The European Commission is organising a Stakeholder Partnership event on 20 October 2015 to facilitate networking, information exchange and cross-border partnerships of actors interested in addressing urban challenges through innovating with nature or by making innovative use of cultural heritage assets for regenerating cities.

The event will give EU stakeholders in urban development the opportunity to share their experience in the development and implementation of urban policies.

The new RISE Research and Innovation Staff Exchange scheme as part of the well-proven Marie Sklodowska-Curie actions responds to the SMEs’ need to continuously updating competences related to current academic, science and research trends. The new European SME instrument is part of the “Industrial Leadership” and “Societal Challenges” pillars of Horizon 2020.

The workshop will begin with an overview of available data, including statistical data series and monitoring data on Cohesion Policy programmes (financial allocations, expenditure, indicators and targets, lists of beneficiaries published by Managing Authorities).Following these introductory presentations, participants will work in small groups in order to identify possible solutions to specific challenges.  These will include problems linked to working with data covering variable geographies, the aggregation of different data series and the development of effective visualisations building o

For over ten years, the URBACT programme has been the European Territorial Cooperation programme aiming to foster sustainable integrated urban development in cities across Europe. URBACT enables cities to work together and develop integrated solutions to common urban challenges, by networking, learning from one another’s experiences, identifying and transferring good practices.This session will provide participants with an overview of what is in URBACT for urban practitioners and policy-makers (at local, regional, national and European levels).

New Cohesion Policy programmes envisage support to green growth – a transition to a green, low-carbon, resource-efficient economy. Moving towards green growth may be particularly challenging for SMEs, taking into account resource constraints. Nevertheless, many lessons of good practice have been learnt within the previous programming periods. The workshop will start with an overview of Cohesion Policy support to SMEs and green growth. It will be followed by good practice examples and reflections of civil society.

What are the opportunities and challenges in setting up and implementing an urban development fund?Financial instruments offer a more sustainable model for funding urban development projects in the future. Those financial instruments are those established under the 2007-2013 or expected during the 2014-2020 ESIF programming periods but also other kind of instruments allowing loans, equity or guarantee that support urban development projects. Within an interactive format, these guiding questions are suggested to be addressed:- what are financial instruments for urban areas?

Turning organic waste into biomethane, a 2nd-generation biofuel, also creates great opportunities: jobs and economic growth, while improving energy security, emission reductions and rural development.The EU has ambitious targets for renewable energy and transport must be recognised as a sector that can contribute to achieving these goals and overall decarbonisation of the industry.Introducing innovative energy solutions requires cooperation, and we have a number of successful public-private cooperation in place across Europe.

The transition towards a secure and sustainable energy system is central to the European Energy Union package. Investment in local networks and energy efficiency projects are fundamental to its success.

Go green, make savings!