EMI news & events

Tomorrow, on the 16th of February, the European Commission will host the first Urban Forum in Brussels. On this forum Johannes Hahn, the European Commissioner of Regional Policy, will challenge European cities to invest more in economic growth and jobs. The European Commission has invited over 400 participants to the forum; ranging from cities to network-organizations such as EMI. The aim of the forum is to create a direct dialogue between regions, cities and the European Union. After all, cities are the engines of the economic growth.

On the 19th and 20th of March the Institute for Transportation (Technical University, Munich) will host Mobil.TUM 2012, an international scientific conference on mobility and transport. During this conference EMI will present the paper ‘Focus on Walking´, prepared in cooperation with a practitioner at the city level, Mr. Toine Molenschot (Traffic & Transport Department of the City of The Hague) and an urban academic researcher, Dr. Jan Prillwitz (Associate professor at the Department of Human Geography and Urban & Regional Planning, Utrecht University). The paper focuses on the following:

EMI gives you the opportunity to win one of 3 copies of the book ‘Smart City Dynamics’ (€19,50). Read all insights and views of experts from, amongst others, the European Commission, IBM, Stockholm Sea Port and Sustainable Glasgow. In return we ask you to share information on a project in your city which you feel can be typified as a Smart City project.

URBAN-NEXUS, financed by the European Commission Seventh Framework Program, will hold its’ first Dialogue Café on Urban Climate Resilience on the 29th-30th May 2012 in Glasgow. This workshop is the first of 5 interactive Dialogue Cafés to be organised during the 36-month URBAN-NEXUS project. Themes that will be tackled in these respective workshops are: land-use, health and quality of life, governance and data monitoring. The ultimate goal of these Dialogue Cafés is to initiate and further stimulate debate on urban research, policy and practice with stakeholders and to create new partnerships.

For the Knowledge & Research Agenda on Polycentric Metropolitan Areas EMI visited the twin cities Linköping - Norrköping in Sweden. In Sweden Dr. Evert Meijer (Programme Manager EMI) and Mr. Koen Hollander (Deputy Programme Manager EMI) spoke to a lot of different experts: researchers, policy makers and business representatives. A journalist from the local newspaper interviewed EMI while visiting these twin cities. This article is based on the translation of this newspaper article.

Based on the economic and financial challenges currently confronting European cities, exchanging knowledge on how to cope with these issues is very useful. That is why we ask all cities in our network to share their best practices with other cities.

During the EMI Public Lecture both Professor Wikström and the Mayor of The Hague, Mr. Van Aartsen gave a key-note speech on juvenile crime prevention. In addition, the participants got the opportunity to discuss the negative and positive aspects of crime prevention policy among youths. The participants came from a variety of cities: Stuttgart, Zagreb, Birmingham, Kaunas, Brussels, Amsterdam and The Hague. A true mix of researchers, policymakers and fieldworkers was present.

On the 24th of November the second lecture as part of the EMI Public Lecture Series was held in Brussels. The aim of the lecture was to discuss elements of effective approaches towards juvenile crime prevention in European cities. A variety of people were present: policy officers from the European Commission, policy makers from municipalities, social workers, police officers, EU representatives of European cities and researchers. The lecture consisted of 2 interesting key-note speeches and an interactive session. Of course there was also the possibility to network.

In December 2011, EMI visited the Swedish cities Linköping and Norrköping as part of the KRA on Polycentric Metropolitan Areas. Many European cities are becoming part of a broader functional urban area that includes a multitude of urban cores. In order to address the main issues that European metropolitan areas face within this process, EMI interviewed key experts from the public and private sector in Sweden as part of a case study on this area. This article highlights the main impressions.

From September 2011 onwards the EU funded Framework Programme 7 (FP7) project, URBAN-NEXUS, is in progress. A diverse group of research and knowledge dissemination institutes from across Europe have joined forces in order to promote sustainable urban development and to create long lasting partnerships between stakeholders. On 17 and 18 November a kick-off meeting was organised in Sofia, Bulgaria. The consortium will be led by Nicis Institute and brings together 13 other leading knowledge institutes, research organisations and governmental agencies from 9 EU-countries. EMI and EUKN both assist Nicis in this consortium.

The KRA on sustainable urban mobility is yet reaching its final phase. At 17 November 2011 EMI had the chance to present the progress of the Knowledge & Research Agenda on Sustainable Urban Mobility to the URBAN Intergroup in the European Parliament in Strasbourg. The input of the Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), members of the Urban Intergroup and the Transport committee, was very helpful in narrowing the focus of the research agenda.

European metropolitan areas are polycentric; they consist of many smaller interlocking ‘cores’ and therefore require multi-level approaches to policy making, as well as research. The European Metropolitan network Institute (EMI) is currently working on a Knowledge and Research Agenda (KRA) on Polycentric Metropolitan Areas in Europe. Through literature reviews and practical case studies this agenda will address the knowledge and research needs of European metropolitan regions regarding this topic. As is the case with our other KRA’s, the overall goal is to strengthen the development perspectives of European metropolitan regions by means of integrated knowledge on both practical and scientific level.

The urban field is characterised by a multiplicity of overlapping and typically disconnected urban policy research. There is a huge potential benefit to be gained in reviewing and synthesising recent and ongoing urban research. In order for cities to effectively face their challenges, it is essential to collaborate. The URBAN-NEXUS initiative will facilitate the process of bringing these stakeholders together, to reduce the overall ecological footprint of cities.

At Wednesday July 13 the first webinar in a series of international collaborative webinars. The webinars provide a forum where US and EU state and local governments can share energy efficiency projects, experience, strategies and implementation policy. The webinars stimulate an atmosphere of international peer to peer networking and information sharing.

The European Economic and Social Committee (ECOSOC) decided to draw up an own-initiative opinion on the Metropolitan Areas and City Regions in Europe2020. EMI cooperates with Mr. Joost van Iersel, chair of the EU2020 committee of ECOSOC on formulating this opinion. EMI´s director Ms. Hester Menninga is acting as expert on metropolitan areas and city regions in Europe. The aim is to formulate an opinion that entails concrete recommendations and actions to be taken by all actors involved including the European Commission and European Council.

Are you an urban professional or policy maker? Share your knowledge with other cities by replying to this 3rd Ask-Your-Urban-Neighbour question, this time from the Joint Programming Initiative (JPI) Urban Europe.

The city of Barcelona asked its urban neighbours about about creating an urban life in small and medium sized cities in a metropolitan area. Ms. Machere, event director of the city of Helsinki sent in an interesting answer about how the metropolitan region of Helsinki stimulates urban life facilitating the organisation of all kind of events.

JPI Urban Europe is a joint initiative of 15 European countries to coordinate (national) research and make better use of funding across Europe. JPI wants to find out what urgent challenges should be tackled in order to create attractive, sustainable and economically viable urban areas in which European citizens, communities and their surroundings can thrive.

The current Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) runs until 2013. In February 2011, the European Commission launched its Green Paper consultation on future EU Research and Innovation Funding. EMI welcomed the opportunity to react to the Green Paper and submitted a written response on the EU CSFRI website. EMI’s remarks concern the focus, strategy and approach of the proposed framework.

One of our researchers, Ms Hoogerbrugge will be presenting at the ERSA Congress end of August in Barcelona. Her abstract titled "Competitiveness in Urban Europe: research based, practice led" has been accepted under the theme regional economic growth and development. The ERSA Congress is an annual event. This year the central theme is: New Challenges for European Regions and Urban Areas in a Globalised World.

Join the new discussion group on the professional network website LinkedIn. Why join? Connect with professionals specialised in the same urban field, share best practices with other European cities, address your own economic topics and participate in discussions, give input to the research agenda on economic vitality to ensure it will be truly practice led and stay up-to-date about EMI's activities concerning the Knowledge & Research Agenda on Economic Vitality.

JESSICA stands for Joint European Support for Sustainable Investment in City Areas. It is a policy initiative of the European Commission, developed with the European Investment Bank (EIB) in cooperation with the Council of the Europe Development Bank (CEB). The objective of JESSICA is to support sustainable urban development through a new kind of financial engineering revolving mechanism.

Picture yourself in a city. It could be any city in Europe, perhaps Stockholm, Porto, Frankfurt (I’ll stop here in fear of having to name all cities in Europe just to be p.c.). And then imagine walking around in a sweltering heat, sweat seeping off your brow and tongue hanging out. You have just done the shopping and are carrying about twenty flimsy plastic bags in each hand.

An integrated approach of sustainability in cities. That is where the Reference Framework for Sustainable Cities (RFSC) aims at. The RFSC is an online tool that helps cities to prioritise the actions needed to meet their objectives regarding sustainable development. On 15 and 16 March 2011 Nicis Institute assisted in the organisation of the launching event for the Reference Framework for Sustainable Cities (RFSC).

On the 5th floor at the Technical University Munich (TUM) 15 experts discussed the economic vitality of the Munich Metropolitan Region. Inspired by a tremendous view on the city of Munich, the participants attending the Roundtable Discussion were optimistic about Munich’s future economy. Of course the region has to encounter some challenges but the Munich-bubble was not about to burst.

Based on the enthusiastic reactions of the participants, the EMI-workshop, held in Brussels on Thursday the 31st of March can be considered as a success. In total 41 participants participated in the workshop. The theme of the workshop was the economic vitality of European urban areas.

On the 2nd and 3rd of March 2011, EMI participated in The 6th Annual Brussels Climate Change Conference 2011, named ´Climate Change and Cities´ organized by the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS). CEPS is a Brussels-based policy think-tank, providing research and activities on economic and international policy matters.

The first question set out by Ask-Your-Urban-Neighbour in a network of European urban areas is about collaboration between cities. The city of The Hague is closely working together with the city of Rotterdam on a range of policies and challenges. The challenge for The Hague and Rotterdam is to join forces and create a stronger cooperation. With respect to which topics are other urban areas seeking closer cooperation? Which are the challenges and above all, which ´best practices´ can other cities identify? This article gives you an overview of responses regarding this question from the cities: Malmö, Vienna, Edinburgh and Dordrecht.

Ask-Your-Urban-Neighbour is a new tool EMI has set up to stimulate the exchange of knowledge between European urban areas. The first question about bipolar regions is from the city The Hague. The Glasgow Edinburgh Collaboration Initiative (GECI) has sent in a useful response regarding the question about bipolar regions. The collaboration between the cities of Edinburgh (Scotland) and Glasgow (Scotland) has been continuously enhanced in the past few years.

Ask-Your-Urban-Neighbour is a new tool EMI has set up to stimulate the exchange of knowledge between European urban areas. The first 2 questions about bipolar regions and creating a strong profile are from the city The Hague. The city of Vienna has sent in a useful response regarding the question about bipolar regions. The collaboration between the cities of Vienna (Austria) and Bratislava (Slovakia) has been continuously enhanced in the past few years.

Ask-Your-Urban-Neighbour is a new tool EMI has set up to stimulate the exchange of knowledge between European urban areas. The first 2 questions about bipolar regions and creating a strong profile are from the city The Hague. The city of Malmö has sent in a useful response regarding the question about bipolar regions.

In cooperation with EMI and EUKN (European Urban Knowledge Network) Nicis Institute will support 60 cities in testing a new tool called the Reference Framework for Sustainable Cities (RFSC). The year 2011 will be used to test and evaluate the prototype of the RFSC. The testing of this tool is financed by the European Commission-DG Regio.

On 9 February 2011 the European Commission launched a so-called Green Paper. This document proposes major changes in EU research and innovation funding which should increase the propensity of funding to meet the growth goals which are articulated in the Europe 2020 Strategy. In this light, the Green Paper proposes a Common Strategic Framework for EU research and innovation funding. This paper is intended to stimulate debate and to launch a process of consultation at European level. EMI will participate in this consultation round, and argue for a more thorough inclusion of local policy makers.

Ask-Your-Urban-Neighbour is a new tool EMI has set up to stimulate the exchange of knowledge between European urban areas. The first two questions about bipolar regions and creating a strong profile are from the city The Hague. The city of Dordrecht in the Netherlands sent us useful responses to these two questions.

EMI has sent its reaction on the 5th Cohesion Policy to the European Commission. The European Commission (EC) has recently published its Fifth Cohesion Report on the reform of the cohesion policy and invites stakeholders to give their views on the future cohesion proposal. EMI´s opinion is that the new cohesion policy should strive to involve territorial actors, so that all programmes resulting from this report will be more practice-based. EMI is a strong supporter of the development of an ambitious urban agenda which identifies urban actions and separate resources for cities.

As a professional working in one of the main urban areas in Europe, you understand as no one else that urban areas face many different challenges on a daily basis. How to create an effective and efficient civil service for your inhabitants? How to profile your urban area as creative? How to stimulate employment rates? How to implement sustainable public transport? How to set up a child playground according to EU-regulations?

From 24-26 January 2011 EMI will participate in the build-up of a new Trans-Atlantic City-University Network for energy efficiency in Washington DC. The main aim of this transatlantic network is to start a dialogue between Europe and the United States that focuses on how cities and their universities can better work together to accelerate the implementation of energy efficiency and renewable energy policies and technologies at the local level in urban areas.

On the 2nd and 3rd of February 2011, as part of the Joint Programming Initiative (JPI) – Urban Europe, EMI will participate in the Scientific Research Agenda-workshop at the VU-University in Amsterdam. Urban experts and professionals will come together to debate which questions should be answered and which topics should be researched to deal with the many challenges urban areas face.

A number of declining ex-industrial European cities like Bilbao, Berlin and Lille have succeeded in using culture to buck the downward trend. But a fancy new opera house or mega-museum is not enough to kindle the urban renewal dynamic: an open mind for the unexpected and even inefficient is also an indispensable ingredient.

Hamburg's new quarter is one of the largest urban development projects underway in the world today. But will it be successful? City planners are hoping that their application of an academic field known as environmental psychology will do the trick.

EU-funded researchers have taken science out of the lab and onto the streets to stimulate greater engagement in city living. The IPCITY ('Integrated project on interaction and presence in urban environments') project partners assembled a range of technologies in real-life settings to allow people to discover new aspects of their city and to voice their opinion on future developments.