Networks and cities' news

Entrepreneurship Ecosystems – a few pieces do not a jigsaw make….

Over the years I’ve worked with URBACT networks, I have written - and read - various articles on the key success factors of an entrepreneurial ecosystem, most recently co-authoring Ten Top Tips with Ceri Batchelder as part of the AS Transfer network. As I travelled to Roeselare, Belgium in March 2022 for TechRevolution 2.0.’s Transnational Event, I found myself wondering what I would learn that would add value to work already undertaken.

Fast forward a few days and once again I was in awe of our partners who - against a backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the ensuing humanitarian crisis, which meant that two partners were not even able to travel to Belgium - once again embraced everything we threw at them to both deepen their understanding of entrepreneurial economies and build their ‘ecosystems in a box’ out of lego, pipe cleaners and glue.

A hackathon for gender equality on career choices

La Rochelle aims solve the mismatch between offer and demand in the local labour market through a gender perspective, and in the beginning of March they arranged a hackathon for gender equality on carreer choices.

Local Communication has many facets

Participatory planning, co-creation, co-management are fashionable “buzzwords” when you ask city practitioners on the recent trends in urban planning and development. And they are right: the best way to plan for an inclusive, green and also prosperous city development is to meet the needs of its stakeholders, its population. This means of course involvement, the earlier and the more integrated the better. But what is needed to accomplish planning with and for people? One of the answers to this is an obvious and at the same time a challenging one: it is communication. With stakeholder, with residents, with population groups. On their needs, their concerns, their ideas, their vision for coming development steps. So, what can be done for a good communication a city’s diverse stakeholder and population setting?

Meet the partners: interview with Harry Hofman

[[{"fid":"46841","view_mode":"default","fields":{"alt":"Harry Hofman","title":"Harry Hofman","height":100,"width":100,"style":"height: 100px; width: 100px; margin: 10px; float: right;","class":"media-element file-default","data-delta":"1","format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Harry Hofman","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"Harry Hofman","field_author[und][0][value]":"GBN Groep"},"link_text":null,"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"alt":"Harry Hofman","title":"Harry Hofman","height":100,"width":100,"style":"height: 100px; width: 100px; margin: 10px; float: right;","class":"media-element file-default","data-delta":"1","format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Harry Hofman","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"Harry Hofman","field_author[und][0][value]":"GBN Groep"}},"attributes":{"alt":"Harry Hofman","title":"Harry Hofman","height":100,"width":100,"style":"height: 100px; width: 100px; margin: 10px; float: right;","class":"media-element file-default","data-delta":"1"}}]]The City of Utrecht is one of the partners of the Action Planning Network URGE, in which it develops a new action plan to promote circularity in the building sector. Utrecht is the hometown of many frontrunners on the theme of circular construction, some of them have been active for over ten years. One of these frontrunners is GBN, a construction company that works on reuse of building materials and elements. We spoke to Harry Hofman - director for circular materials at GBN, about the past, present and future for circular construction in Utrecht.

Meet the partners: interview with Sebastian Knoll

[[{"fid":"48554","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Sebastian Knoll","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"Sebastian Knoll","field_author[und][0][value]":"City of Munich"},"link_text":null,"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Sebastian Knoll","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"Sebastian Knoll","field_author[und][0][value]":"City of Munich"}},"attributes":{"alt":"Sebastian Knoll","title":"Sebastian Knoll","height":445,"width":445,"style":"float: right; height: 100px; width: 100px;","class":"media-element file-default","data-delta":"1"}}]]The city of Munich works on the city’s first circular district, transforming the former military base ‘Bayernkaserne’ to a new urban district housing around 15,000 people. Making smart use of locally available materials is an important goal in the project. Sebastian Knoll, being an engineering ecologist, supports the ULG in Munich regarding the re- and upcycling of excavated soil and secondary raw materials as rooting layers. At the Technical University of Munich he is currently researching the possible re-use of brick material as plant substrates.

How to succeed by daring to fail - URBACT ROOF cities testing context specific actions to end homelessness

Download the amazing article here.

This article is also available in:
- Romanian
- Polish