Eurotowns Team

Eurotowns – Innovation Team

Name of TT leader:

Co-leadership Sabadell – Gävle

Main topics:

Building on the triple helix model, the quadruple helix model adds the civil society as a fourth component to the frame-work of interactions between university, industry and government. How do local challenges could be faced up fostering the participation of citizens? The possibility to apply this new model in the field of entrepreneurship gives local authorities a chance to carry out actions with an economic impact in their territory. Which support measures are implemented? How is it fostered at the local level? Are there initiatives of territorial ecosystem networks? Sharing success stories and what didn’t go that well will for sure be inspiring for all Eurotowns members.

Usually, many medium-sized cities do not have great connections with research and technology institutions. They do have these assets in their territory but don’t have the necessary links that would facilitate building up a more competitive and interconnected ecosystem. Sharing experiences among Eurotowns members would facilitate learning from each other on innovative ways to foster the establishment of such connections in cities of similar dimensions. Shared projects could result of this exchanges that would go more in deep on the transnational learning as well as facilitate testing the applicability of identified good practices.

How to specialize a local or supralocal territory considering smart specialization strategies are regional, not local. Is it possible? YES! How does it work? In this sense we can bring in our experience in developing the Sabadell’s Specialization and Territorial Competitiveness Project (PECT), how we deal with regional administration on this issue, which are the instruments provided at the local level to implement RIS3, etc. On the other hand, we are currently leading the Interreg Europe project RELOS3 which is about sharing different perspectives and/or ways of implementing regional smart specialization strategies at the local level.

Circular economy is a hot topic on the international agenda of Eurotowns. It raises a new type of economy where we consume in moderation, products have a longer lifetime, we limit waste and we are able to transform waste into new resources. It obviously has an impact to facilitate economic recovery, increase competitiveness, create jobs and reduce environmental risks. Do cities have a role in this? Sure! Circular economy has actually been included as one of the twelve topics in which the EU Urban Agenda is focused on, pointing out that cities are an attractive starting point to facilitate the transition to this new economic model. Initiatives at the local level in this field may range from waste prevention or water manage-ment policies to fostering a collaborative economy at the local level or mainstreaming the concept of circular economy among locally-based Deepening into industrial side of circular economy, known as industrial symbiosis adds an interesting field of work for our cities.

As for the above mentioned topic, public procurement is also one of the hotspots in the EU Urban Agenda. Innovative public procurement procedures are understood as to be a catalyst to boost innovative initiatives at the local level in a broader sense. Municipalities have an important lever at their disposal through the public procurement of goods, services and works to improve and foster sustainability at the local level. Besides, relevant work could also be done by improving the governance of public procurement and putting in place effective metrics systems on public spend and its impact. This is just to mention some issues linked to the public procurement topic with an application at the local level. Many others are in place and there is certainly an interest (as well as expertise) on this topic among Eurotowns members!

The digital transition is also included in the EU Urban Agenda. Local administrations are the public sector’s primary interface with both citizens and businesses, being at the forefront of delivering many of the key public services for the citizen. Getting into the car of digital transformation will have an undeniable impact in transforming the way services are delivered at the local level and how communication is carried out between citizens and the local administration. Initiatives in that field from the local perspective may be focused on data-sharing projects that may aim to facilitate the co-creation of solutions among the local government, citizens and the private sector; they could also focus on digitizing processes and services such as deploying consolidated online-access platforms, etc.; or on moving one step forward ‘traditional’ public infrastructures such as street lighting or traffic management, just to mention a few.

Objectives:

Past, ongoing and future projects:

Contact for TT:

Iolanda Repullo – Head of the Economic Promotion Office, Sabadell City Council
irepullo@ajsabadell.cat

Annika Lundqvist – Head of International Office , Municipality of Gävle
annika.lundqvist@gavle.se

 

Eurotowns – Innovation Team

 

Focus on infrastructure and communication – Task Team Mobility

Name of TT leader:

City of Varberg

Main topics:

The main interest of the member cities focus on infrastructure and communication in the following topics:

Objectives:

Past, ongoing and future projects:

Contact for TT:

Max Wehlin Strategist Infrastructure and Analysis, City of Varberg
max.wehlin@varberg.se

Task Team Mobility

 

Eurotowns network – Global Goals, local strategies to develop and implement

A short video contribution of the Task Team can be found here

Name of TT leader:

City of Solingen

Main topics:

Objectives

1. Raising awareness / participation / cooperation

2. Methods / content / actors

3. General exchange and funding acquisition as a permanent feature

4. Not directly as a focus, but the question of indicators needs to be considered

Past, ongoing and future projects:

Contact for TT:

Martin Hückeler – Head of Funding Management and European Affairs, Municipality of Solingen

m.hueckeler@solingen.de

Eurotowns network – Global Goals

Strategic Policy Group – Strengthening policy influencing at the European level for medium-sized cities 

Name of TT leader:

City of Sindelfingen

Main topics:

Objectives:

Contact for TT:

Julian Schahl – European Coordinator, City of Sindelfingen
j.schahl@sindelfingen.de

Strategic Policy Group

Inner City – Attractiveness, Culture, Tourism and Sustainability

Name of TT leader:

Municipality of Reggio Emilia

Main topics:

During the last GA 2020 a new Task Team on Inner City has been launched. The historic city centre is experiencing a moment of strong rethinking due to the difficulties of merchants and to the changing lifestyles, demand and consumption of citizens. The demographic change, combined with the revolutions in terms of commercial offer and consume demand, forces cities to rethink spaces, relations in the city centre and the type of governance with different stakeholders. The recent difficult situation linked to Covid-19 pandemic is making it even harder for our retailers. In this regard, especially medium-sized cities have to redefine their integrated policies on the historic centre to keep them as resilient places. Attractiveness, culture, tourism and sustainability are important factors to understand and to promote a new idea of the historic centre.

The first meeting was in September 2020.  Attractiveness and dynamism of the city centre as well as governance as thematic foci have been identified.

Attractiveness and dynamism of the inner city

Could a city centre still represent an attractive place for investment and resources? Which proposals and tools are necessary to make inner city centres attractive? How to innovate services and products? How to relaunch businesses (shops, retail and other businesses) by offering new models to consumers?

Governance

How to structure dialogue, relations and projects between the Local Administrations and the different stakeholders? (Chamber of Commerce, owners of retail shops, public businesses, associations of property owners…) How to create a knowledge and assessment framework to design shared local policies? Which leverages to build up collaboration, dialogues and trust? How to promote innovative aspects?

Objectives:

The aims of the Task Team are to start a dialogue on the “historic city centre” and the importance of a dialogue within the Eurotowns network to find common solutions for similar problems which have become, also due to the COVID -19 pandemic, even more urgent. Many medium-sized cities are facing similar problems related to the revitalization of the inner city, the regeneration of private and public spaces as well as the redevelopment of cultural, commercial and social activities. With this Task Team we want to share best practices and to strengthen the policies of regeneration in order to have a relaunch on the historic city centre.

November/December 2020:

 January 2021:

March 2021:

Contact of TT:

Marianna Roscelli

marianna.roscelli@e-35.it

Inner City Team

Sustainable Industry

Name of TT leader:

City of Avilés

Main topics:

Objectives:

The role manufacturing activities are playing in European economies has been subject to a resurgence of interest for several years already and has resurfaced at the top of the EU policy agenda. Thus, Industry remains a key challenge for many European medium-sized cities, including several from Eurotowns. Bering in mind this premise, the objectives of the TT are:

To foster cooperation within the Eurotowns network, encouraging mutual learning and supporting urban and industry-related projects.

Past, ongoing and future projects:

Launch of the Task Team on Sustainable Industry with a virtual kick-off meeting on 30 November 2021. Event focused on establishing  the context of European industry and its interrelation with medium-sized cities through the case of Avilés. Questionnaire for TT members has been sent out in order to find out their priorities and objectives for their cities in relation to the identified topics.

Contact for TT:

Victor Fernández Martín

vmfernandez@aviles.es