URBACT III IRELAND EVENT Friday, 11th March 2016

10.15-12.30 URBACT Info Day

Ireland's Urban Challenges / URBACT Implementation Network Call: Opportunities for Local Government

The  URBACT Info Day was co-organised by the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government and Prof. Mark Boyle, URBACT National Contact Point and Maynooth University.

Prof. Mark Boyle opened the event by welcoming everyone and taking the delegates through the purpose of the day. He discussed about the different types of funding calls and congratulated the five Irish local authorities who made it through under the Action Planning Networks call in 2015:

1. CITY CENTRE DOCTOR - KILDARE COUNTY COUNCIL

2. SMART IMPACT -  DUBLIN CITY COUNCIL

3. TECHTOWN -  LIMERICK CITY AND COUNTY COUNCIL

4. MAPS -  LONGFORD COUNTY COUNCIL

5. CHANGE! - DUN LAOGHAIRE

He then went on to discuss about the forthcoming Implementation Network Call on March 23rd and that the workshop would focus on how to lead a project under this new implementation network call.

 Mr. Colm Downey, Department of Environment, Community and Local Government then discussed about the Urban Agenda for Europe, its importance for Ireland and the challenges as to how this could be best implemented in an Ireland with very differing local and national needs.

The keynote address "National Planning Framework: Roadmap to an Urban Policy?"  was given by Prof. Rob Kitchin, ERC Programmable City Project, Maynooth University. He took the delegates through the foundations of the development of the National Spatial Strategy through to the present day and included in some detail the major challenges faced in order to create a successful National Planning Framework which successfully incorporates both urban and regional development in Ireland.

Ms. Caroline Creamer, URBACT Ireland and Maynooth University gave the delegates an introduction to the workings of the Implementation Network call  and the opportunities this can provide for local government. The key message was to get in early to this process (first Call for Proposals for the creation of up to 15 Implementation Networks opened on 22 March 2016) and to consider becoming a project leader which was the main theme for the afternoon workshop. Open Calls for Networks

A lively Q&A session ensued which raised some interesting questions including the discrepancy of urban policy on different sized towns amongst other topics. Professor Mark Boyle closed the URBACT Info day event and invited delegates to attend the networking lunch which enabled further discussion among the delegates.

URBACT III Workshop 13.45-16.00 

The URBACT III workshop focusing on Leading an Implementation Network was then held in the afternoon. Prof. Mark Boyle and Caroline Creamer gave a brief "Recap of Implementation Network Call and Principles of Leadership.

There were some excellent contributions via Skype from Simone D'Antonio, Italian National Contact Point who spoke how participation in URBACT was for many Italian cities a way to solve some existing problems in a creative way and how it contributed to launch further improvements to everyday life. He also focused on the benefits of leading a partnership.

Further contribution was made by Miguel Sousa, Validated Lead Expert of URBACT II 'Wood FootPrint' Project, Portugal who spoke about leading a project and the benefits and challenges this can bring.

An interested targeted group of delegates from various local authorities both north and south of the border and partnership groups attended the event where there was excellent contributions made by speakers and delegates alike.

*Copies of presentations are availble when you click the presenters name above

Contact Prof. Mark Boyle @ mark.g.boyle@nuim.ie - tel: 00353 1 7083756

or

Caroline Creamer @ caroline.creamer@nuim.ie - tel: 00353 1 7086971