Enhancing the skills of urban practitioners with our capacity building offer

Our capacity building offer is built on the principles of nurturing networking and knowledge sharing making the most of the richness of the European territory. It includes three services: city-to-city exchanges, peer reviews, and capacity-building events.

City-to-City Exchanges – Open opportunity

Do you have ambitious plans in terms of urban regeneration while trying to make most of integrated and place-based approaches? Are you struggling with multi-stakeholder involvement? Do you wish to explore cutting-edge practices in areas like decarbonised mobility and biodiversity conservation? On this and other topics relevant to Sustainable Urban development, a visit to a fellow European city that holds expertise on the matter might help.

Our City-to-City Exchanges are a good way to engage in and learn from European experiences to help in your city strategy. The Exchanges are bilateral in nature, but you can plan to visit up to two peer cities, if relevant. You equally can welcome them back home to close the circle and fully embed the learnings into your future plans.

Key Features of the service

• Easy and short application. Applications are evaluated on a rolling basis; you can expect an answer in 1 month-time.
• This service is dedicated to urban authorities representatives, but relevant stakeholders can join the delegations when justified
• We provide financial support for the actual visits (travel, subsistence etc.), and we can assign an expert moderator to help you plan and conduct the exchanges in the most efficient way.

Applications for City-to-City Exchanges exchanges are open to local authorities of all sizes from EU Member States with an interest in sustainable urban development. This inclusivity ensures a rich diversity of perspectives and experiences and fosters a dynamic learning environment for all participants.

-> Apply now

Peer reviews – Call to be launched in the coming months

Peer reviews take the form of 2-day workshops in which cities benefit of the expertise and advice of other cities and relevant stakeholders, allowing for a deep analysis of their sustainable urban development strategies. This process is beneficial either at the bear beginning of the strategic thinking, but equally later on as the strategy needs to materialise itself to implementation and monitoring of results. The purpose is to have this exercise as a catalyst for strengthening the capacity of cities to design and implement sustainable urban development policies and practices, emphasising an integrated and participatory approach.

Applications for peer reviews are open to urban authorities actively involved in the design and implementation of sustainable urban development strategies under Article 11 of the ERDF Regulation.

New call expected for spring 2024, stay tuned!

Look at the past and upcoming peer reviews:

• Kalisz 31 January- 01 February 2024
• Coimbra  28-29 November 2023
• Thessaloniki 28-29 June 2023

Capacity Building Events – Planning of events under way

Capacity building events can be organised at national or European level and cover a wide range of formats(workshops, seminars etc.). These events address different thematic and operational challenges in the field of sustainable urban development. They are free of charge and carefully designed to address the specific challenges and needs of cities.

Keep an eye on our website, all events will be announced in our news and events section

Look at examples of past capacity building events:

• Cooperation across Functional Urban Areas in Hungarian cities 21 November 2023

• Reshaping policy, unleashing talents, shifting minds for the Green Transition 8-9 November 2023

• Delivering high quality Integrated Territorial Investments in Croatia 24-25 October 2023

• Supporting integrated approaches to Sustainable Urban Development 04-05 July 2023

• Delivering high quality community-led local development in urban areas 07-09 June 2023

Portico, the gateway to support your skills development journey.