged challenge of finding solutions for land development and attracting investors. The success of phase one of “Let's reinvent the Grand Paris Metropolis” is fully in line with the very substance of this consultation: innovation, in all its guises. For the most part, the 420 applications that were received captured this quality, transforming this consultation into a call for projects targeting environmental excellence. Of the key topics, the issue of mobility to simplify metropolitan connections is also relevant to other European cities, with connected mobility, soft mobility and smart parking. A logistics review is another area for consideration, proposed at metropolitan level. The methods of dialogue with residents are also central to this good practice, which aims to integrate them from the very early project planning stages. Indeed, the relevance of the projects is reliant on continual input from the user. An experience exchange with other European counties would only boost the process.

Furthermore, involving local elected representatives in the choice of sites and teams strengthens governance at various metropolitan and local levels. The Metropolis does not impose its projects on the communities. Instead, it instigates the process and promotes territories and know-how. The call for projects attracted young agencies, big names in architecture and start-ups.

On Board is about creating a culture in public education that prioritises innovation, empowers teachers, families and students working together with research institutions, business sectors and other local entities. EIN explores innovative practices modernising education curricula also through digital technologies at different ages and stages of learning, to provide pupils with the necessary skills to enter the job market.

Educational Innovation Network (EIN) I was born in 2013 in Volladecans to rethink and update the existing education system involving public administration officials, education centres & professionals, families and enterprises to foster educational innovation. EIN carries out various projects in which the establishments of collaboration agreements among local school-enterprises-families is key to innovate. Examples are:

• Collaboration agreement between enterprises, schools and the city council dedicated to senior students of the Upper Secondary School or Vocational Training to solve problems and issues suggested by local enterprises, with the scope of improving the accessibility in the job markets of the young generation.
• Collaboration with research institutions such as the university of Barcelona to tackle “Emotional Education”, in which specific training is given to teachers to develop emotional competences (of teachers and pupils) in school contexts.
• Collaboration with families encouraged to join EIN by participating in the school council, collaborating on reading happenings or festivities, taking part in the AFS Association of Families of Students of the local schools supported by Expert of the education department. From a technological point of view, the EIN carries out several projects, in order to ensure that Viladecans’ schools, teachers and students are provided with digital devices and skills.

One of the main achievement for the sustainability of the project is the political commitment signed by all the ON board partner cities to sustain the EIN approach. The ULG gave an impetus in this sense through the creation of the “Drivers Group” of the EIN, which intends to support beyond the ON BOARD project to help ensuring the network’s long-lasting involvement and contributions to education innovation in Viladecans. Moreover, Viladecans is going one step further with the new strategy it announced recently called 360º Education, under the 360º Education Alliance, which Viladecans joined in 2019. This initiative, promoted by the Barcelona Regional Council, Federation of Pedagogical Renovation Movements of Catalonia (FMRPC) and the Jaume Bofill Foundation, brings together town councils and local bodies, educational centres, associations and free-time organisations, and the voluntary sector. To shape the strategy, a multidisciplinary Steering Group has been set up, with primary and secondary school teachers, youth and sports groups, family associations, the Psycho-Pedagogical Advisory Team, the Barcelona Regional Council and the Viladecans City Council Department of Sport and Education. 360º Education will kick off with a pilot project with organisations that work with children to help them manage their emotions in line with what educational centres do and to ensure continuity of learning at school and outside of school.The 360º Education project will complement the Educational Innovation Network and help foster the educational success of children in the city.

The EIN good practice is entirely designed around the concept of participation, more specifically on the creation of multistakeholders’ partnership from different sectors. In Villadecans the implementation of most of the EIN project is composed of circa 850 members (primary and secondary schools, education professionals, families and enterprises).. All primary and secondary schools in the city are voluntarily involved in more than one project out of the 10 active network projects.

ON BOARD project has given in Viladecans the time and space to reflect at themunicipal level what has worked and what hasn’t, involving teachers, families, businesses, youths and civil society entities. Thus, the creation of ON BOARD network meant the opportunity to consolidate the EIN approach labelled URBACT good Practice. The main difference for Vlladecans concerns the improvement of the EIN modus operandi, which throught the Transfer has been improved along three axes concerning : 

1. the inclusion of Civil Society, SME entities and young people as active members of the network; 
2. the definition of a clear set of indicators to measure and evaluate the results and impact and help us to take decisions for the future; and, 
3. the ensuring the sustainability of the EIN in the future. As network the cities signed jointly a political declaration

The EIN good practice lays on the creation of a strong multistakehodelr network, which in Villadecas constitute now a stable ecosystem of different people created over a relatively long period of time. The complexity of the transfer was indeed in providing the tools for the creation of an healthy and context-dependent stakeholders’ ecosystem able to sustain the creation of the innovative educational approach. The methodology adopted for the On Board six participating European cities (Viladecans, Halmstad, Nantes, Albergaria, Tallinn, and Poznan) was to organise 8 transnational meetings, focusing on key partners as the teachers and their role in the promotion of educational innovation and their capacity to open the school and interact with local agents; The business and university sector and their capacity to dialogue with schools, The non-formal education organisations and other local cultural, sports and leisure entities and associations, Students families. In terms of statistics the Transfer network involved more than 600 teachers, 5 400 students, 120 families, 19 companies and 24 entities, 15 pilot projects. The disruption of COVID has been heartily felt in this Transfer Network.

“Immigrants are linked to crime and radicalisation”, “Immigrants live off grants from the state” or “foreign children only bring problems to the schools”, are some of the rumours spread about immigrants. “Don’t Feed the Rumour” is part of a communication strategy developed by the municipality of Amadora (PT) since 2014, under the project “Communication for Integration: social networking for diversity (C4I)”, promoted by the Council of Europe.
Its aim is to reach a better understanding of the effects of these rumours on people's lives. Supported by trained anti-rumour agents and the creation of an anti-rumour network, a viral communication strategy has been set up and already showed good results, such as a more positive attitude from native Portuguese regarding immigrants.

By providing methodological knowledge and intercultural integration strategies, including an anti-rumour strategy, this good practice contributes to two fundamental things:

1. Awareness of the impact of widespread and unfounded statements about immigrants in the city of Amadora;
2. The city communication strategy addresses, in a holistic manner, the potential of its cultural diversity, by combating all forms of discrimination such as racism, intolerance and xenophobia, and promoting inclusion, strengthening community cohesion and well-being.

As part of the work developed by the municipality of Amadora, to create intercultural strategies in order to manage diversity as a resource, this good practice is valuable by the very way it was built: a simple dynamic of providing information based on facts, giving different audiences/groups the opportunity to address issues related to daily life and the way we see the “other”, in a non-conclusive but well-founded perspective, adjusting to different contexts, whether in education, culture, sports, or town planning. The campaign is now part of the municipal strategy, namely the Migrants Integration Municipal Plan. For instance, the campaign's impact on schools triggered the emergence of topics such as immigration and social inclusion, in an open, innovative and creative way, enabling students to explore their feelings, thoughts and behaviour towards cultural differences through art and a process called “positive dialogue”.

"Don't Feed the Rumour" is a practice that has proved complementary and transversal to other measures designed to reduce poverty and social and economic exclusion. It works well in raising awareness of widespread misconceptions, and negative attitudes towards immigrants in the city, addressing this threat on a well-grounded and positive basis, and in a holistic manner, bringing together decision makers, civil society, private sector, and different government levels. Part of the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, Amadora is mainly residential and has a high population density. Its weaknesses (a brief socioeconomic profile): lowest income index in the region; fourth municipality of the region with the highest percentage of lower and lower middle classes; compared to neighbouring cities, a high percentage of inhabitants receiving social support; percentages among the highest, of poorly educated, and lowest of the more educated population in the region; higher unemployment rate among young people up to 34 years of age in the region. Since 2001, there has been a 33% increase in the number of immigrants. Many more people are born with an immigrant background, and many are living in precarious housing areas. In this case, one of the identified threats is precisely the less favourable perception of the city by the internal and external population, associating Amadora with African immigrants, crime, poor housing, poverty, and inequality.

The participatory approach was in fact one of the basic principles of the strategy. A local anti-rumour network was set, and about 75 organisations of the Amadora Social Network, including organisations that work directly with immigrants, and the immigrants themselves, were involved at different moments:

• Mapping of the local rumours;
• Training of anti-rumour agents that united participants from different areas of intervention in the municipality, such as education, social intervention, culture, sport, intercultural mediation. These agents train local organisations: local associations, schools, citizens and public security (an “Anti-Rumour Agent Guide” was produced);
• Involvement of five Intercultural Mediators (working for the municipality) in the organisation of school workshops;
• Debates with students, promoted by teachers, in several schools;
• Video production;
• Cultural and sports activities oriented towards diversity and interculturality, including a Municipal Paper Kite Contest (an opportunity to debate, between children and students, diversity, prejudice and discrimination through art);
• Diversity workshops: "What is the true colour of the clouds?" (using different tools to read the world avoiding rumours, stereotypes, prejudices and discrimination “glasses”, and a Solidarity Walk and Run For Diversity.

In Amadora, the inhabitants' and workers' attitude regarding immigrants that live, study and /or work in the municipality were analysed by a university team before the beginning of the campaign, and after some activities and events had been held. Some results: participants who took part in at least one activity, showed more positive attitudes towards immigrants than participants who only heard about the campaign or did not know about it at all. More educated participants tended to express more positive attitudes towards immigrants than those with less education. However, the opportunity of raising awareness of the effects of rumours and prejudices on people's lives, was crucial for the project team. On the other hand, the high interest, involvement and participation of local organisations and of the immigrants within the project made a wider approach to the subject possible. During the development of the “Don’t Feed the Rumour” campaign, it was possible to involve about 75 organisations in the project, and reach about 2,500 persons. However, the best evidence of the campaign's impact is the introduction of the topic into decision-makers' agendas. Due to this, diversity and interculturality became themes of big events in Amadora, and the fight against prejudice a measure within the Municipal plan for Migrant Integration.

The anti-rumour approach can be adapted to different cities in Europe that are dealing with the challenges of diversity, and the impact of their own strategies can be seen on improving perceptions of immigrants. Within the Communication for Integration Project (C4I), the participant cities (Amadora, Loures, Bilbao, Sabadell, Limerick, Botkyrka, Nuremberg, Erlangen, Lublin and Patras) produced their own communication strategy. The original anti-rumour strategy was launched by the city of Barcelona. In Amadora, the campaign is running, and was also presented to the partners of the Arrival Cities Network (URBACT III) in its first phase, and included in the report of the first Transnational Workshop in the second phase of the project. Last year, SIE invited the "Don't Feed the Rumour" project, as a case study of an innovative approach to migrant integration, at the event "A Brighter Future for Europe: Innovation, integration and the migrant crisis". In May 2016, the anti-rumour strategy was presented at the 2nd Portuguese Intercultural Cities Network Workshop and in September, the Council of Europe project “Building Inclusive Societies: Intercultural Cities” launched a call that aimed at co-funding local projects implemented by municipalities which are member of the Portuguese network of IC, and aimed at creating social networks addressing misconceptions of persons from various backgrounds.

On Stage! is a model to democratise the access to and the production of music and art with an integrated, cohesive and participative approach. The Transferred Practice is based on EMMCA (Escola Municipal de Música-Centre de les Arts) a public Municipal Arts Centre and Music, Drama and Dance School in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, a city in the Metropolitan area of Barcelona.

Ordinary arts practice and training programmes are usually out of reach for most disadvantaged groups. The objective of EMMCA is inclusion and uptake for all in Hospitalet, not just for one homogenous group or income bracket. With a population of over one-quarter million, the highest rate of population density in Europe and almost 30% of its population with a migrant background, L’Hospitalet faces several challenges in social, economic, physical and cultural terms. A twist happens in 2004 when people in the street, picketing the city hall, demand a public music school. While the model initially though was that of a traditional music conservatory, the socio-economic condition in the city demanded an innovative approach which could tackle the cultural divides. In 2005 the EMMCA school was opened as a new school for participative cultural and artistic expression. EMMCA offers group classes to all citizens, carries out curricular performing arts activities in primary schools, borrows instruments to its students, grants special prices to those who cannot afford to pay full fees. Since its opening, over 50.000 people participated in school’s activities. This is also the yearly average audience of the performances. An average of 4500 students take part to the EMMCA’s activities each year. The Symphony Orchestra of the EMMCA is honoured to count 29% of performers with a migrant background, the same rate of people from non-EU origin living in the entire city.

Projects such as On Stage! (EMMCA) allow culture to be placed at the centre of cities’ social change, to bolster links between their citizens, boosting cohesion and tackling urban segregation. This practice responds to the Sustainable Development Goal 11 by measures that aim to recognise and promote cultural diversity for cities, to integrate culture to counter urban violence, and to ensure investment to enhance culture, cultural heritage and creativity in urban planning. On Stage! practice also approaches issues included in the European Urban Agenda such as inclusion of migrants and refugees and Culture and Cultural heritage. It responds to various priorities of the ERDF esp. 9-10) and it is an excellent practice enriching the debated in the New European Bauhaus and related initiatives. Regarding cross-cutting basic objectives, this good practice promotes equal opportunities, equal treatment and equality between men and women. Of the EMMCA’s pupils as a whole, 46.46% are women and 53.55% are men. The principle of equal treatment is applied to the group from childhood to adolescence, in relation to academic underachievement and possible isolation in the job market. The value and sustainability of this practice is also documented by its results: according to the 2015-2016 data, students involved in the EMMCA program had better results in 7th grade exams than those in similar schools not participating in the programs. Higher grades were recorded in most statutory subjects, and especially math. Regarding cross-cutting basic objectives, the most important aim is to promote equal opportunities founded on two principles: equal treatment and equality between men and women. Of the EMCA’s pupils as a whole, 46.46% are women and 53.55% are men. The principle of equal treatment is applied to the group from childhood to adolescence, in relation to academic underachievement and possible isolation in the job market.

The participatory approach is central to allow people who visit EMMCA every week to play, sing, dance, rehearse and learn come from all backgrounds and origins. In order to achieve that everyone has to be involved from social workers, the families, teachers, students. The main players involved in the process are the eight primary schools where the project is developed, and where the educational community of parents and teachers work together. The project has managed to promote the creation of parents’ associations in the eight schools where it is developed. At an institutional level, also participating as project partners alongside with the L’Hospitalet Local Authority are the Government of Catalonia, the Barcelona Council and the Fondation Daniel et Nina Carasso and other UlG members.

Taking on the leadership of the URBACT transfer network brought new improvements to the EMMCA approach. In particular the exchange of knowledge among cities in On Stage network, the dialogues created among ULG members, especially teachers, across Europe prompted fresh understanding of the EMMCA work. The core objective of a two-year improvement plan resulted in further investing in the engagement between the school and the population of L’Hospitalet. In order to achieve this goal the Lead Partner acted on three levels of actions in terms of skills, involvement of specific target groups, and reaching out the wider community strengthening local networks. The concrete actions focused on: 1. Extending the EMMCA offer to children aged 0-3, young people and those experiencing mental health issues. 2. Improving EMMCA projects in primary schools. 3. Commissioning a research study on the impact of EMMCA within the community with an external impact assessment by ESMUC, the Catalan College of Music. The study focuses on how to a)increase the number of people that practice arts in L’Hospitalet, b) reach all social sectors, including those more likely to be excluded for arts practise, c)use arts as a means to social cohesion d)To use arts as a means to school attainment Notably, the coordination of the Onstage network has improved the collaboration among the school team and EMMCA approach has consolidated its centrality in local government.

Transferring the practices has had a tremendous impact both in creating seeds of transformation and social change in the partner cities and in re-evaluating the works done so far in EMMCA. The quantitative results show that through On Stage 28 schools have been directly and indirectly involved in the transfer, through the work of 120 people active in ULG across the ON Stage cities. 735 people have been involved in the demo-action ( such as studies, new pilot projects for children and youth) including students, families, stand, teachers, researchers, experts and municipal staff. Despite the pandemic impeded most of the exchanges, the visit of the teachers of L’Hospitalet to Katowice has been crucial to reflecting, reimagining and innovating the Lead Partner role and to rethink EMMCA knowledge of primary school projects with new initiatives.

The original Good Practice of Łódź was the revitalization of the historic 6.5-hectare area of Priest’s Mill (Księży Młyn). This revitalisation included physical modernization and conservation of 25 city-owned multi-family buildings, all built in the 1870s and 1880s for factory workers and their families. Besides physical upgrading attention was given to economic activities, transforming some of dwellings into commercial premises, and social activities, establishing social economy, artistic and cultural entities.
In the second half of the 2010s the revitalization activities shifted towards the much larger rundown central area of the city, built in with old tenement houses. Lodz combined the practice of its pioneer project with the knowledge gained from the URBACT Transfer Network Urban Regeneration Mix (2019-2021). As a result, the role of mediators was further strengthened and extended with new tasks and responsibilities.

In order to organize the work and keep contact with the residents, the original model of mediator was a kind of „sheriff” function, regarding his competences (mediations, conflict and change management) the attitude towards people, and position in the complicated structure of Lodz city management. In the course of time this role and function have been further developed, towards a new system, establishing a team of mediators: Social Lighthouse Keepers and Area Hosts, who take care of about 700 families in the area of eight priority revitalization projects of the city center. Their core activities at the beginning were to help to solve the inhabitants' housing and everyday life problems. This approach, dealing predominantly with difficulties, was extended (on the inspiration of Braga and Birmingham) towards broader socio-cultural animation, as a tool for involving and activating residents, looking at the revitalisation area from a more wide perspective. A further step towards new competences of mediators was taken on the example of Toulouse and Birmingham, extending their tasks to work also with other stakeholders in the revitalisation area. On the one hand this meant to bring together all entities, including private investors, in a given area, allowing for an integrated management of the entire investment process. On the other hand, a community connector role was introduced, motivating and inspiring small groups of inhabitants to take bottom-up actions, building in them a sense of community and responsibility for the space and the neighbors with whom they share it.

The most important element of the original practice was the presence of an official person responsible for revitalisation and the fact that the residents could always report problems and failures. On that basis the residents have started to react to acts of vandalism and violence. Besides the residents also other actors became better partners of the renewal process, e.g. administrators of infrastructure networks, artists, Police and Municipal Police. With the further development of the project, introducing the extended roles of the team of mediators, it became even easier to constantly adjusting to the residents’ requirements and opinions. Mediators now have also "managerial" skills, not only supporting the local community, but related also to the involvement of employees in other activities carried out in the area, such as: cross-financing, cooperation with entrepreneurs, communities, participation in local initiatives, creating a network of understanding between institutions, cooperation in projects implemented in the neighbourhood.

In this project, various forms of social consultations have been worked out. MEDIATOR: supporting the inhabitants in the process of change and relocation, focusing on problem solving. LOCAL COMMUNITY ORGANISER who integrates, activates and works with the residents and institutions in the area to create an integrated neighbourhood. AREA MANAGER a representative of the residents and institutions from the territory under his care in the municipality, who monitors and actively participates in all meetings and activities affecting the people living and working in the area, as well as the organisations and enterprises operating there.

The historic housing estate built for factory workers in the 19th century had been neglected for decades. Now the buildings regain their residential function with 21st century standards, but they preserve their former functions as well and the public space layout designed 140 years ago is preserved, too. At the same time, dwellings in these buildings, most of which are city-owned and include communal flats, serve to meet one of the most basic social needs, which is to ensure shelter for people who cannot afford to rent an apartment on the open market. All activities are conducted in a way that makes it possible to preserve the original urban fabric of the site. The fact of great importance is that thanks to direct relations with people, help is given in the first place to those who need it most. This kind of approach helps to increase social trust in the authorities, in the city. The residents feel they really can influence the actions, and that the city strives to help them and understands their needs and problems. Also, activities aimed at including people in cultural life are conducted. Together, artists and the city organize events in which the residents participate. The project is a perfect example of how activities contributing to social inclusion should be performed. Some people have gotten jobs at companies renovating the area. Similar processes are under way in the ongoing city centre urban regeneration programme. At the end of the Urbact network, the city of Łódź will be able to present a comprehensive model of competence and activities of the Area Manager, i.e. a mediator working at an advanced stage of creating a social mix. The commissioning of the tenement houses after renovation in the city centre area started at the end of 2019, and time is needed to gain experiences to what extent it succeeded to create social mix in the renewed area. The development of the good practice and the improvement of the mediator's function will in the future influence the Housing Policy in Łódź also besides urban renewal, extending to the scope of spare flats, removals and contact with resident. Mediator is a unique function that is also part of the strategic project of Intelligent Social Policy - an integrated information system. Effective implementation of mediation may contribute to the introduction of strategic changes in the understanding of the contact between the Office and the resident.

After being awarded the URBACT Good Practice title, Lodz was able to create the Urban regeneration Mix Transfer Network to which six European cities (Baena, Birmingham, Bologna, Braga, Toulouse and Zagreb) were invited which were similarly facing the challenge of raising the level of participation in revitalised areas. Equipped by URBACT with a toolkit, the cities could learn from each other. The transfer process was not one-sided, during the transnational meetings the existing practices of some of the transfer cities inspired Lodz and contributed to the improvement of the Good Practice in the way described above. The area, which used to be considered not so safe and ill-famed, has become one of the most interesting spaces in the city for its atmosphere and unique historical characteristics.

The City of Chemnitz has been affected in different ways by demographic and economic change in the past decades. Vacancies can be found to different extents all over the city and amount to more than 22,000 flats (14 % of the housing stock). Among the most severely affected are the tenement buildings from the industrial era which are mostly privately owned.

The Agentur StadtWohnen in Chemnitz (DE) offers solutions to the problem of decaying historic apartment buildings abandoned after the 90s. The Agency is a public project carried out by a private company that offers a flexible and proactive approach. By acting as a networking hub, the Agency connects owners, potential investors or users and public authorities for the revitalisation of the historic housing stock of the city. Positive effects are the activation of owners or the change of ownership and the channelling of public grants to places where they can be used most effectively. So far, more than 140 buildings were monitored, for 50 a change of ownership was organised and 40 are currently available for investment projects. 

To further improve the activities of the Agency a survey has been carried out with previous and present owners who cooperated with the Agency. Further sources of improvement ideas are thematic workshops, peer-review sessions, using the outcomes of the ALT/BAU Transfer Network, especially from Transnational Exchange and Learning Activities.
 

Agentur StadtWohnen Chemnitz fills the gap between the different stakeholders that are relevant for the revitalisation of historic apartment buildings in Chemnitz’ wider inner city area. Being initiated and funded by the city’s public authorities, the project is carried out by a long-standing private partner and has the means to act in the public interest as defined by the public procedures and interests of the city. With the assignment to deal specifically with historic and often listed buildings that have been unused for the past decades and are in different states of disrepair, the project acts where the regular real estate market is limited. It takes on a pro-active approach to activate owners towards a development of their property, often through connecting them with potential investors and users that have the means and the know-how to find sustainable solutions.

The approach can be broken down into six key topics/steps:

1. Setting up a body/institution responsible to support the reactivation of vacant/derelict buildings and flats
2. Inventory and monitoring of vacant/derelict buildings and flats
3. Publication and marketing of vacant/derelict buildings and flats
4. Contacting, activating and supporting owners
5. Identifying, contacting and supporting potential buyers and investors
6. Connecting and coordinating public and private stakeholders.

The project helps to mitigate effects of urban processes that are unsustainable. By strengthening Chemnitz’ inner city through the concentration and support of developments in the existing central neighbourhoods, the urban structures are valorised. This way, the reuse of historic housing stock helps to save resources instead of promoting suburban sprawl. Dense and mixed-use urban structures reduce distances and encourage alternative means of transport. What is more, the successful outcomes of the project help to preserve the intrinsic qualities of those quarters and help to overcome the negative image of neighbourhoods such as the Sonnenberg. The provision with moderately priced and appropriately equipped housing for families, elderly people or marginalised population groups strengthens social coherence and reduces the ground for conflicts of different sorts.

The scope of the project is to activate owners, private and public stakeholders to save, restore and reanimate buildings. It can be described as a networking hub between persons, groups and authorities that have an interest in this goal. Starting and keeping communication going around the objects is the core of the project’s activities. The agency is the only instance that connects the threads from all different sides:

• the relevant departments in the city government (e.g. urban planning, fund management, building control, preservation, finance and tax, public relations),
• the different owner constellations (private owners or ownership groups of different sizes and local/national /international backgrounds, public housing company, unappropriated),
• the potential investors and users (professional real estate developers, grass-roots housing initiatives),
• additional stakeholders in the neighbourhoods and civil society.

The Agentur has become the central collector and distributor of information on the buildings through continuing communication with official partners from different segments of urban government and the informal, pro-active approach to the owners, local initiatives and players in the real estate market. While the city government has been able to achieve many of its goals, there is also room for improvement concerning the objectives, especially in light of a changing real estate market and migration patterns in the city and the dawning of gentrification processes known from other cities in Germany. Although Chemnitz has become interesting to investors and developers from outside the city, investments in the housing market or the field of rehabilitation of historic buildings and flats from local companies and citizens are still rare and the owner-occupier ratio is comparatively low. Thus, there is only limited involvement in the cultural and social aspects of housing and neighbourhood development. On the other hand, the share of local investors and users from Chemnitz is increased. Their investments in the rehabilitation of Chemnitz’s historic building stock has safeguarded important cultural heritage and attractive living space. Their engagement has promoted activities for the benefit of the neighbourhoods in a more sustainable way. From this it follows that the target of the agency should be reconsidered. In the context of a changing real estate market in Chemnitz, the agency should support investors from Chemnitz, self-users and housing projects as future owners and investors. To achieve that, improved public relations are needed to raise awareness and communicate the tasks, strategies and services of the agency to stakeholders (owners, investors, administration) and the public. This should generate a better understanding and cooperation among the stakeholders. In the future efforts will be taken to adapt consulting services to “new” target groups, e.g. collaborative forms of housing and sheltered/inclusive housing forms through social institutions. The activities of the consulting service will be extended by relevant basic information about available subsidy consultancy and administration. The targets of the future work of the agency (e.g. housing projects, empty plots, single flats etc.) will depend on the allocation financial resources, with reference to the corona-related austerity. More use of GIS use could improve the services of the agency and the management of buildings, plots and related services in the administration.

A strong demographic decline and thus numerous vacancies in the old neighbourhoods are typical for former industrial hubs and towns distant from the economic centres in their countries. The lack of communication between the public authorities, often unavailable or unable owners, and the very diverse group of potential investors and users, is a problem that is visible to different extents in almost any city. The ALT/BAU Transfer Network focused on alternative strategies in central and historic districts of European cities to activate unused and decaying housing stock resulting from demographic, economic and social change. Based on the experiences from Chemnitz’ URBACT Good Practice “Housing Agency for Shrinking Cities” (Agentur StadtWohnen Chemnitz), the network transferred experiences that proved successful to proactively connect administrations, owners, investors and users to initiate sustainable and resource saving development. Under the leadership of Chemnitz the following partner cities were involved in the ALT/BAU Transfer Network: Riga (Latvia), Constanta (Romania), Vilafranca del Penedes (Spain), Turin (Italy), Seraing (Belgium), Rybnik (Poland).

The Bee Path was opened in 2015 by the city of Ljubljana (SI), a municipality aware of the importance of pollinators for the sustainability of cities. The path is designed in such a way that visitors can comprehend the importance of bees for our survival and our food safety, discover the necessity of honey in our daily diet, but also find out more about the city's beekeeping culture. Various stakeholders are involved in the initiative: educational, cultural and health institutions, businesses, NGOs, and of course, beekeepers. As a matter of fact, two-thirds of the total surface of Ljubljana are rural areas, in which 826 farms operate. The city puts great emphasis on self-sustainability. By doing so, Ljubljana tries to shorten food supply chains and ensure food sovereignty.

The City of Ljubljana is firmly linked to beekeeping. Around 300 beekeepers maintain more than 4 500 beehives housing as many as 180 million bees. In the Strategy for Rural Development of the City of Ljubljana (2014-2020), the quality of agriculture and forestry goods, with the aim of self-sufficiency, is one of the important goals which should be achieved by an increase of beekeeping in rural and urban areas. There is a support system for bees, and recommendations for all residents that want to keep bees in urban areas. Within the Bee Path program, the urban beehives and bee stands have been designed to meet the demands of urban space. The city has also planted melliferous plants and trees with an emphasis on indigenous plants. Thus, the biodiversity has been maintained, and due to the higher number of pollinators, the self-sufficiency of the city has risen. The city administration and Ljubljana Tourist Board have created a bee-keeping education trail for tourists that connects the main locations of Ljubljana’s bee-keepers. Numerous promotional actions and presentations create bridges of understanding between beekeepers and citizens.

The city encourages ecological good practices in beekeeping. Besides maintaining forest areas in the city, new boulevards and perennial plants on public green areas are planted. By co-financing bee associations in Ljubljana, the level of professional competence of beekeepers has risen.
The Bee Path is also a good practice in the cities' circular economy, where all partners use ecological and reusable materials. We are also upgrading the content with the story of wild pollinators, and building environment-friendly wooden beehives with green roofs.
The main focus of the Bee Path is children. All beekeeper associations have beekeeping clubs in schools or at home. Here, children learn about the importance of bees for our survival, develop a working attitude, socialise and acquire knowledge of the importance of honey for our health. Students also learn the basics of apitherapy in 10 beekeeping clubs, including over 200 students, currently operating within the city.
Special attention is also given to the elderly. We carry out various educational activities, field trips and lectures, where experts talk about the importance of honey and bee products for their health. All activities on the Bee Paths (promotion, Honey Day, events, training, networking, collaboration, etc.) are a small part of the efforts of the Beekeepers Association of Slovenia, to promote the 20th of May as World Bee Day by the UN.

Besides the city of Ljubljana, the Bee Path includes five beekeeper associations, the University of Ljubljana, the Faculty of Architecture, the Biotechnical Faculty, the National Farming Institute, the University Botanic Gardens of Ljubljana and the Biotechnical Educational Centre of Ljubljana. Very important are also private companies (BTC City, Park Hotel, Ljubljana Pharmacy, Ljubljana Castle, Medex), NGO’s (Beyond a Construction Site Community-Based Garden, Eneja Institute-social enterprise, Beekeeper Society Barje, Urban Beekeeper Society) and several cultural institutions. The most important however are the 13 beekeepers. Members of Bee Path connect with each other and build new, successful stories. Pedagogical programs, prepared by the city, connects four partners – the Botanical Garden, the BIC Ljubljana (a culinary educational centre), the Plenik house (museum) and the Biotechnical faculty. The programme presents four contents – honey plants, sensory properties of the honey, bee cultural heritage and the life cycle of the bees. The Bee Path concept is designed to cover any possible level, from the education of the young to the training of beekeepers, to connect cultural and natural heritage, to promote different public events (Honey day) where citizens get to know bees, their products and their importance for our existence. Beekeeping also became a tourist attraction in Ljubljana.

As the good practice city, Ljubljana has used the BeePathNet project to:

• Prove that the BEE PATH good practice can be transferred to other cities and can sucesfuly function in other cultural, natural and operational environments. Subsequnetly, proving that the Bee-friendly Cities Network could be established on a transnational level.
• Develop BEE PATH Transfer Guidelines as a tool for attraction and expansion of the Bee-friendly Cities Network.
• Evolving the ULG with new ULG members and enablin ULG members to network and exchange experiences with ULG memebers from other cities, thus reenforcing teir efforts.
• Develop a Long-term BEE PATH Development Vision and open the discussion with ULG memebers about its future development and potential changes in its management model.
• Finalize the touristic/educational path, mark it is space, develop a map for visitors and promote it amongst visitors and citizens.
• Upgrade the educational programme and kick-off the api-kindergarten programme in Ljubljana.
• Start cooperating with other cities in Slovenia and kick-off the trasfer proces on the national level with the City of Maribor.

Over 2.5 years, Ljubljana has led the BeePathNet network, transferring its practice to 5 other cities: Cesena (Italy), Amarante (Portugal), Bydgoszcz (Poland), Nea Propontida (Greece), 12th District of Budapest – Hegyvidék (Hungary). You can, in particular, check Bydgoszcz’s Good practice here. The approach was based on 9 modules which adaptable to each city’s reality: Active partnership establishment and management, Higher municipality administration involvement, Awareness rising and promotion for citizens, Development of a “Bee Path” as a tourist and/or bee-product promotional platform, Education programmes for kindergartens and primary schools, Biodiversity maintenance, Support mechanisms for new bee-products, Conceptual design of a local product promotion and selling point and Awareness increase monitoring system.The modules are all available in the form of the BEE PATH Tranfer Guidelines on the URBACT website. There you can also find BeePathNet Lerning Logs providing transfer journeys and key results of all involved cities. Furthermore, Ljubljana sucesfully adressed other cities in Slovenia and even kicked-off off the transfer proces on the national level with the City of Maribor. With succesfull implementation of the BeePathNet project, Ljubljana sucesfully established the Bee-friendly Cities Network – an initiative with substantial growth potential thanks to URBACT and its transfer networks operational model.

The Municipality of Udine  has developed an urban practice focusing on the use of play as a flexible, innovative place-making paradigm to Develop an equitable and democratic society. Play is used as a vehicle for addressing healthy lifestyles and energy awareness; it fosters the inclusion of migrants, the involvement of elderly people and promotes a better relationship between parents and children. Playful places such as the Municipal Toy Library and its public park, the Energy in Play annual fair, the Traveling Toy Bus, World Games Day and Pi Day, have contributed to the improvement of urban places in Udine and raised awareness of health, energy and sustainability issues.

The “Playful Paradigm” initiatives is part of a comprehensive strategy that the Municipality has been implementing for more than 20 years under the umbrella of the Healthy Cities Project (World Health Organization), the European Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy, while being the  leading city of the Italian Playful Cities Movement (GIONA). From 2013 to 2015, Udine was the Lead Partner of the URBACT Healthy Ageing Project, tackling a topic, which particularly concerns its population (Udine has an old age index of 217), where playfulness has been an important aspect.

The solution proposed stems from using ‘games’ as a flexible and innovative co-creating place-making paradigm, in addressing the needs of an actively ageing, energy aware, equitable and democratic society.

Evidence shows that it is easier to learn and establish relations through playing, because cultural differences or physical and cognitive deficiencies, or mere unawareness, can be easily compensated by emotional reactions.  The experience in Udine started with tiny temporary educational initiatives such as the Ludobus (a mobile toy library a project promoted nation wide in the early 2000s), which then has been permanently turned into a The toy library, an intergenerational meeting point in the city center. The toy Library has welcomed since 2013 by 40 000 visitors becoming the actual hub of q rich programme of play-related initiatives the city has launched e.g. CamminaMenti – Move your minds run in community centers for dementia prevention and inclusion of elderly people, the Energy in Play annual Fair, the World Games Day, Pi Day, Darwin Day, The library of living books, etc. Because of this experience in 2017 with the support of Regional Funds, Udine launched the Italian National Games Archive establishing the first Italian classification of traditional and modern games, relying also on crowd sourcing in the coming years. Most recently, Udine has launched a project to fight gambling by promoting a toolkit of “healthy” games replacing “slot-machines”, the latter more and more invading bars, pubs and restaurants hooking the population especially in deprived urban areas.

Overall, the municipality has adopted a light touch policy based on “playing” that crosses all departments and programmes giving a new twist to the concept of social inclusion, education and place making that is a novelty for many European cities.

Health, energy and literacy awareness are pursued through playful initiatives aimed at developing a sustainable urban living, fostering learning attitudes, and enabling citizens regardless of age, ethnic origin, income, gender orientation or ability. The playful paradigm, which integrates top-down policies and spontaneous bottom-up actions called also “middle-out approach” in the Udine URBQCT good practice, triggers collateral initiatives akin to co-generative welfare. The holistic feature of games naturally induces an integrated and participative approach. This paradigm has allowed Udine to boost the many existing grass-root initiatives which promote sports, physical activity, healthy and eco-friendly lifestyles, channeling them towards the overall health and sustainability goals of the municipality and involving all citizens, not just militants.
The practice has thus achieved a vertical integration between different levels of government. Health and sustainability have become the 'lingua franca', i.e. the universal language, for carrying out city health and energy diplomacy, thus establishing relations and building partnerships with stakeholders within the city (non-profit organizations and public-private sectors), but also with other cities and regional and national authorities e.g. the creation of the National Games Archive, and the many transnational network Udine is involved in.

Over the years, Udine has implemented an integrated strategy for promoting physical, mental and relational well-being as well as ecological awareness in all policies. This approach has been applied by capitalizing on spontaneous bottom-up initiatives, building trustful alliances and partnerships within the community. In the Playful Paradigm approach, municipalities do not only act supportively of bottom-up suggestions and initiatives, but as catalysts of a broader societal engagement: the Municipality of Udine plays the role of social broker and mediator, facilitating networking among local stakeholders, and gently nudging their often idiosyncratic vision into a more coordinated, systematic and strategic framework. City health diplomacy plays a crucial role in this process, negotiating different interests towards a common goal, thus also avoiding the silo syndrome. The inter-sectoral participatory process is witnessed in Udine by the comprehensive programmes developed and co-created over the years, catalyzing and engaging a great number of different stakeholders. The whole-of-government, whole-of-society and health-in-all-policies approaches promoted by WHO within the Healthy Cities Movement was the inspiring principle.

Results have contributed to the improvement of urban places, and to awareness about health, energy and sustainability, with programmes and initiatives co-created using playing as the main paradigm. All these engage more than 3000 people per year.
Associations from the private and public sector are engaged to co-design and raise awareness on energy efficiency, reducing CO2 emissions through initiatives in the main squares of the city. A wide range of offers is at hand for everyone in community centers, Move your minds (CamminaMenti), university, public library, municipal Toy Library.
Non-profit and for-profit organizations offer music therapy, laughter yoga, anti-ageing games and creative thinking for combating cognitive decline and solitude. World Games Day: over 50 associations, small enterprises revolving around playing in all its different facets. Pi Day begins a little before 16.00 hrs on March 14 and brings together associations, individuals, schools to foster mathematics and scientific literacy. "You don't stop laughing because you grow old, you grow old because you stop laughing": workshops for health/social professionals improve the quality of life of elderly people. Energy at school, healthy eating, and food waste programmes: school programmes for educating children on sustainable consumption, carbon-blue-water-footprints, and healthy food. Eco-orienteering: different population groups experience the city by exploring cultural, social and historical aspects of places through treasure hunting.

The Playful Paradigm Transfer Network led by the Municipality of Udine demonstrated how much play could help cities to improve their capacity to leverage on health, wellbeing, and social innovation. The process of transferring within the network started with the lunching in different localities the simple project of the Ludobus, a colorful bus carrying games from the Ludoteca -the games library- all around the city. Using this project as leverage to link up other initiatives game oriented that could involve different sector of public life and education (see the toolkits produced during the lifetime of the network).

The 2020 pandemic situation during the lifetime of the network pushed towards integration of the digital environment in the built and physical spaces. By the end of the project, and with the limitations of the lockdowns, Udine tested a new approach to engage citizens and small groups of tourists through a virtual urban game inspired by an ancient game with dice and pawns exhibited in the Archaeological Museum of the city. The scope was to increase the knowledge and experience of cultural heritages and those historic urban places, more or less visible, which witness the history of a city/region/country.

Blue Growth Piraeus is an initiative to support start-ups and sustainable entrepreneurship on the maritime economy.

In 2014, the city of Piraeus (EL) put in place Blue Growth Piraeus, a first-established at EU level innovation competition for the maritime economy (Blue Economy), with the objective to strengthen traditional economic activities with innovative business ideas. Through a call for proposals, Blue Growth Piraeus aims to inspire and help young entrepreneurs realise innovative concepts and develop jobs and services related to marine resources. Blue Growth Piraeus includes 5 stages, from proposals submission and evaluation to award ceremony and an incubation programme. 

The first step of Blue Growth Piraeus team was to establish the Marinescape, a human ecosystem (partners, sponsors, advisors, academia) around Blue Economy. The successful cooperation among Marinescape stakeholders is a key asset that provides the opportunity to create an accelerator and job creator in the city. In the incubation stage, mentors from the Marinescape provide advise and courses to all trainees on scientific knowledge, market needs and business opportunities. Since 2019, the incubation and training is hosted by the Blue Lab, the municipal center of entrepreneurship and innovation for blue growth. Community networking events take place constantly, aiming at the identification of business ideas, the promotion of Blue Growth, the attraction of sponsors and other stakeholders. The aim of the municipality is to expand the target group of the Blue Growth Piraeus to children, students, as well as adults interested in life-long education and learning programmes.
 

Blue Growth Piraeus promotes socially and economically the city and helps to encourage entrepreneurship, offering:

• Innovation and business strategies regarding Blue Economy.
• Facilitation and acceleration of knowledge transfer to companies and start-ups turning them into healthy companies with positive economic impact.
• Experimentation and access to new production and technological processes and practices.
• A continuous innovation mechanism in blue and green economy.
• Strengthening of cooperation in the fields of research, education and practice.
• Creating channels for exchanging knowledge and creating synergies in common fields.
• Improvement of skills and knowledge especially of young people in Blue Economy.
• Integration of Triple Bottom Line as a basis for a continuous social dialogue regarding the sustainable economic activity.

It is a core approach of the Europe 2020 strategy that European cities should act as the motors for regional growth, innovation and employment creation.
Economic development can only be sustainable when it is accompanied by measures designed to reduce poverty, social exclusion and environmental problems. The new economy needs to be more circular, inclusive and just. Moreover it is crucial for cities to improve the quality of citizens’ life and to reduce their environmental footprint.
Providing that and taking into consideration the 12 priority themes of the Urban Agenda for the EU, Blue Growth Piraeus is by definition an integrated approach good practice, due to the fact that it blends in practice two influential frameworks: the “Quadruple helix” (4H: government, academia, industry and citizens collaborate together to drive structural changes) and the Triple Bottom Line (TBL). The 4H helps to establish a dynamic learning network towards innovation as an interaction between several stakeholders and TBL helps the network to achieve positive impacts and ROIs in all three bottom lines (business, people, and the planet).
Blue Growth Piraeus realises that intermediation and facilitation towards new economic models is significant, by forms of risk taking and market correction, to allow opportunities to reach and be sensed by wider audiences.
Blue Growth Piraeus is a good practice of regional development by fostering an entrepreneurial mentality, connecting industries, universities and startups and providing crucial support for young entrepreneurs in the early stages.

The established Marinescape, which is one of the greatest assets of Blue Growth Piraeus, consists of an extensive network of stakeholders (businesses, universities, chambers, etc) promoting a constant dialogue regarding Blue Economy issues, while aiming at the expansion of the network with additional stakeholders that can contribute to Blue Growth objectives.

A great number of stakeholders participate in all stages of Blue Growth Piraeus planning and implementation. It started as a partnership of the public (Municipality of Piraeus) and private sectors (Aephoria.net), while currently it is run by the Municipality in collaboration with the University of Piraeus, the University of West Attica, the Blue Lab of Piraeus, and soon also in collaboration with the recently opened Business Support Center of the Municipality, among various other stakeholders from the private sector. This is the foremost proof of different stakeholders’ participation in the planning of the initiative as well as in their commitment to support its implementation. It should also be noted that Blue Growth Piraeus is implemented under the auspices of various Ministries of Greece.

The Blue Growth Piraeus advisory board consists of members from industry, academia and governance achieving in that way the establishment of communication channels among them, the promotion of constant stakeholder dialogue and their involvement in the development of Blue Growth Piraeus. In the incubation stage there is input of mentors from the whole Marinescape providing thus to all trainees an integrated mentoring based on scientific knowledge, market needs and business opportunities. Community networking events are constantly undertaken, aiming at the identification of business ideas, the promotion of Blue Growth, the attraction of sponsors and other stakeholders for their participation in the initiative.

The impact of Blue Growth Piraeus is identified in the economic and social aspects of Piraeus city since it promotes urban sustainable development and reinforcement of social inclusion. Blue Growth Piraeus has contributed in the creation of new jobs and businesses, dealing in that way with the problem of unemployment which is a common challenge faced by all cities, especially in Greece that has been in a constant economic crisis during the last years. Blue Growth Piraeus has encouraged the entrepreneurship and promoted innovative business concepts related to the maritime economy and the values of sustainable entrepreneurship contributing thus to the improvement of entrepreneurial mentality with socio-economic benefits and the enhancement of business activity. Also, Blue Growth Piraeus has established and leads the Marinescape, a human ecosystem (partners, sponsors, advisors, academia) around Blue Economy, which constitutes a vital organisation working effectively towards the achievement of Blue Growth Piraeus’s goals.

Along the years, Piraeus has further improved and expanded its Multi-agency governance structure Marinescape, while it is now more deeply connected to the Municipality, also thanks to the ULG methodology. In addition, there are currently discussions to provide the most important and “loyal” ULG members with a certification announcing them as Blue Growth Ambassadors of Piraeus, to recognize their support, effort and dedication. It will most probably be realized very soon. The roles of sponsors, trainers and advisory board, including responsibilities and benefits have been detailed at local level.
Collaboration and networking with the ULGs of BluAct cities has been reinforced via the hybrid Final Event where 7 simultaneous ULG gatherings at the partner cities were connected online and the creation of the BluAct Forum - which aims to function as a pan-European, online ULG that could extend even beyond the BluAct phase 2 partnership.

The whole process has now been operationalised and documented. the advisory board was very strict with the selection and the questions asked live (streaming) to the competition finalists. A new system also allowed all viewers to vote from home, so apart from the advisory board more people could indicate their preference. The incubation (or “acceleration”) was run through the fresh Blue Lab of Piraeus, albeit mostly online. It was the first time and during the pandemic so next versions will be much better. This will also lead to the new Business Support Center of Piraeus will advance this stage importantly. The successful cooperation among the ecosystem’s bodies is a key asset of BG that provides the opportunity to create an accelerator and job creator in the city.

Results achieved until now:

• Collaboration with 6 universities in Greece, Egypt, China, Cyprus and ability to approach thousands of university students.
• At least 2 new competitions related to the Blue Economy have been established from other organizations
• Establishment of more than 15 start-ups
• Acceleration of 7 start-ups in the Blue Lab (Municipal Center of Entrepreneurship and Innovation for Blue Growth) -in 2020.
• Creation of approximately 60 jobs
• Implementation of more than 50 community networking events, also in the context on several European projects
• 1 start-ups has been funded by HORIZON 2020
• 2 start-ups incubated by Blue Growth Initiative went to Port XL Rotterdam, a mentorship-driven open innovation program on port-related industries (start-ups, spinouts, SMEs, multinationals) for acceleration process.

Piraeus led the BluAct Network over 2.5 years, transferring its practices to 6 other cities: Burgas (Bulgaria), Galati (Romania), Matosinhos (Portugal), Mataro (Spain), Ostend (Belgium) and Salerno (Italy). You can, in particular, check Mataro’s Good practice here. The approach was based on the 5 stages of the Blue Growth Piraeus Competition: Establishment of a strong multi-agency structure for overseeing the leadership, Management and delivery of the initiative, Competition Preparation Competition Delivery Incubation Programme and Ongoing celebration and promotion. BluAct has also created a PLATFORM/TOOLKIT/FORUM that can be found here. BluAct was also reloaed with another Transfer Network in 2021-2022.

The Municipal Council of Volunteers (MCV) is a stable participatory governance structure that helps coordinate the activities of volunteers, creating synergies among them and enhancing the capacities to reach out groups of the population which need additional support beyond the existing public welfare and social system. The MCV is intergenerational, it is open to everyone in the city and it is a powerful approach to maximise social support especially in small and medium size cities.

Since 1974, with the Turkish occupation of the northern part of Cyprus, Athienou has a special status with its urban area being within the buffer zone ( 80% of its rural area occupied by the Turkish army,) and thus being isolated from other urban center in the Cyprus Island. At that time, many people were in need to restart their lives after the occupation and volunteerism was one of the main tools to rebuild social ties. Athienou today still suffers from isolation and constantly see a resource in the volunteering collaboration between its citizens. Today, voluntarism is well rooted in the social life of the city, institutionalised in 2012 with the creation of a Municipal Council of Volunteers (MCV). Chaired by the Mayor, the MCV counts 48 members elected by the community (local organizations, political parties, parents associations, church and sponsors) . The duty of the MCV is to understand, and offer support, to social problems affecting the inhabitants of the Athienou, especially those most vulnerable. Its work covers different thematic areas such as elderly support, care, life long learning, nursery, energy efficiency, climate change et al. The MCV is currently organised around 4 main projects: 1 the Kleanthios Elderly Home, 2. The Konstanileneion Center for Adults with initiatives related with occupational activities for isolated people and day care activities. In close collaboration with the welfare committee, services are offered with little or no cost to individuals in need, such as food preparing, home-care, and healthcare.3. the Municipal Nursery Center which has a capacity to offer high quality nursery services to 100 babies and infants. Approximately 20 percent of the families that benefit from these services are monitored and receive help by the Municipal Welfare Committee and 4, the Social Welfare Committee. This latter, chaired by the Mayor and with a close collaboration with the Social Welfare Office and the Ministry of Education. Funding comes from individuals, private companies, organised groups and local and/or national authorities.

A key sustainability factor of the MCV initiatives is the intergenerational approach. Children participate in volunteering activities, and this investment at a early age makes them familiarise with a culture of volunteering which will be carried out from generation to generation. For instance, Children in Athnienou pay regular visits to the elderly home in order to attend joint entertainment activities. At the same time, volunteers visit regularly schools engaging kids in storytelling initiatives while encouraging the volunteering engagement.

Vertical integration begins with the volunteers working for MCV, in close collaboration with the municipal authorities. The MCV is under the District Coordinating Council of Volunteerism, which is under the National Coordinating Council of Volunteerism, the National Welfare Office and the Ministry of Labour. With regards to territorial integration, the MCV of Athienou covers the Athienou Municipality and is part of a national network of Volunteering Councils. These efforts also include activities towards environmental sustainability. The MCV members are highly aware of environmental issues and have set a strategy that includes renewable energy sources.

The MCV architecture is based on the active participation of organised groups within the community. Any citizen can be a member and/or volunteer and the MCV offers a frame for people to assume an active role in support of others depending on the volunteer attitude, skills, professional expertise and time availability. Although, volunteers take the decisions, the committee operates under strict standards, it reports for its actions and it is audited by the legal authorities. The MCV also employs certified staff, dedicated to providing professional support and training of the volunteers. The total number of volunteers exceeds 200 at any given time. The Municipal Council of Volunteerism is composed of 48 members from local organisations and approved by the volunteers. There is a close collaboration with the Welfare Office of the Ministry of Labour, where a budget and sustainability report is submitted annually for additional governmental funding. The president of the Council is the mayor of Athienou. Every programme has an 11-member Coordinating Committee. The president of the Committee is also a member of the Council. Many of the volunteers provide their expertise for the programmes.

Despite its long standing tradition of volunteerism in the city, the main barrier today is the low engagement of volunteers in the age group between 25 - 45 years old, and to further address the challenge to reach out the whole population especially people most in needs. The main concern of the improvement plan of the city of Atheniou was therefore to update the work of the MCV with actions involving the youths and specific target groups such as people with disabilities, youth and young professional, and parents of toddlers and school age children. As result from the improvement plan adopted in the Volunteering cities network, the municipality adopted the MunicipalYouth Board, which promotes the ownership of actions by the younger population. Social media have been an important tool for improving this action, as much as the collaboration with school teachers, family of students providing manuals and resources on how to engage in volunteering activities. Another important step was to create stronger linkages with the private sector trough social corporate responsibility achieved by branding the good practice of volunteering.

Athienou has greatly invested in transferring its methodology of organising volunteering activities at municipal level. The transferability study highlighted 5 elements of transfer in the governance model,intergenerationality, involvement of young volunteers and corporate citizenship. The overall strategy of the transfer plan is to enhance the volunteerism sustainability cycle as described in the Transfer Network proposal and the Transferability Study:

1. Volunteerism greatly contributes to the increase of the quality of life and the progress of the community.
2. The intergenerational interaction within the volunteering activities guarantees the sustainability of this volunteerism tradition in the communities
3. Bigger engagement and participation of stakeholders increases the effectiveness of the actions and programs that sustain the quality of life and the social evolution.

The methodology has been shared through a guide for transfer resulting from the networks partner cities activities. All cities in the network adopted the Athnieou approach and have been able to launch small scale practices in the lifetime of the network.