The EU-funded project “ThinkNature” created a multi-stakeholder communication platform to support the understanding and promotion of Nature-based solutions (NBS) at local, regional, EU and international levels. The platform is an integrated web-based solution that stimulates dialogue and interaction on NBS through discussion forums and debates. The project is led by the Technical University of Crete and executed by a consortium of 17 partners originating from 8 countries across Europe. Continue reading
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According to the author, the 2020 collapse of the global economy due to Covid-19 pandemic has enabled us to think about long term trends and what the future could hold for our cities and regions, especially due to the climate agenda. Having as a starting point the current pandemic, this paper sets out the historical precedents for economic transitions after collapses that unleash new technologically based innovation waves. These are shown to be associated with different energy and infrastructure priorities and their transport and resulting urban forms. Continue reading
REFLOW is an EU H2020 project, from 2019 to 2022, that seeks to understand and transform urban material flows and to co-create and test circular and regenerative solutions in urban and peri-urban areas across Europe. The vision of REFLOW is to develop circular and regenerative cities through the re-localisation of production and the reconfiguration of material flows at different scales, leveraging Fab Labs and makerspaces as catalysts for wide-scale collaboration and co-creation conducive to systemic, sustainable change. The project operates at the international level, mobilising existing networks and movements that are working towards a new productive model for cities such as Circular Cities, C40 Cities and Fab City Global Initiative. Continue reading
The present study is addressing the role of AI in the public sector and providing an overview and analysis of the use and impact of AI in Public Services. The main goal of the authors is to gather information on EU Member States’ initiatives on the use of AI in public services and develop a methodology to identify risks, opportunities, drivers and barriers.
This report is published in the context of AI Watch, the European Commission knowledge service to monitor the development, uptake and impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Europe, launched in December 2018. Continue reading
This case study represents a conclusive comparative analysis of a series of five Place-Based Innovation Ecosystem cases and aims at extracting policy relevant conclusions about the orchestrators and other systemically important actors and elements of these systems. It contributes to the European Commission Joint Research Centre’ s research line about analysis and methodologies of Place-Based Innovation Ecosystems (PIEs).
The authors seek to generate scientific evidence for the future development of the European Union policies related to innovation in the context of regional and urban Innovation Ecosystems, emphasising the importance of the place-based dimension of innovation for the purpose of local economic transformation.
Sharing has become a global phenomenon; business models, social innovations and technological developments enable an escalated number of uses for a given asset, resulting in reshaped urban dynamics, practices and morphologies.
This paper is exploring diverse aspects of sharing economy as part of the urban fabric, through participatory activities with citizens and stakeholders. It investigates the co-construction of society and technology with respect to the implementation of sharing-based strategies in urban practices. Continue reading
This report is providing an overview of the activities, organisation and implications of energy communities as participants across the energy system. It identifies them as contiguous processes of both the energy transition and social innovation. Paths for future policy implications and research initiatives are analysed and informed. The European Commission’ s Clean Energy for All Europeans Package is stated as the indicator of the role prosumers and their collective forms will play in the future energy system. Continue reading