The need to assemble scientists and policymakers gave rise to the City Science Initiative (CSI), a European Commission (EC) effort started by European cities to conduct research and discuss policy. Caroline Nevejan, Ph.D., chief science officer, city of Amsterdam, launched the initiative with Patrick Child, then-deputy director of research and innovation with the European Commission, and then-EU and EC Joint Research Centre Deputy Director-General Charlina Vitcheva. The CSI includes five, citywide science experiments in air quality (Paris), circular economy (Hamburg, Germany), mental health (Thessaloniki, Greece), sustainable urban mobility (Cluj-Napoca, Romania), and tech and the city (Reggio Emilia, Italy).
“We share the challenges,” said Dr. Nevejan. “We’re all working on sustainability. We said [to the EC] with the billions of euros for research and innovation, cities should be in your focus.”
Dr. Nevejan explained that the CSI, as well as the science-policy hub that she leads in Amsterdam, requires substantial orchestration and investments of human capital to design effective and in-practice collaboration between policy and research.
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