The background of the CITYMINDED project: urban sustainability in EU cooperation

The Erasmus+ CITYMINDED project was prompted by the recognition of the capital importance of urban sustainability in contemporary Europe. Urban areas are currently the most important test-bed for energy transition and decarbonisation models. However, decarbonisation touches upon a wide variety of topics, and this calls for a systemic interdisciplinary approach, which, at the time the project was drafted, was not widespread in ordinary academic teaching practices. Moreover, EU-funded projects on the topic of urban sustainability in a climate change context were not as abundant as it may be expected. The CITYMINDED proposal intended to fill these gaps, and its success could be interpreted as a promising indication that there are still margins to increase the incidence of urban sustainability issues (and of an integrated, more comprehensive approach to them) in EU-funded academic research and teaching, as well as in international, inter-university cooperation Programmes.