Between the 9th and 11th of April, members of the Research Innovation Unit attended the 5th Progress Meeting of JUSTNature in Bolzano and Merano, Italy.

Day 1

The progress meeting, hosted by our partner EURAC Research, started with a warm welcome from the Mayor and a council member of Bolzano, who celebrated the existence of JUSTNature and the importance of such projects.   The day continued with several presentations from different Work packages highlighting the project’s current phase and progress. These topics include:

  • What key innovative results to Exploit and How?
  • Innovation Management
  • The strategic planning Method-kit for Ecological Justice called JUSTPlanT
  • Monitoring Strategies
  • Updates on the progress of Digital Twins
  • Entrepreneurial Activation Process

Day 2

Day 2 kicked off with a presentation by CrowdHelix, the University of Malta, and ISOCARP Institute. They reviewed the ongoing communication and dissemination activities and discussed engagement strategies with the partners, with the aim of improving and reaching far more audiences. We then continued with Prospex Institute to review key advances made in the last six months regarding the operationalization of the City Practice Labs, including the outcomes and lessons learned from local stakeholder workshops. It was then followed by insights from the Technical University of Munich, ABUD and ISOCARP institute reviewing progress made on the topic of co-governance of NbS.

“To shape our cities and make them more sustainable and liveable for the community by ensuring a just transition to low-carbon cities through nature-based solutions”

The afternoon of Day 2 introduced the start of the 3rd collaborative CiPel Workshop (CCW) coordinated by our partner, Prospex Institute. Representatives from the project’s six City Practice Labs came together to reflect and share experiences and difficulties related to the implementation of the JUSTNature project. The session invited the participants to reflect on several topics, such as:

  • Which new skills have been acquired since the start of the JUSTNature project
  • What obstacles and difficulties were faced throughout the deployment of the project
  • Which skills would we still like to gain within the remaining JUSTNature timeframe?

It was a thought-provoking session that allowed representatives from the CiPels to share their insights and thoughts freely and allowed the other partners to gain insights into their various difficulties.

The second workshop of the day focused on Nature-building communities(NbC). CiPel representatives gathered in two groups to engage in an activity called Serious Games. The participants had to put themselves in the shoes of different prospective actors to experience different perspectives, problems that may arise, and compromises that would need to be reached by implementing NbS and other interventions.

The day concluded with an interesting presentation, “Garden Cities: the role of botanical gardens,” given by Richard Piacentini, president and CEO of Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens.

Day 3

On the first part of the third day, the consortium travelled together to Merano. They started with a short tour of the Trauttmansdorff Botanical Garden and continued to the “Garden for All” pilot site. In the second part of the day, the partners gathered at Merano’s Town Hall to continue focusing on the continuation of the 3rd CCW. CiPel representatives were invited to reflect on their implementation timelines, planned upcoming activities, and any current or future bottlenecks.

The project meeting wrapped up successfully with the announcement of the 6th Project Meeting, to be held next in Gzira (Malta).

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement No. 101003757