The joint workshop brought together around 50 experts from research and innovation, city administration, NGOs and business representing all Brazilian regions to discuss topics and approaches, which would contribute towards urban transitions. “Strengthening partnerships between public administration and research and innovation is very important to support capacity building”, says Rodrigo de Oliveira Perpétuo (General Secretary for ICLEI SAMS) in his opening statement. The need for capacity building and co-creative approaches to support urban transitions is a requirement, which has been discussed throughout the two-day workshop. Thus, the introduction of the Urban Living Lab concept by Timo von Wirth (DRIFT, JPI UE GUST Project) and the case study presentations of Joinville in Santa Catarina and Porto Digital in Recife sparked interesting exchanges on the requirements and consequences of applying urban living labs in Brazilian urban contexts.
The discussions in world café tables on the biggest issues for urban accessibility and connectivity showed that Brazilian cities are exposed to comparable large-scale challenges as European urban areas. However, due to socio-economic, demographic, historical, cultural and geographical contexts, the challenges show specific Brazilian characteristics.
The workshop brought together the Brazilian community to jointly discuss the biggest issues for urban transitions, urban accessibility and connectivity as well as the approaches to tackle those challenges with the support of research and innovation. The results of the workshop will inform the planning of concrete joint activities between FINEP and JPI Urban Europe, in particular towards JPI Urban Europe’s joint call on urban accessibility and connectivity in 2019. Furthermore, the interest in approaches and the topics discussed in the workshop underline the relevance of internationalisation of JPI Urban Europe activities.
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Source: Research and Innovation for Urban Transitions in Brazil - Urban Europe