Audrie van Veen

How to get the most out of urban experimentation? The guidebook for urban developers sums up learnings and experiences from agile piloting in Helsinki.
The Pocket Book for Agile Piloting shares the experiences from Smart Kalasatama and Jätkäsaari Mobility Lab in Helsinki and condenses the key learnings in a pragmatic and easily digestible way. Free download via Forum Virium

Over the last months, 380 CEOs have come together in our Call to Action for a New Deal for Europe: a Europe that has sustainability, climate action and inclusiveness at its core.

Now, as we are slowly starting to ease the COVID-19 lockdown, there is an urgency for togetherness: for enterprises, industry federations, policymakers, and civil society organisations to build back better.

How? By transforming the CEOs Call into a big action under the umbrella of a European Pact for Sustainable Industry to incubate collaborations on practical solutions.

Join Stefan Crets, CSR Europe Executive Director, Jan Noterdaeme, CSR Europe Senior Advisor, and Jérémy Bossu, Head of Edelman BeLux, at the webinar "Beyond COVID-19 and the CEOs Call: A European Pact for Sustainable Industry" on 6 May. They will explain the Pact, its targets and ambition, as well as the many opportunities your company has to engage.

The corona crisis offers new perspectives for our society and its economisch. My column (in Dutch) is about how companies could make profit and strive to be regenerative at the same time. In other words: how can making profit and fitting in the doughnut economy (Kate Raworth's theory) can work together.

Because one thing has structurally changed since this crisis: nobody can say 'well this line of business can not be stopped that easy'. If it is necessary, we can keep planes on the ground and stop big parts of our economy. Not without damage to the economy, but it can be done. If we find it important enough. Read more on the website of the Amsterdam Economic Board.

***Friday April 3 - 16-18h, online***

COVID-19 has transformed the lives of EU citizens dramatically, in a way that was not even possible to imagine just a month ago. Cities are in lockdown and health services are put under extreme pressure and pushed beyond their limits. Yet in the time of crisis, innovations are emerging that are saving lives and protecting livelihoods. Many of these involve new uses of technology, implemented by local actors at city and regional level.

To help cities navigate the current crisis and implement appropriate responses, the European Commission’s Intelligent Cities Challenge is launching a wider support package for COVID-19 to facilitate learning and the sharing of best practices on effective city-led interventions from European and global cities.

As a first step, we have organised two city-focused interactive webinars to learn, exchange practises and support city administrations. In this event, we will explore the pandemic and effective responses through expert perspectives, good city initiatives and open discussion. Topics include responses to health risks, interventions on economic impacts and overall strategies for effective management and preparation.

The European Green Deal is the European Commission's strategy for a more sustainable, cleaner and healthier European economy. Research and innovation are of course key to make this happen. RVO (the Dutch agency for subsidies) announces several calls in the coming months of 2020 with a total budget of € 1 billion.

First one on the planning is a special EIC accelerator call for SMEs that need some help to develop a green idea and scale it up internationally. Support will be a subsidy up to € 2,5 million and there is an option for receiving equity up to € 15 million. Projects need to contribute substantially to the European goals for fighting climate change.

Please note that this information is preliminary, more info in Dutch on the website of RVO and we expect that the EU will publish this call in the coming weeks. The RVO-site will update the links to the EC call info, which is not online yet.

On December 4, the Mayors of over 40 cities were invited at the Committee of the Regions in Brussels to discuss the digital transformation. They are all part of the Digital Cities Challenge, an initiative of the European Commission to help European cities develop and implement policies that focus on smart, sustainable growth through the uptake of advanced technologies by local stakeholders, through building up local innovation ecosystems. The Amsterdam Metropolitan Area is one of the 6 Mentor Cities of this challenge, based on the region’s track record in the digital economy and the application of digital, data and smart cities innovations.

Mayor Franc Weerwind of Almere, also Amsterdam Economic Board Member responsible for Digital Connectivity shared his vision and principles. Weerwind’s key message to his fellow cities and region is cooperation outside the beaten tracks: breaking silos within municipalities, but also cooperation between government, knowledge & education institutes and the regional business sector.

“The digital city is a citizen-driven, inclusive and green city – it is not driven by technological progress, but by the demand and needs of our citizens,” Mayor Weerwind said. “We as Mayors can use the power of digital transformation itself to get things done by linking the right skills, knowledge and organisations together.”
Read Mayor Weerwind’s full speech with links to further information about the activities in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area via the link below.