The European Week of Regions and Cities is an annual event dedicated to cohesion policy. It gathers a diverse community of speakers and participants to discuss common challenges and aims at facilitating networking and cooperation between regions and cities in Europe.

In this context, this dedicated workshop will focus on local communities as drivers for urban regeneration and social innovation. How can local communities and neighbourhoods engage citizens in sustainable urban transitions through social innovation and affordable housing?

ARV, syn.ikia, oPEN Lab and the FinEst Centre for Smart Cities will present innovative pilot projects where citizens were put in the driver’s seat for urban transition. These projects were carefully selected to represent different European climatic conditions and contexts due to their high environmental, social, and economic sustainability ambitions, and include social housing neighbourhoods and city-level projects. The workshop will facilitate discussion and the exchange of knowledge amongst participants.