Our Activities

The FIN-URB-ACT conclusion and recommendations of the project  activities has been translated in all partners languages. The translations are avaliable for download in the output section.

After three years of work the FIN-URB-ACT network has drawn common conclusions, recommendations, strategies, guidelines, gives an overview of success, failures and good practices and difficulties on SME support policies the Final Report.

Each FIN-URB-ACT partner developed a Local Action Plan in national language and in response to the local issues. For a broader dissemination, each Partner City elaborated the Summary of its Local Action Plan in English.

The final edition of the FIN-URB-ACT newsletter - Integrated Urban Actions for Fostering and Financing Innovative Economies and SMEs - has been published.

The final meeting of FIN-URB-ACT took place in Gliwice, Poland on 15th March 2011. The partner cities presented their outcommes of the project to a broader public audience.

The forth newsletter of the project FIN-URB-ACT- Integrated urban action for fostering and financing innovative economies and SMEs has been published.

The Managing Authority Conference of FIN-URB-ACT took place on 9th February in Brussels, Belgium. The topic of the Meeting  was: FIN-URB-ACT Conference: "Cities and Manging Authorities a Pathway to Partnership."

The third newsletter of the project FIN-URB-ACT- Integrated Urban Actions for Fostering and Financing Innovative Economies and SMEs has been published.

The third German Speaking URBACT day, took place on 13 December 2010 in Berlin and was supported by the German Ministry for Traffic, Building and Urban Development. The focus on the different discussions was put on potentials of European Exchange for the national urban development policy.

The URBACT Annual Conference 2010 took place in Liége (Belgium) from 30th November to 1st December 2010 and focused on presenting the results, experiences and local policies developed by URBACT partners and experts through transnationale cooperation.

The Editorial meeting was held in Maribor, Slovenia, on 3rd and 4th November 2010 and focused on two issues: First, the network group continues their exchage activities on the topic of revitalising urban areas and "How can expertise be transferred from one cities to another city?". Second, the meeting lays special focus on the discussion on how to edit the outputs and results of the project.

During 25 -27 October 2010 the German Association for Housing, Urban and Spatial Development, promoted the FIN-URB-ACT project with an information point during the EUREGIA 2010, one of Europe's leading fair on local and regional development that is located inthe City of Leipzig.

Between 27 - 28 October 2010 took place the Annual Conference of the German Association in the city of Dresden. The Project FIN-URB-ACT was presented mainly to stakeholders from the housing sector, policymakers and lokal banks.

On 15 September 2010, the SME Intergroup of the European Parlament organised a workshop with a small circle of stakeholder, including ESBG, in order to receive input for its plannes resolution on the future European instruments to support SME finance. THe FIN-URB-ACT project was presented by Ms. Fíona Joyce,Deputy director of ESBG.

The Lead Partner of project FIN-URB-ACT, the city of Aachen, has started a first reprogramming procedure in August 2010.

The second newsletter of the project FIN-URB-ACT - Integrated urban action for fostering and financing innovative economies and SMEs has been published.

The 4th work meeting of FIN-URB-ACT took place on 15th and 16th of June 2010 in Gijon, Spain. This time the topic was:" Access to finance for SMEs- specific approache for the modernisation of shops and crafts in cities".

The 3rd work meeting of the FIN-URB-ACT network took place on 9th and 10th of February 2010 in Edinburgh, UK. One of the leading question which wher posed at the FIN-URB-ACT midterm conference was: "How can cities create a favourable enviroment for local banks to be more active?".

The URBACT Annual Conference 2009 took place in Stockholm (SE) from 25th to 26th of November, 2009. Beyond of the URBACT themes, the Annual Conference has focused on the challenges facing european cities today: the consequences of the world wide economic crisis and the impact of clima change.

The second work meeting of FIN-URB-ACT network took place in Linz, Austria on 28th and 29th of October 2009. The topic of the work meeting was: "Access to Finance - the role of targethed financial and non-financial instruments."

In September 2009 the FIN-URB-ACT brochure "Integrated urban actions for fostering and financing innovative economies and SMEs" has been published.

The FIN-URB-ACT project flyer has been published. SMEs fom the backbone of economies in many European cities. Especially in old industrialised regions with structural changes, qualified SME start-up and development become the key element for local employment and the cities economic performance, competitiveness and attractiveness.

The FIN-URB-ACT partners come together in Aveiro (Portugal) for their first work meeting on 3rd to 4th June 2009.  Specuial focus was laid on the aspects of Universities - as strong players for supporting innovative enterprises.

The first newsletter of the project FIN-URB-ACT - Integrated Urban Actions for Fostering and Financing Innovative Economies and SMEs has been published.

The German ULSG Seminar took place in Bonn on 26th Mai 2009. The lead partner of FIN-URB-ACT was represented by Ms. Isabelle Pitre from the city of Aachen and  by Ms. Susanne Köppel from the GründerRegion Aachen.

The FIN-URB-ACT project picture has been confirmed by all partners. The network has chosen a project photography that represent the project topic. This will strenghten the visual identity of the project when it comes to presentation at local, regional and European level.

Between 25th and 27th of March 2008 the FIN-URB-ACT used the invitation of EUROCITIES to join one of their conferences in Gijon and present the project and project ideas. FIN-URB-ACT was represented by the lead expert Mr. Patrick Fourguette and the project partner Gijon. The topic of the conference was "Innovative ways of financing Businesses and City Projects".

By invitation of the Region Champagne-Ardenne, the Municipality of Aachen and the Regional Development Agency of the Aachen Region (AGIT mbH) attended the international business exhibition "Innovact", whick took place in Reims on 24th and 25th of March 2009.

The FIN-URB-ACT network was having its kick-off meeting on 21 to 23 January 2009. Under the titel "Join forces in favour of SMEs-Partnership for fostering and financing local enterprises" the FIN-URB-ACT  project invited European, regional and local key actors with political, administrative and economic background to jointly discuss strategies and measures to strenghten the existing potentials of the inovative enterprises and to implement their access to financial sources. 

The URBACT Annual Conference was held in Montpellier from 20th November to 2nd December 2008. The FIN-URB-ACT network and objectives were presented during the workshop session.

The summary of the Baseline Study has been elaborated by our project expert Mr. Patrick Fourguette and our thematic coordinator Mr. Christian Huttenloher with the colaboration off all project partners. The summary is availabel in the outputs section for download.

The FIN-URB-ACT project has just compleated its first project phase. The first output project has been produced, and available in the outputs section for download.

Our project has been aproved for funding by the Monitoring Committee on Friday, 21st of November 2008. The implementation phase of the project is now started!.

The Final Application of the project FIN-URB-ACT was submitted to the URBACT Secretariat together with all related documents.

The final meeting of FIN-URB-ACT took place on 14th and 15th March 2011 in the partcer city Gliwice/PL. The Project partners together with actors from the LSGs, MAs and further interessed actors from the Region Silesia come together in Gliwice to disscuss the added values of the FIN-URB-ACT Project.

The FIN-URB-ACT Managing Authority Meeting took place in Brussels on 9th and 10th February 2011. The topic of the Meeting was: "Cities and Managing Authorities a Pathway to Partnership." The project partners together with the representatives of the Managing authority, thematic experts, representatives from the European Parlament, representatives of the European Commission, representatives of the URBACT Secretariat and further interested actors came together in Brussels to have comommon discussion in open session about above mentioned topic.

The editorial meeting of the project took place in Maribor, Slovenia on 2nd and 3rd of November 2010. The main topic of the meeting was: "How can expertise be transferred from one city to another city?" The project partners and actors from the partners LSGs, MAs, thematic experts and further interessed actors came together in Maribor to have common discussions in open session on the above mentioned topic.

"Access to finance for SMEs - specific approach for the modernisation of the shops and crafts in the cities". This was the topic of the 4th work meeting which took place on 15th and 16th June 2010 in Gijón. The project partners  and actors of the partners LSG, MAs, thematic experts, representatives from the URBACT Secretariat and  furthed interested actors came together in Gijón to have common discussions in open session and working groups on the  above mentioned topic.

The 3rd work meeting of FIN-URB-ACT took place on 9th and 10th of February 2010 in Edinburgh, UK. Building up on the meetings in Aveiro and Linz, the 3rd conference aimed to foster the exchange among the project partners which put all efforts in developing efficient tools of financial and non-financial consult to support SMEs. The overall topic of the meeting was: "How can cities design a favorable environment, that local banks are more active?"

The 2nd work meeting of FIN-URB-ACT took place on 28th and 29th October 2009 in Linz, Austria. The main topic of the work meeting 2 was "Access to Finance - the role of targeted financial and non-financial instruments" in order to foster urban and regional SMEs.

More than 35 participants attended the first work meeting of FIN-URB-ACT which took place on 3rd and 4th of June 2009 in Aveiro, Portugal, and focused on the role of universities for fostering innovative economies and SMEs. All partner cities harbour important universities or other academic institutes as well as research and technology institutions and strive therefore for a better conection between academic and R&D and business development.

The official kick-off event of the FIN-URB-ACT network took place on 21st to 23rd of January 2009 in Aachen, Germany. The main topic of the kick-off was "Join forces in favour of SMEs - Partnership for fostering and financing local enterprises".