Fabrizio Colimberti Policy Officer Unit B1 Directorate-General for Research & Innovation (DG RTD)

1. EU R&I for Cities of the Future- High-Level Expert Group on ‘Innovative Cities’- Horizon Europe EUROCITIES Economic Development Forum meetingFlorence, 27 March 2019 Fabrizio Colimberti Policy Officer Unit B1 Directorate-General for Research & Innovation (DG RTD) European Commission

2. High-Level Expert Group on ‘Innovative cities’ • Today’s urban challenges to address • Better meet the diverse urban needs of citizens, business and industry; offer more and more attractive choices • Reduce negative impacts: climate change, congestion, road accidents, air and water pollution, wastes and health issues • Launched on 12 June 2018 to assist the EC in formulating a ‘Strategic Research & innovation Agenda’ (SRIA) to foster a systemic and cross-sectorial ‘urban ecosystem’ framework to guide investment in EU R&I actions for cities • The Group consists of 9 experts and 2 observers covering urban thematic areas (e.g. mobility; energy efficiency; climate change; social inclusion & social innovation; food systems; circular cities; resource efficiency; digital cities; resilience; etc.)

3. High-Level Expert Group on ‘Innovative cities’ • Report expected to be delivered in July 2019 • It accounts for targets set out at international urban-relevant policy frameworks: COP21 Paris Agreement, 1.5 IPCC for cities, UN Sustainable Development Goals, notably Goal 11 (Sustainable cities and communities) • It aligns with the ongoing Strategic Research & Innovation Agendas (e.g. EU SRIA on Urban mobility, Strategic Agenda of JPI Urban Europe, Fab City Manifesto, Global Covenant of Mayors ‘Innovate4Cities’ Agenda, etc. • Contribution of strategic partners such as EUROCITIES (with Experts MartonMatkoand Nathalie Guri) • Charles Landry as Chair of the Group (‘The Creative Bureaucracy’) • Shift to ‘human-centered city’: citizens as makers, shapers, ‘right to the city’ (active citizenship)

4. High-Level Expert Group on ‘Innovative cities’– some draft points • Two critical issues related to urban infrastructure • Decarbonisation & 1.5% global temperature increase limit – planning; renewables; energy production & storage; efficiency; construction; mobility and shared mobility • Circularity & sharing: reuse and recycle; recyclability by design; adaptive reuse; eco-friendly planning & design logic; imaginative waste & sewage systems • Sketching R&I priorities • Building resilience (‘future proofing’): develop skills; strengthen institutional capacity; expert staff; engage citizens; identify incentives (nudges) • Prosperity: human-driven development & finance for innovation; creativity, culture, skills & unequal distribution of opportunities; mixity and diversity; economies and diseconomies • Governance: reinforce testing grounds & experiments; support city-led governance initiatives (possible with research entities as a sounding board); connect to the public innovation movement; measuring impact & move beyond GDP

5. Horizon Europe:The future framework Programme for R&I • Under Horizon Europe (2021-2027), urban R&I actions will be funded under the ‘Global Challenges and Industrial Competitiveness’ pillar, from several clusters (macro areas) • Cluster 4 on ‘Climate, Energy and Mobility’ foresees an intervention area on ‘Cities and Communities’ • An integrated approach encompassing research, innovation, policy and socio-economic studies and circular economy models will be necessary • Co-creation, co-development and co-implementation with involvement of all relevant actors and citizens in cities across the European Union and worldwide