Networks and cities' news

Härnösand’s AI Assistants: Enhancing Everyday Public Services Through Innovation

As part of the EU-funded Metacity project, the municipality of Härnösand has developed innovative AI assistants designed to streamline municipal services, save time, and improve user experience for both employees and residents. From rapid-response IT support and digital advisors to assistants guiding home care services in real time, these tools demonstrate the transformative potential of artificial intelligence in the public sector.

Between 2023 and 2025, Härnösand is collaborating with nine other countries to co-develop an action plan on the application of virtual reality (VR) and artificial intelligence (AI) in local government services. As part of this initiative, the municipality has piloted several AI-based staff assistants, aiming to increase efficiency and enhance service delivery.

Beyond STEAM Education: Highlights from the First Future STEAM Cities Webinar

On May 6, 2025, the Municipality of Aveiro and the Lead Expert Monica Nagore hosted the Future STEAM Cities webinar, drawing 36 participants from across Europe. The session, titled “Beyond STEAM Education: Can We Imagine the Future of STEAM Education?”, created a vibrant space for cross-sector dialogue among educators, policymakers, academics, and innovators.

Breaking Isolation: A Baseline Study on Social Isolation in Europe

As part of the URBACT "Breaking Isolation" project, a baseline study was conducted to provide an overview of the state of social isolation within the partner cities of the network. This essential work, carried out at the start of the project, aims to better understand local realities and the specific challenges related to social isolation across different urban contexts in Europe. 

REMOTE-IT Online Forum: Gender equality, digital nomads and remote workers

Remote but not removed: Embedding gender equality in the future of work

Across the EU, at least in part due to the COVID-19  pandemic, people have changed the way they work. Remote and hybrid working, once seen as quite niche, has exploded, and many cities are also racing to attract a new generation of mobile professionals: digital nomads. However, it is not clear if this new future of work will be equally accessible to everyone. Is there a risk that - without intentional action - the flexibility and freedom that remote work promises could easily replicate, or even worsen, longstanding gender inequalities. As EU cities shape their strategies to welcome and retain remote workers and digital nomads, embedding gender equality from the outset will be key to creating inclusive and resilient urban futures.

This article considers some of these questions. It builds upon the extensive work on gender equal cities which URBACT has pioneered and comes from an Online Forum on the same topic, organised by the Action Planning Network - Remote-IT. 

Give me the night: night policies in action with Cities After Dark

Buzzing with sustainability: green day brings to Veszprém's schoolchildren

This year on 16 May, as a side event of Planet Lens, the "Green Day - Sustainability all the time" event took place in Veszprém, aiming to bring sustainability issues closer to the schoolchildren of Veszprém in an interactive and playful way. The URBACT BiodiverCity project was also represented at the event, where the city's apiary was presented by Erika Csiza and Péter Simon. The children were fascinated by the bees visibly working in the beehive and enjoyed tasting the sweet treats. The next time the people of Veszprém can meet bees, their keepers and the fruits of their labour will be on 22 June at the Biodiversity Festival.  

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