EXPAND has successfully met its objectives. Early on in the project, meeting its first objective, JPI UE ‘expanded’ its network by welcoming Latvia as official new member. Strategic discussions with other Widening Countries have continued and resulted in observer status, participation in new activities within the JPI as well as the follow-up EXPAND II.
The second objective was strengthening capacities for SRIA implementation in line with the activities of the Management Board. During the project, with the AGORA a robust model for stakeholder involvement was developed which includes different formats to allow both discussions and exchange on broad strategic and dedicated thematic topics.
Another objective was to develop an internationalization strategy to prioritize and focus future outreach activities with the aim to position JPI UE as the gateway to urban research and innovation in Europe. An internationalization framework and strategy was developed, and the establishment of relations and new international activities is ongoing.
Within EXPAND it was also aimed to develop communication and dissemination concepts and approaches to address specific target groups. The communication and dissemination strategy was updated and implemented. In addition to the JPI’s regular communication and dissemination activities, the website was transformed, the webinar series “Urban Lunch Talks” was launched, and two JPI UE Policy Conferences were organized in Brussels.
Another aim is to develop new instruments and concepts for realizing transdisciplinary research, overcoming the implementation gap by connecting science and policy, and supporting co-creation initiatives. To this end, a new instrument has been set up aimed at innovative and implementation-oriented projects: Making Cities Work. Furthermore, sessions on urban living labs were organised, resulting in a paper on ‘Urban data labs – recommendations for Urban Europe’.
EXPAND also aimed to provide a platform for European capacity building and programme management, with specific attention to support WC to improve research and innovation performance and increase participation. In order to achieve the first objective a workshop series of in total three workshops was organized and for each event, specific attention was paid to participation and knowledge sharing from WC.
Following from to the conceptual framework for the JPI UE alignment strategy developed within BOOST (EXPAND’s predecessor), EXPAND aimed to investigate different forms of alignment for urban policies, programmes, institutions and research infrastructures. To take the step from theory to practice, the Joint Solutions Framework has been created to promote joint solutions among different stakeholder types. As structural funds directly address regions and cities it was aimed to identify the synergetic potential of connecting ESIF to JPI UE. To this end, a format was developed for analysing the national context and preparing national workshops with regions, national programmes and municipalities. Additionally, capacity building and transnational cooperation of research organisations was supported, among others, through a summer school on smart and sustainable cities in Newcastle, networking activities of the Urban Europe Research Alliance and a mapping of urban research infrastructures in Europe.
