The ERA-NET Co-fund Smart Urban Futures (ENSUF), supported by the Joint Programming Initiative Urban Europe, has called for European research and innovation projects that operationalise and translate a framework of three main elements, to launch a joint response to the implementation gap in sustainable urban development. The three main elements to be operationalised in projects are transdisciplinary co-creation in research and innovation, smart integrated urban development and utilising the spatial dimensions and processes of urban areas.
Each call topic (1. Concepts and strategies for smart urban transformation, growth and shrinkage; 2. New dynamics of public services; 3. Inclusive, vibrant and accessible urban communities) has the potential to be examined at multiple scales, and to be valuable to a range of research and innovation projects and partners. The topics address areas where there is a clearly identified implementation gap between the existing knowledge or urban governance methods, technologies and best practices, and the capability to deliver and implement these developments to drive sustainable urban development, with EU comparative and EU-forward-looking dimensions.
The overall objective of ENSUF, building upon the JPI Urban Europe SRIA, is to bridge the implementation gap in urban sustainable development. There is a disconnection between the knowledge that exists in the research community and the use of this knowledge in practice. Furthermore there is a disconnection between the different ‘silos’ in which both cities and researchers often approach urban problems. The complex urban setting requires a more holistic and systemic approach to achieve sustainable urban development and to investigate ways of understanding and managing this complexity. Bridging this implementation gap will require co-creative, transdisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and cross-sectorial research and innovation in order to provide new insights on European urban dynamics and the implementation of urban innovations and best practice across Europe. This will be done by testing, analysing and optimising innovative urban ideas and strategies to answer the economic, social, cultural and environmental needs of citizens in a sustainable way.
