Project description
Transforming public libraries into climate-resilient spaces
Public libraries are accessible public spaces with untapped potential to support community interaction, learning and active citizenship. Yet young people often lack civic competences, while higher education struggles to embed them in curricula. In southern European cities, rising urban heat further limits public-space use and community interaction. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the ReLib project explores how public libraries can be reimagined as civic learning-living labs fostering civic competences, social cohesion and community resilience. ReLib maps library readiness in Cyprus, co-designs a civic learning course at the Cyprus University of Technology Library, and pilots it in Cyprus and the Netherlands. An open-access toolkit will enable universities, libraries and civic actors to replicate and scale the approach across contexts.
Objective
Southern-European cities face rising urban heat that reduces public-space activity, and weakens community interaction. These pressures also pose a democratic challenge: young people often lack civic competences essential for active citizenship, while higher education struggles to embed them in curricula. At the same time, public libraries, though accessible and climatically comfortable, offer untapped potential to act as civic public spaces for community interaction, learning, and resilience.
Reimagining Libraries as Civic Learning-Living Labs (ReLib) explores how libraries can be transformed into hubs that foster civic competences, social cohesion, while offering survival support in extreme heat. ReLib maps Cypriot libraries’ readiness, co-designs with stakeholders a civic learning course at the Cyprus University of Technology (CUT) Library, and pilots it in Cyprus and the Netherlands. Using design-based research, ReLib generates transferable evidence and an open-access toolkit for universities, libraries, and civic actors to strengthen civic education, their collaboration, and activate public spaces as living-learning hubs.
The fellowship will be hosted at Delft University of Technology (TUD) under Prof. Ingrid Mulder, with secondments at CUT Library, supervised by Mr. Marios Zervas. Training covers civic learning design, participatory facilitation, climate resilience, and research leadership, supported by TUD’s mentoring and career support, consolidating Dr Eleni Pashia’s expertise for academic and applied leadership in civic learning and social innovation.
By advancing civic learning, activating libraries as resilient spaces, and introducing a scalable, low-cost model for repurposing public assets, ReLib delivers scientific, societal, and economic-service innovation impacts. Aligned with the European Education Area, the New European Bauhaus, and Horizon Europe Missions, ReLib supports a resilient and sustainable Europe.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
2628 CN Delft
Netherlands
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.