Big response to first URBACT Good Practice Call

Launched this year, URBACT’s Good Practice Call seeks out the ‘hidden’ solutions that cities are using every day to face challenges such as demographic change, climate and environmental targets, unemployment and urban poverty.

“This is a fantastic response to the Good Practice Call. A huge diversity of EU cities have sent in solutions that we hope can easily be transferred to help other cities. And it’s encouraging to see so much interest from cities new to URBACT,” says Adele Bucella, URBACT’s Projects and Programming Head of Unit.

URBACT’s call aims to help European cities share their own practices, and adapt and reuse each others’ solutions without reinventing the wheel – useful at this time of squeezed resources. Some of the labelled URBACT Good Practice Cities will go on to lead Transfer Networks in 2018. Each new network will enable small groups of cities to work together on adapting – and then re-using – the good practice put forward by their lead partner.

URBACT Best Practice Call in numbers:

• Applications submitted: 270
• Number of cities applying: 219. Some cities decided to submit more than one good practice and multiply their chances
• The city that submitted the most good practice applications is Ljubljana (SI), applying 5 times; Gothenburg (SE), Lisbon (PT) and Esplugues (ES) submitted 4 applications. Nine cities sent in 3 good practices each - namely Aviles (ES), Barcelona (ES), Gijon (ES), Gdansk (PL), Guimaraes (PT), Parma (IT), Sintra (PT), Torino (IT) and Valongo (PT)
• Of the 219 cities that applied, 110 are ‘newcomers’ to URBACT
• Good practices are well distributed over a range of themes. The top topic is ‘Urban planning’ followed by ‘Economy‘ and ‘Social inclusion’. The thematic classification will be fine-tuned after the Good Practice assessment.
• Cities applied from all Member and Partner States except Slovakia and Luxembourg. We are very pleased to see a quarter of applications coming from ‘post 2004’ EU member states, with 6 or more cities applying from Poland, Croatia, Romania, Hungary and Slovenia
• Countries with the most applicants (10 or more cities) are: Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Greece, Germany, Poland
• Surprisingly, we even received one application from Reykjavik (Iceland)!

An international panel of urban policy experts has already started analysing the applications. With an eye for quality, they are looking out for sustainable, affordable practices that other cities can easily adapt to their local context. URBACT Good Practices must bring together social, economic and environmental actions to solve urban problems in a holistic manner. Strong local involvement is vital.

The final selection will be approved by URBACT’s Monitoring Committee beginning of June.

URBACT Good Practice Cites will be invited to take part in the URBACT City Festival in Tallinn (EE) on 3-5 October 2017 – and a range of other profile-raising activities related to the Urban Agenda for Europe.

More information:

• URBACT City Festival
• URBACT Good Practice City and Transfer Networks