Networks and cities' news

Bragança. Freedom to Start Over

The “Find Your Greatness” program addresses the challenges highlighted by Alba Iulia (Romania), the leading city of this program, that includes seven more cities from the European Union: Bragança (Portugal), Voru (Estonia), Wroclaw (Poland), Candelária (Canary Islands), Perugia (Italy), Limerick (Ireland) e Budafok (Hungry). The goal is to improve the cities` territorial marketing strategy, through cooperation between European cities, based on the potential of each, and successfully create Europe's first branding strategy building program for smart cities. The planning of the Small Scale Action happened during the sessions of the Urbact Local Group of Bragança, which brought together people from various institutions and professional areas, from the Municipality of Bragança, Polytechnic Institute of Bragança, Brigantia Ecopark, More – Collaborative Laboratory, Associação de Municípios da Terra Fria do Nordeste Transmontano, and local entrepreneurs.

Smart cities attract women into STEM sectors

Women in STEM sectors are without a doubt still highly underrepresented, in training as well as in employment. The same applies for science and that can also affect climate change. Can larger demographic diversity in climate change science result in more climate friendly solutions? And how can a smart city build attention to and connect more with the STEM sector? The main subjects for this hybrid-digital transnational meeting in La Rochelle was dedicated to Gender and STEM (an acronym that stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics).

Loulé After Lockdowns: a Focus on Active Lifestyles

The European project Healthy Cities started in 2019, allowing our city of Loulé to continue the work developed during the Vital Cities - Make You Active project, but adding a very interesting topic of study, debate and analysis: the urban local.

"Boosting the competitiveness of manufacturing industries: what other cities can learn from Bilbao" by Willem van Winden -URBACT Lead Expert-

Manufacturing industries are still the beating heart of many European industrial city regions. But global competition is tough, and traditional business practices are under fire, challenged by digitalization. How can cities best deal with the challenges of the quite disruptive “Industry 4.0” era? Bilbao provides a good example: In its AS-FABRIK project, it developed a comprehensive concept that offers new training schemes, partnership&alliance formation, actions to speed up digitalization, and boosting innovative startups.  Now, other cities with an industrial heritage want to learn how Bilbao did it: Bielsko Biala, Tartu and Timisoara joined Bilbao in the AS-TRANSFER exchange project.

The French "Politique de la Ville"

What on earth does France mean by "Politique de la Ville"?
 

Site Visits to CO4CITIES Partners: a First Glimpse into the Transferability Plan

From June 2021 Levente Polyak, the CO4CITIES Lead expert, has been visiting all the Cities involved in the Transfer Network with the active involvement of local stakeholders in order to discuss challenges and objectives that will be included in the Transferability plan.

Levente has been guided through the cities of Turin, Gdansk and Cluj-Napoca while he organized meetings with several local stakeholders in Budapest, his hometown.