In the midst of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, an initiative that focuses on building capacity for recovery, resilience, and climate transition has emerged. Viable Cities, through our host organization KTH, has been coordinating the UniCities initiative together with Ukrainian and Spanish universities.
The initiative aims to support stakeholders in Ukraine in building competence to rebuild the cities, while also making them climate neutral and sustainable for the future. UniCities is now taking on a new form, transitioning from a three-year funded project to continued long-term collaboration. To celebrate this and set the pace for future work, an online conference took place last week.
Working with Ukraine is a huge inspiration, not only for universities in Europe but also for our municipalities. Swedish municipalities and European municipalities have a lot to learn from municipalities in Ukraine, not least about resilience, governance, democracy, and civic preparedness. It is mutual learning and mutual inspiration.
– Olga Kordas, program director of Viable Cities and coordinator of UniCities
The UniCities Transition Lab Forum II focused on the role of universities as catalysts for sustainable, resilient, and climate-neutral urban development, building on experiences from initiatives such as Viable Cities in Sweden and CitiES2030 in Spain. Representatives of the Ukrainian government, the European Commission, universities in all three countries, cities such as Kharkiv, Kyiv, Madrid, and Stockholm, and urban experts come together to demonstrate how the green reconstruction of Ukrainian cities is taking shape in practice.
Keys for change
Keys for change are something we bring with us from all our Transition Lab Forums. They serve as actionable points for the work ahead. The keys for change from this forum are:
- Continue to strengthen the collaboration between all UniCiites partners in order to deliver on the green transition and green recovery of Ukrainian cities.
- Focus on creating more sustainable local energy systems through concrete implementation projects in Ukraine.
The program addresses:
- UniCities – results, impacts, and lessons learned
- Universities as enablers of sustainable urban transformation
- Capacity building for recovery, resilience, and climate transition
- Strengthened collaboration for a resilient and thriving Ukraine
Watch the live stream here:
