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Check URBACT's latest stories, updates and events!

 

  • Boulogne sur Mer: Feedback from the Ocean Hackathon 2021

    by Isabelle Watier

    Angelos Ploumis

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  • Turning crisis into opportunity! What the URBACT Mid-Term-Review tells us about future-proofing joined local action for our CITIES4CSR partnership

    Our CITIES4CSR URBACT Action Planning Network endeavours to develop comprehensive municipal strategies to foster and stimulate corporate social responsibility (CSR) in urban areas across Europe. Put differently, it is about improving awareness, understandings, engagement and collaboration across local CSR-eco-systems, and strengthening the guiding role and steering capacities of municipalities.

    Alessia Dagradi

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  • From gaming for geeks to gamification for growth

    When we think of gaming, we probably have an image in our mind of a young person sitting in front of a screen using a console. However, the gaming industry is serious stuff – it’s valued at over $300bn globally and increasingly companies are turning to gaming to support their development and growth. This was the focus of the TechRevolution 2.0. full network meeting which took place in November 2021 at the PISMO gaming incubator in Novska, Croatia.

    This article sets out some of the benefits of gamification of industry, presents a couple of examples from Croatian startups, outlines the approach being taken by Novska to grow its gaming sector and explores the role of cities more generally.

    Matthew Snowden

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  • My Green Week in Grosseto

    Ten European cities met at the end of November in Grosseto to discover the city and to plan strategies about the revitalization of the historical centres. the visit has been carried out in the within of the plan “I Place”, which involves Grosseto Municipality with nine other European cities, with the aim of proposing sustainable economic development strategies and an integrated action plan aimed at enhancing market niches and generating ecosystems of urban innovation.

    Sonia Files

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  • How PDOs and PGIs can level up Greece’s primary sector (the example of Larissa and Thessaly)

    In recent years, in the era of globalization of markets, the labeling of agricultural products concerns an increasing range of products, producers and sales networks. In this context, special reference is made to the products labeled PDO (Products of Designation of Origin) and PGI (Products of Geographical Indication). These products are constantly gaining ground in the respective markets, constantly rising in the rating of consumers and recording significant profits for their producers.

    To this end, regionally anchored products have been supported by the EU quality policy schemes for product names of PDO and PGI since the 1990s in order to preserve culinary diversity, an integral part of European cultural heritage. These labels provide measures to help producers build on the high-quality reputation of domestic products and promote their unique characteristics, in order to sustain competitiveness, profitability, diversity, development and growth in the rural areas where they are produced and protect local knowledge, skills and jobs.

    The label PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) identifies a product that originates in a specific place, region or country, the quality or characteristics of which are essentially or exclusively due to a particular geographical environment with its inherent natural factors (raw materials, environmental characteristics, location) and human factors (traditional and craft production) and the production, transformation and elaboration phases of which all take place in the defined geographical area, in respect of rigid production regulations established in the procedural guidelines of production.

    In addition, the label PGI (Protected Geographical Indication) indicates a product that originates in a specific place, region or country, whose given quality, reputation or other characteristics are essentially attributable to its geographical origin, and for which at least one of the production steps takes place in the defined geographical area.

    The agri-food value chain “from farm to fork’’ includes all agri-business activities, from inputs in the agricultural production to gastronomy and consumption of food and beverages products. The role of the Greek agri-food sector is pivotal because of the: a) strong presence of food manufacture in the domestic economy, b) connection of the Greek diet with the healthy and nutritious Mediterranean diet, c) rich soil conditions and favorable climate characteristics, d) strong presence of successful food companies, e) high level of food safety and quality and f) export orientation of domestic agricultural and processed food products.

     

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    Vera Lopes

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  • Volunteering Cities+ Quarterly Network Report 1

    This is the first Quarterly Report of the second wave network “Volunteering Cities +”. It includes a comprehensive view of the Improved Good Practice, of the partner cities and of the working methodology.

    s.georgiou

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