The 11 new UIA projects
11 new projects have been selected in the framework of the 5th UIA Call for Proposals. As in previous calls, the competition among cities has been particularly intense with 222 proposals received, from 23 Member States. After a very competitive assessment process, (only 14 proposals were shortlisted for the Operational Assessment), these 11 projects have not only been selected for their innovativeness but also for their capacity in establishing solid local partnerships with the right mix of complementary partners, in view of testing pilot ideas.
These 11 selected urban authorities will have the opportunity to experiment creative, innovative and sustainable solutions to cope with demographic changes; to tackle air quality major challenges; to preserve and enhance EU local culture and cultural heritage and to develop alternative circular economy models in cities.
The 11 selected urban authorities represent 8 different Member States with a wide EU geographical coverage (Hungary, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Slovakia, Spain). The full spectrum of EU urban authorities’ size is also largely represented as 8 of the selected urban authorities are middle sized cities (50 000 to 2500 inhabitants) and 3 are capital cities (more than 1 million inhabitants). As noticed in the applications analysis, in terms of partnerships, selected projects largely promote horizontal (and vertical to a lesser extent) integration with a notable strong involvement of the private sector (large enterprises and SMEs), education and research institutes and Interest Groups including NGOs.
In the coming months, each selected project will have a dedicated webpage with information on their implementation as well as the main learning points captured by UIA Experts.