European cities, including Lublin, call for improved connections between science and policy as they are dealing with the impact of COVID-19 on their cities.
In addressing the challenges, European citizens will face in the coming years, the importance of the local level cannot be overestimated. In fact, most of our current societal challenges (health, climate, social, environmental, economic) are related to the steadfast urbanization of our continent. Cities have developed into dynamic and complex social, physical, technological and ecological communities. They have become so complex that it is becoming increasingly demanding for scientists to research our modern urban challenges. This is the realm of ‘City science’: an area of science and research which reflects on a new methodology to design the best suited approaches to Europe’s key challenges. It is with this understanding in mind that the city of Amsterdam launched the ‘City Science Initiative’ (CSI) in 2019. Initiated by our City Science Officer, Prof dr. Caroline Nevejan, this initiative is focused on the interaction between urban challenges on the one hand, and the world of science and academia on the other. With the dedicated assistance of the services of the European Commission (DG JRC, DG RTD and DG REGIO), the CSI has focused on how to connect science and research to the challenges cities encounter. City-science officers from over 35 different cities across Europe met in the context of the CSI which served them as a strategic learning environment. City of Lublin was represented by City-science Officer - Maciej Zaporowski. In this way a unique network was created, offering professionals who had never met before the possibility to discuss their work and learn from each other.
An extensive report called ‘City Science for Urban Challenges’, based on the experiences of 35 cities collaborating within the European City Science Initiative, published on behalf of the City of Amsterdam and 5 leading cities: Air Quality (led by Paris), Circular Economy (led by Hamburg), Mental Health (led by Thessaloniki), Urban Mobility (led by Cluj-Napoca) and Urban Technology (led by Reggio Emilia).
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CSI report 2020.pdf
Report called ‘City Science for Urban Challenges’ 2020 2.63 MB