Urban-net - URBAN-NET Stakeholder Workshop 1

URBAN-NET Stakeholder Workshop 1

'Urban research programmes - collaboration in Europe'

Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh, 6 & 7 June 2007

This first URBAN-NET Stakeholder Workshop was a major European networking event for organisations with a core interest in research on urban sustainability. It was an excellent opportunity for all participants and the URBAN-NET consortium to learn and exchange experience on national and trans-national urban research programmes.

The event was aimed at organisations funding research programmes, policy makers and practitioners from partner countries and non-participating countries as well as the URBAN-NET partners. The organisers intentionally invited people from across these sectors to ensure that the URBAN-NET project operates in an open and inclusive manner. Targeted invitations were sent to:

Senior representatives of the URBAN-NET project partners.
Representatives of current European urban research programmes (e.g. ICLEI, Eurocities, LIFE).
Urban research funders or commissioning organisations from partner and non-partner countries.
Research funding organisations from countries not currently participating in URBAN-NET.
Key policy-makers and practitioners from partner and non-partner countries.

The objectives of the event were to:

Raise awareness of URBAN-NET and the ERA-NET model with key stakeholders (i.e. organisations that fund research, conduct research, formulate policy or are managing key current urban research programmes).
Promote the benefits of being involved in URBAN-NET.
Initiate discussions amongst partners on emergent urban sustainability issues.
Exchange experience of funding and managing urban research.
Identify best practice in research management and funding mechanisms that can be applied to URBAN-NET.

Day One included presentations on the ambitions of the URBAN-NET programme and detailed some lessons learnt from the ERA-NET scheme. Presentations were also given from other national and trans-national urban research programmes. Participants were encouraged to learn more about URBAN-NET and explore ways in which they could become involved. The day included presentations that explored

Emerging urban research themes at global/regional levels.
Trends that are driving research in these areas.
Findings of recent or ongoing programmes at a global level.
How research is influencing global policy and debate.
Regional variations.
The balance of societal versus economic and environmental concerns

Day Two had a more hands-on approach, generating and discussing information about existing or planned national urban research programmes. A particular focus was given to upon funding mechanisms and best practices. This day included:

Keynote speaker on emergent themes in urban sustainability research.
Emergent themes workshop to explore current urban sustainability issues that will inform calls for future research proposals by URBAN-NET.
Keynote speaker on trans-national research collaboration.
Collaboration and funding workshop to explore what has and has not worked in trans-national research collaboration. This informed best practice for URBAN-NET to use in managing an open invitation for a collaborative transnational research programme.
Plenary discussions on the emergent themes of urban research and urban sustainability in Europe.

The full programme for Stakeholder Workshop 1, copies of the presentations given and the conference report (Proceedings of Stakeholder Workshop 1) are below.