Who we are
Connecting Europe
for a Brighter Future
Bringing together expertise from Germany, Belgium, Croatia, Italy, and Cyprus to innovate and transform educational spaces through collaborative efforts and shared vision.
University of Cyprus
University of Cyprus aims to establish itself as a Pioneer Research Institution achieving International Scientific Recognition in European Higher Education, offering Competitive Programmes and to become a Centre of Excellence in the wider Euro – Mediterranean Region. The main objectives of the University are twofold: the promotion of scholarship and education through teaching and research, and the enhancement of the cultural, social and economic development of Cyprus.
In this context, the University believes that education must provide more than simply accumulation of knowledge. It must also encourage students’ active participation in the process of learning and acquisition of those values necessary for responsible involvement in the community. The University sets high standards for all branches of scholarship.
Research is promoted and funded in all departments for its contribution to scholarship in general and for its local and international applications.
Brandenburg University of Technology
BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg produces research and offers education through an interdisciplinary approach across boundaries between disciplines, and theory and practice.
It has developed a strong profile in both basic and applied research addressing design, engineering, artistic, historical, social, economic, cultural, and legal aspects of the ongoing transformation processes. The Chair of Urban Management based in the university’s Faculty of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Urban Planning extends research and education in urban development beyond the consideration of design and functional aspects to encompass the knowledge and participatory skills for engaging in complex assemblages of actors and processes.
Urban development is scrutinized as a process involving a plurality of stakeholders, publics, negotiations, and decisions, and urban management as a way of steering that process in everyday life, in administration, in the markets, in governance arrangements as well as in the broader context of political, social and economic transformations. We bring to the project an expertise in conceiving, implementing and moderating integrated research and planning processes with a high degree of participation, in particular in territories undergoing structural change.
CNR - IRISS
The mission of the Institute for Research on Innovation and Services for Development of the National Research Council of Italy (CNR IRISS) is to study innovation and services to support territory development processes based on principles of equity and sustainability. Research activities are developed in a multidisciplinary and multi-scalar perspective including economy, evaluation, urban planning and international law.
Research activities are supported by participatory approaches and engagement, listening and co-planning activities with citizens, territorial actors and institutional decision-makers to contribute to the empowerment of local communities and to the strengthening of territorial cohesion. Through its research activities, the Institute intends to produce knowledge advancement for the sustainable development of cities and territories, also by activating and strengthening synergies and collaboration between research centres and academia, enterprises, institutions and associations. In this perspective, knowledge transfer activities are carried out to contribute to the social, environmental and economic development of the territory consistently with the UN Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development.
PUSH.
PUSH (www.wepush.org) is an Italian non-for-profit design lab that works in the fields of environmental sustainability, digital technologies and social innovation.
PUSH works together with communities, public bodies and private organizations to help them to innovate and have an impact in a sustainable way. Through a multidisciplinary approach based on service design, the lab conducts action research activities to address and solve complexity with simple ideas that are able to trigger new urban and social dynamics. Partner of the World Urban Campaign and Climate Kic Community, PUSH has a strong background in managing research and innovation projects within European programmes such as Horizon 2020, Erasmus+, Interreg Europe, etc.
SF:ius
SF:ius is a non-profit association based in Zagreb, dedicated to interdisciplinary research, analysis, and amplifying compelling narratives from the social fringe through artistic, advocacy, and activist work. SF:ius advocates for critical perspectives on narratives emanating from positions of power. Positioned at the "social edge," SF:ius maintains a non-partisan stance, challenging established social paradigms and focusing on topics often overlooked in mainstream knowledge production.
Urban Foxes
UF, is a non-profit based in Brussels, works on cross-section of urban pedagogy, architecture, placemaking, environmental issues, a wide range of creative fields and youth work.
Founded in 2014 with the mission of striving for sustainable, inclusive, beautiful, happy and co-created cities. UF specialises in creating non-formal tools and methodologies, and facilitates these processes to involve often forgotten stakeholders in the city making process. We believe Foxes that (young) people should be included (more) in decision-making processes that affect them. And are convinced that non-formal education has the power to not only inform (young) people on sustainability and urban matters but also to include them in the larger scheme of the city making process.
With the power of non-formal education, we aim for the inclusion and empowerment of (young) people in light of the 2030 Agenda, the New European Bauhaus & SDG’s. UF uses a wide range of tools like storytelling, gamification, collaboration, co-creating new narratives. UF has been also working closely with universities, high schools and other providers of (higher) education such as VET and community colleges, in other (Erasmus+) projects and living labs, and also been hosting interns from a wide range of educational departments.
Aesop
The AESOP Thematic Group for Public Spaces and Urban Cultures was founded upon an initiative of Sabine Knierbein, Ceren Sezer and Chiara Tornaghi in 2010. The aim of the group is to introduce the research and design focus on Public Spaces and Urban Cultures in planning-related disciplines.
The members of the AESOP Thematic Group on Public Spaces and Urban Cultures discuss and develop approaches proposed under the biennial group’s working topic and engage in peer-to-peer exchange on research and design projects. In addition to annual AESOP Congress, the group meets regularly in the meetings spanning academia, praxis and activism, which take place in the form of workshops, seminars and conferences, accompanied by a field trip. The meetings are organized by group members’ institutions, after submitting a declaration of interest to host an event to the group's working theme.