On 18th June, our project Manager Tannya Pico, and intern Connie Bickerton attended the very first meeting of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) Netherlands, hosted at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. The event created a space for knowledge exchange, interdisciplinary collaboration, and dissemination of existing research, bringing together universities, public institutions, NGOs, and private-sector representatives to accelerate integrated approaches to economic, social, and environmental challenges. 

The meeting focused on raising awareness and engagement around the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and on fostering a countrywide dialogue on solutions through stronger national and global partnerships and intergenerational collaboration among stakeholders. Discussions centered on four core SDG themes: Climate, Energy and Spatial Transitions; Education, Youth and Well-being; Governance, Peace and Global Responsibility; and Sustainable Finance and Innovation. Together with other network members, we mapped priorities and existing projects against the SDGs, drawing on our own project experience. 

“Hazards are natural. Disasters are not.” – This remark by Natalia Alonso Cano (UNDRR) in the opening plenary set the tone for the 13th edition of the European Urban Resilience Forum (EURESFO) 2026, held from 17th to 19th of June 2026, organised by ICLEI and hosted in the European Green Capital 2026: Guimarães, Portugal. It captured a central message of the forum: while climate hazards cannot be avoided, their impacts are shaped by governance, preparedness, and collective action. The conference focused on advancing integrated approaches to climate resilience beyond adaptation, bringing together city representatives, policymakers, researchers, and practitioners. A strong focus was placed on collective action, leadership, and innovation, with small and medium-sized cities highlighted as key actors in enabling bottom-up resilience strategies and translating climate ambition into practice through citizen engagement. 

iUE participated as part of the stream “Strengthening the Governance of Resilience”, where our Project Assistant Mariam Jahning contributed to the workshop session “Navigating (non)-binding policies across governance levels: the nitty-gritty for local and regional authorities”. The session explored how resilience is shaped, governed and delivered across different levels from EU frameworks to city implementation. Combining policy insights with practical experience on navigating regulatory complexity and driving systemic change, the interactive session touched on key frameworks such as the Nature Restoration Regulation, the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, and the EU Soil Monitoring Law. Alongside policy expert input, the workshop featured a dynamic exchange with city representatives from Milan, Guimarães, Viimsi, and Paris. 

Mariam‘s presentation explored policy instruments and impact pathways of EU legislation on territorial governance and spatial development: even though the EU has no formal competence in spatial planning, its legislation can have (in)direct effects at the regional and local levels, through both binding and non-binding legislation. Through the transposition of EU sectoral legislation, particularly in the policy fields of regional cohesion, environmental protection, agricultural development and energy policy, the EU progressively embeds supranational territorial governance. This question is also central to the SPADES project, where we work to integrate soil health into spatial planning and design concepts, linking to a number of EU initiatives such as the Soil Monitoring Law, the Nature Restoration Regulation and the No Net Land Take policy objective. 

The Institute for Urban Excellence (iUE) developed a new webinar in collaboration with the Technical University of Munich, building on our experiences deploying Nature-based Solutions as part of the JUSTNature project, funded by the Horizon 2020 programme. The training, held on June 10th 2026, explored what collaborative, equitable governance means in urban greening interventions. It counted with insights from local project coordinators from the cities of Munich and Szombathely, and introduced the Co-Greening Handbook, a practical resource with guidance and tools designed to help practitioners and researchers move beyond passive participation toward more inclusive efforts that actively engage vulnerable and minority groups.

In May, the PLUS Change consortium met in Paris for its fourth General Assembly, hosted by the Île-de-France Region. Over three days, we came together with project partners to review progress, share experiences from the Practice Cases and discuss priorities for the final year of the project.

With the project now moving into its final phase, much of the discussion focused on how the knowledge, methods and lessons developed through PLUS Change can continue to be used by policymakers, practitioners and regional stakeholders after the project ends.

Between May 5th and 6th 2026, the SPARKLE School “When Circular Economy Meets Local Climate Strategies” brought together around 40 local and regional leaders from across Europe to explore how circular economy principles can support climate resilience, resource-wise urban regeneration, and more socially just local economies. iUE’s project manager Samir Amin was part of this capacity building event, hosted in Calenzano (Italy), and led the session “Co-creating more inclusive and fair planning through participatory approaches: an overview of participatory methodologies with a focus on Storytelling.”

We’re happy to announce a new iUE Webinar, a collaboration between the Technical University of Munich and the Institute for Urban Excellence, building on our experiencies deploying Nature-based Solutions within the JUSTNature project.

“Co-greening: tools and approaches for inclusive governance of urban nature” will take place on June 10th at 13:00 CEST. It will explore what co-governance looks like in greening interventions, and how they can address issues of social and environmental justice. During the session, we will be introducing the Co-Greening Handbook: a resource with guidance and tools designed to help practitioners and researchers move beyond passive participation toward more inclusive efforts that actively engage vulnerable and minority groups. We will also count with first hand insights from local JUSTNature project coordinators from the City of Munich and the City of Szombathely.

This webinar is an invitation to learn to understand, plan, and implement urban green interventions that truly respond to local needs. It is designed for city practitioners, NGO representatives, applied researchers and interested parties who work directly with communities.

In the on-going EU-funded URSOILL Research and Innovation project, iUE leads the co-creation of 5 Living Labs for healthy urban soil. The project, which started in September 2025, recently produced the results from a discovery phase focused on understanding the local ecosystems of the 5 Living Labs.

At iUE we believe that urban soils are a strategic urban infrastructure: urban soils are not as passive or residual land components, they are deeply intertwined with multiple urban functions (environmental performance, land use, and long-term resilience), but they remain insufficiently integrated into planning frameworks.

In URSOILL, together with Politecnico di Milano, we implemented a structured discovery phase that brings together environmental, spatial, and socio-economic perspectives within a broader co-creation process. This phase helped to position soil as a critical layer of urban systems and supported the development and implementation of soil health solutions across the Living Lab experimental sites.

The Institute for Urban Excellence (iUE) is proud to announce we are, once more, a partner of Urban Future, the milestone European event for city-changers around the globe. 

Taking place in Ljubljana (Slovenia) between March 24 and 27, Urban Future 26 (UF26) will bring together city leaders, planners, change-makers, educators, politicians, and other experts from cities worldwide to share valuable know-how and expertise on sustainable cities. From lessons learned to innovative solutions and practical strategies, the event features inspiring sessions, field trips and fascinating side events structured along six core thematic tracks: circularity, city centers, tactical urbanism, resilient societies, innovation in governance, and change communications.

The Institute invites all interested parties to attend the Better Cities Event and meet us there! We are happy to connect, exchange ideas and find space for new collaborations and projects.

Find the event’s full programme here, and buy tickets following this link.

In February 2026, five URSOILL Living Labs successfully held their first local co-creation sessions, marking a first step in bringing urban soil challenges into a shared, collaborative space. These sessions gathered a range of stakeholders (including local authorities, researchers, civil society organisations, and practitioners) to jointly explore their urban soil health journey. 

As coordinators for the co-creation process, we worked closely with the Living Lab teams to support the design and facilitation of these meetings (common guidance, interactive formats, and participatory tools) to ensure that each session could capture their local contexts while contributing to a shared URSOILL approach. 

Across the five Living Labs, discussions focused on: 

– identifying key soil-related challenges in the local context, 

– mapping opportunities and barriers (PESTLE through stakeholder perspectives) 

– initiating dialogue on potential pathways towards healthier urban soils 

The sessions also served as an entry point to assess soil literacy levels, understand stakeholder expectations, and build the foundations for engagement throughout the project. 

The co-creation sessions demonstrated strong interest from local stakeholders to remain involved in future thematic and site-based discussions. 

These first meetings mark the beginning of a 4-year process to not only support urban soil restoration across 50+ sites but also identify broader interactions between soil health and land-use decisions at the city scale.