Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SUNSET (Smart and Sustainable Host UniverCities: leveraging city-university interactions to further the twin green and digital transition)
Reporting period: 2024-03-01 to 2026-02-28
SUNSET aims to develop innovative research and training capacity around city-university interactions driving the EU’s green and digital transition. This twin transition is a defining element of the current EU policy agenda towards achieving climate neutrality and sustainable growth. The European Commission considers cities to be frontrunners in this transition agenda, but their transformational capacity and resilience crucially depends on the presence of agile and high-performing urban innovation ecosystems. SUNSET brings together (1) prominent researchers working in diverse geographical and disciplinary settings at leading universities (N=6) with (2) partners (N=16) from city governments (often participating in the Cities Mission to achieve climate neutrality by 2030), innovation companies, research institutes and civil society organizations to analyze and foster the performance of these urban innovation ecosystems: drawing on a purposeful range of interdisciplinary, international, and intersectoral exchanges, the Doctoral Network will investigate whether and how universities can successfully become key drivers of the twin transition in cities via their role as innovation partners, the implementation of campus living labs, and as architects of decision-making in governance ecosystems. Through a tailored combination of network-wide training events and academic and non-academic secondments, the SUNSET Doctoral Network will train a new generation of researchers to become future urban innovation ecosystem leaders in the pursuit of the twin green and digital transition. The findings will lead to practical guidelines regarding the design and implementation of living labs for university and city management, tailored strategies to foster more inclusive and diverse urban ecosystems, and diverse forms of scientific outreach and dissemination.
At this stage (April 2026), the following activities have been performed in the SUNSET Doctoral Network:
March-June 2024: recruitment of 10 Doctoral Candidates
September 2024: the Introductory Training Week in Leuven was the first gathering of all DCs and supervisors. During this week, trainings on research ethics, Open Science, Data Management, Networking Training, Diversity and Academic Writing were provided to the DCs.
October-December 2024: Online trainings (Qualitative Methods; Diversity, inclusion and innovation)
September 2024-March 2025: DCs developed their research projects and followed courses at their host universities. Moreover, DCs worked on producing deliverables for the SUNSET Doctoral Network (Personal Career Development Plans, Data Management Plans). Finally, the project coordinator produced the progress report, recruitment report and plan for dissemination in the run-up to the mid-term check meeting.
April 2025: during a network-wide event in Leuven, the SUNSET DN gathered for a mid-term check meeting, organized a panel discussion with five SUNSET cities (i.e. cities which are Associated Partners in the network) on city-university partnerships within the context of the twin transition, and organized a training (led by Associated Partner Levuur) on co-creation and stakeholder management.
September 2025: network-wide training on socio-ecological aspects of the twin transition in Tartu, Estonia.
March 2026: PhD training on Innovation Policy in collaboration with the Nordic Research School in Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NORSI) - in which the 10 Doctoral Candidates focused on a real-world innovation policy challenge, introduced by policy-makers
March-June 2024: recruitment of 10 Doctoral Candidates
September 2024: the Introductory Training Week in Leuven was the first gathering of all DCs and supervisors. During this week, trainings on research ethics, Open Science, Data Management, Networking Training, Diversity and Academic Writing were provided to the DCs.
October-December 2024: Online trainings (Qualitative Methods; Diversity, inclusion and innovation)
September 2024-March 2025: DCs developed their research projects and followed courses at their host universities. Moreover, DCs worked on producing deliverables for the SUNSET Doctoral Network (Personal Career Development Plans, Data Management Plans). Finally, the project coordinator produced the progress report, recruitment report and plan for dissemination in the run-up to the mid-term check meeting.
April 2025: during a network-wide event in Leuven, the SUNSET DN gathered for a mid-term check meeting, organized a panel discussion with five SUNSET cities (i.e. cities which are Associated Partners in the network) on city-university partnerships within the context of the twin transition, and organized a training (led by Associated Partner Levuur) on co-creation and stakeholder management.
September 2025: network-wide training on socio-ecological aspects of the twin transition in Tartu, Estonia.
March 2026: PhD training on Innovation Policy in collaboration with the Nordic Research School in Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NORSI) - in which the 10 Doctoral Candidates focused on a real-world innovation policy challenge, introduced by policy-makers
We include notable intermediate results for each of the three Research Objectives (ROs) of SUNSET.
RO1:Develop a novel analytical framework on the role, impact and strategies of universities as urban innovation actors.
- Extensive knowledge exchange and interactive networks within urban ecosystems do not necessarily translate into coordinated action. In the Finnish case, segregation operates as a shared yet flexible reference point facilitating cross-sectoral communication, but this very flexibility limits its capacity to support concrete, concerted action - governance remains fragmented across sectors and administrative levels.
- Regardless of the role taken up by universities, the Returns on Investment (ROI) of R&D expenditure are higher for regions that have higher interregional connections.
- Policy and infrastructure interventions should integrate multimodal connectivity and car use restrictions while prioritizing living environment improvements to align sustainable travel with citizen well-being
RO2: Identify critical success factors for campus living labs focused on sustainability and digitalization.
- Implementing a citizen science approach to observe biodiversity on university campuses (i.e. Bioblitz), we find that this improved the scope of observations in terms of recording more observations (both per se as well as per land use type). However, the Bioblitz did not increase the spatial and observer scope of observations, nor reduce spatial or observer biases.
- While university cities increasingly engage with their universities on mobility policy, these collaborations often remain short-term and advisory rather than genuinely co-creative, which limits their long-term policy impact.
- while conservation efforts often prioritize natural parks and reserves, ruderal urban environments hold great potential for fostering learning and transformative change. In fact, these spaces can promote collective environmental literacy by encouraging adaptability and cooperative behaviors among urban dwellers.
RO3: Deliver a set of strategic mechanisms to foster a more streamlined, inclusive and diverse decision-making in urban innovation ecosystems.
- A lack of awareness of the benefits of green solutions is the primary driver of negative attitudes towards them in Europe. Having higher levels of trust in local authorities interacts with this lack of awareness, making those least aware of the benefits of green solutions more accepting of them.
- Universities can extend their impact on local climate efforts beyond greening their operations through infrastructure and real estate, embodying a place-based contribution of higher education institutions from the perspective of climate action in cities.
Furthermore, a mapping of collaborative governance regimes in Mission cities is currently being carried out under this RO. Initial results are expected in Spring 2027.
RO1:Develop a novel analytical framework on the role, impact and strategies of universities as urban innovation actors.
- Extensive knowledge exchange and interactive networks within urban ecosystems do not necessarily translate into coordinated action. In the Finnish case, segregation operates as a shared yet flexible reference point facilitating cross-sectoral communication, but this very flexibility limits its capacity to support concrete, concerted action - governance remains fragmented across sectors and administrative levels.
- Regardless of the role taken up by universities, the Returns on Investment (ROI) of R&D expenditure are higher for regions that have higher interregional connections.
- Policy and infrastructure interventions should integrate multimodal connectivity and car use restrictions while prioritizing living environment improvements to align sustainable travel with citizen well-being
RO2: Identify critical success factors for campus living labs focused on sustainability and digitalization.
- Implementing a citizen science approach to observe biodiversity on university campuses (i.e. Bioblitz), we find that this improved the scope of observations in terms of recording more observations (both per se as well as per land use type). However, the Bioblitz did not increase the spatial and observer scope of observations, nor reduce spatial or observer biases.
- While university cities increasingly engage with their universities on mobility policy, these collaborations often remain short-term and advisory rather than genuinely co-creative, which limits their long-term policy impact.
- while conservation efforts often prioritize natural parks and reserves, ruderal urban environments hold great potential for fostering learning and transformative change. In fact, these spaces can promote collective environmental literacy by encouraging adaptability and cooperative behaviors among urban dwellers.
RO3: Deliver a set of strategic mechanisms to foster a more streamlined, inclusive and diverse decision-making in urban innovation ecosystems.
- A lack of awareness of the benefits of green solutions is the primary driver of negative attitudes towards them in Europe. Having higher levels of trust in local authorities interacts with this lack of awareness, making those least aware of the benefits of green solutions more accepting of them.
- Universities can extend their impact on local climate efforts beyond greening their operations through infrastructure and real estate, embodying a place-based contribution of higher education institutions from the perspective of climate action in cities.
Furthermore, a mapping of collaborative governance regimes in Mission cities is currently being carried out under this RO. Initial results are expected in Spring 2027.