Author: indy

Exchanging thoughts on micro-mobility, walking, and cycling with EU and Korean cities

As part of the IURC programme, Sejong, Sofia, Seoul, and Dublin started the New Year with two bilateral meetings. Sofia and Sejong leapt into 2022 with a bilateral meeting on 12 January 2022. Reflecting the previous meeting, the two cities are now narrowing down their interests and sharing in-depth knowledge on the topic of micro-mobility. Seoul and Dublin followed them...

1st bilateral meeting between Semarang and Sofia

Representatives from Semarang City of Indonesia and Sofia City of Bulgaria met online on 13 January 2022 to discuss possible cooperation with a focus on urban mobility. The representatives had an exchange on various projects, looking at the current challenges of both cities and sharing their solutions, some of which also involve the private sector. Elitsa Panayotova, Coordinator of SOfiaGREEN...

Urban mobility: Common area of interest for cooperation between Sejong, Sofia and Rotterdam

On 15 December 2021, Sejong held two bilateral meetings with Sofia and Rotterdam to further share their best practices in the area of urban mobility. As the administrative capital of the Republic of Korea, Sejong is a planned city where bicycle lanes were incorporated into the build of the city. Since its inception, Sejong has been implementing a bicycle sharing...

IURC experts in India underscore importance of multi-stakeholder engagement

Our urban development experts in India, Prachi Merchant, Ansu Susan Alexander, Ashish Verma and Panagiotis Karamanos published an article in the Shashwat journal discussing the significance of the IURC programme’s emphasis on the quadruple helix approach, or the engagement of government, academic, the private sector and civil society, in sustainable urban development. Meaning “eternal” or “sustainable” in Sankrit, Shashwat is the annual magazine of the GRIHA...

5th Thematic Webinar – Circular City Hubs: Improving thriving, liveable, resilient urban centres

IURC cities engaged in Circular City Hubs discussions and recommendations Organised on 14 December, the Circular City Hubs thematic webinar was the final one for the 2021 programme year. The IURC Asia & Australasia team attracted 176 registered participants from  23 countries, namely Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia, Republic of Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Finland,...

EU-Vietnam Coordination Meeting

The IURC Asia & Australasia project team organised a coordination meeting on 8 December for four EU and Vietnamese cities that are in cooperation within the IURC programme. City representatives included Thomas Kiwitt, Technical Director from the Stuttgart Regional Association; Gianluca Fabbri, Senior Advisor to the Colleferro/Latina Functional Area; Nguyen Duy Duc, Vice Chairman of the Ha Tinh City People...

Vacancy: Administrative Assistant

Position: Administrative Assistant Project: International Urban and Regional Cooperation Asia and Australasia (IURC Asia & Australasia) www.iurc.eu/australasia Type of Employment: 1-year contract with possibility of renewal A project financed by the European Union and implemented by GFA Consulting Group GmbH, IURC Asia & Australasia is part of a global programme which aims to lead and develop a form of decentralised international...

Cooperation now begins in Australia

Brisbane, Canberra and Melbourne will now begin to establish cooperation on urban development with Barcelona, Florence, Hamburg and Madrid within the IURC programme as an online launch was organized for the seven cities on 30 November 2021. The event was moderated by Prof. Bruce Wilson, who is leading a team of academics at RMIT providing helpdesk support to the city-to-city...

4th Thematic Webinar – The Role of Municipalities in Promoting the Renovation Wave

For cities to achieve carbon neutrality, renovating old buildings so that they are energy-efficient is crucial. According to the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission, buildings represent 40% of total energy consumption and 36% of GHG emissions in the EU. Without such renovation, the net zero carbon goal would be unlikely. On 29 November 2021, IURC Asia &...

IURC Kick-off Meeting in Indonesia

On 23 November, IURC organised a kick-off meeting to launch cooperation between Semarang City and Bandung City in Indonesia and Sofia City in Bulgaria and Rome City in Italy, with Ms. Dini Laraswati, Country Coordinator in Indonesia, as the moderator. The meeting began with opening words from Seth Van Doorn, Project Manager - Foreign Policy Instruments, Delegation of the European...