Networks and cities' news

COPE: Coherent Place-based Climate Action URBACT

The bird-watching station

The bird-watching station with an experiential platform is an educational and pedagogical structure along the Dravinja Learning Path, which is part of the Municipality of Poljčane's vision towards biodiversity development (BiodiverCity). The bird-watching station is a charming outdoor classroom with partially obscured views of the surrounding nature. In the series of wooden slats, designed to resemble riverbank reeds, there are interactive didactic tools for learning through play. On the platform, elevated above the Dravinja floodplain, there are thematic carousels about animals and plants along the river, which rhythmically continue into the bird-watching station and culminate in an imaginary riverbed. Learning through play during a pleasant walk in nature attracts both the young and the young at heart to explore and observe the world around them.

Tech and creativity in the circular economy

The ten partner cities of LET'S GO CIRCULAR! are planning their actions and taking step by step - on their journey towards circularity, paving the way for further European cities. In spring and summer 2024 two more transnational  exchange meetings - in Riga and Oulu -  provided insights into urban strategies, digital tools, business models and examples.

Engaging SMEs to participate in public procurement: Koszalin’s Key Challenges

Statistics from the European Union, Poland and local analyses by the City of Koszalin demonstrate that still a low percentage of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises that dominate the economic landscape participate in public procurement. The reasons include low awareness on the part of entrepreneurs as well as complex and difficult public procurement law; these are the key challenges that we should seek answers to. 

Rethinking public procurement for SMEs: Making Spend Matter partners explore why business size does in fact matter.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) dominate the private sector and contribute to strong, inclusive local economies. However, too often their ability to access public procurement opportunities is hindered by procurement eco-systems that fail to acknowledge the challenges that SMEs confront, or the contribution they make.

10 Reasons Why…. Cities Should Interpret Their Spend Analysis

At the second Transnational Meeting of the Making Spend Matter Network held in Kavala in June 2019, our partners shared how they have used the Spend Analysis Methodology to understand the procurement spend of their own Municipalities by geography, by sector, and in business type terms.