Description
As part of the mission to enable transformative research and learning for the enrichment of society and the planet, University College Cork (UCC) engages in transformative action through its commitment to move knowledge-creation and engagement beyond the academy into the community. The goal is to become integrated, proactive, and measurable change agents with the community to co-create solutions to the most pressing ecological, social, and economic challenges of our time. As a partner in the EU Horizon GreenInCities project, UCC is one of 31 partners across 13 European cities working collaboratively to address sustainability and climate change challenges in deprived urban areas. The first two years of this 4-year project beginning in January 2024 saw leader cities (Barcelona, Nova Gorica, Prato, Athens and Helsinki) collaboratively develop and deliver a co-creation process toolkit to address three main challenges at the heart of the project: improving societal readiness and awareness of vulnerable groups; going beyond classical greening and renaturing interventions; and leveraging cutting edge technologies to enhance co-creation and maximise urban regeneration impacts. The final 2 years of the project will see follower cities (Cork, Birštonas, Hersonissos, Matosinhos, Pécs and Reykjavik) replicate leader cities’ catalogue of green solutions, practices, and support systems and co-creative participatory methodology as a toolkit for this comprehensive transdisciplinary and transnational project to help guide their own co-creative processes. This proposal seeks to deliver an oral presentation about University College Cork’s role in delivering the GreenInCities research outcomes in a highly disadvantaged area in Cork City. This talk will discuss how GreenInCities is the latest project in the School of Applied Social Studies’ long-standing tradition of co-creative participatory methodologies in the local area seeking to engage and empower the community as equal partners in the process of just urban transitions that deliver tangible social and environmental benefits.| Period | 18 Mar 2026 → 19 Mar 2026 |
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| Event title | Universities as Change Agents in Sustainable Development: University-Community Partnerships: Models for co-creation with local communities, social innovation hubs and businesses, and contributing to just urban and regional transitions |
| Event type | Symposium |
| Location | Tallinn, EstoniaShow on map |
| Degree of Recognition | International |