IN-HABIT and its sister projects participate in the Network Nature event in Brussels and present their joint Manifesto during the EU Green Week.

Brussels, June 8th 2023 – The EU Green Week 2023 has begun. Europe’s biggest annual event on environmental policy gathers over 250 partner events organised across Europe and beyond, allowing everyone to be part of the debates. EuPolis, GoGreenRoutes, IN-HABIT and VARCITIES, the four European projects that designed the Manifesto, are in Brussels for NetworkNature events during the EU Green Week.

Professor Marìa del Mar Delgado, IN-HABIT Project Coordinator, is representing the four projects and has shared their missions and highlights in the Network Nature Taskforce Cluster Meeting on 7th June, specifically in the Panel “Towards effective NBS across ecosystems”. She explains ”Let’s move from NBS to social NBS. We need to underline the importance of people and the relationship between people and nature-based solutions.”

In fact in each of the projects there is a common social mission: IN-HABIT focusing on Inclusive Health and Well-being in 4 cities (Cordoba, Lucca, Nitra, Riga), GoGreenRoutes on urban mental health and wellbeing through nature, euPolis on natural systems to enhance public health and wellbeing and VARCITIES creating sustainable models for improving health and wellbeing in future cities. The sister projects cover a wide range of topics and cities connected to developing greener, more sustainable European cities for all their inhabitants, stressing out the chance to work with NBS and green policies to have a positive impact on citizens.

The joint Manifesto calls on European cities to launch initiatives that offer visionary and integrated solutions to increase the health and well-being of citizens. It focuses on five key areas: nature-based solutions; health and sustainable urban areas; culture and arts; gender, inclusion, and diversity; and digital innovation. The manifesto concludes with an action plan and commitments to achieving a series of bespoke visionary solutions to promote health and well-being in urban conurbations.

Today NetworkNature Annual Event “Enabling transformation through and for nature-based solutions” will feature interviews, presentations, panel debates and interactive sessions. The transformative nature of NBS, how its benefits reach across sectors and which transformations are needed in policy, in the economic and financing sector, and in science and practice will be discussed.

The sister projects funded under IA call SC5-14-2019 – Visionary and integrated solutions to improve well-being and health in cities.

About IN-HABIT
IN-HABIT, a EU H2020 project, will mobilise undervalued resources (culture and heritage, food, human-animal bonds, and art and environment) in four Small and Medium sized Cities to boost Inclusive Health and Well-Being, with a focus on gender and diversity. The integrated approach will combine technological, digital, nature-based, cultural, and social innovations in selected urban public spaces, focusing on underserved areas and vulnerable target groups in each city. These solutions will be co-designed, co-deployed, and co-managed with and by local stakeholders. The project will develop an innovative assessment framework to analyse inclusive health and wellbeing as urban commons, (social) business models to provide livelihood opportunities and promote healthier lifestyles, and an app to measure impact and boost behavioural change. The IN-HABIT project responds to European research and innovation (R&I) gaps in catering to the needs of peripheral SMSCs.

Press Office Arianna Tinelli – Book On A Tree
Email press@bookonatree.com
Website https://www.inhabit-h2020.eu/

About IN-HABIT Sister projects
About VARCITIES
VARCITIES is an ambitious project that puts the citizens and the “human communities” at the centre of future cities’ vision, in the belief that future cities should become fully human-centred. Funded by Horizon 2020 (Grant Agreement No 869505), the project officially started in September 2020 and it will last until February 2025. The Consortium is composed of 25 partners under the lead of Telecommunication System Institute (TSI). Seven Pilot Cities will test and implement a series of innovative nature-based actions. The vision of VARCITIES is to implement real, visionary ideas and add value by establishing sustainable models for increasing the health and well-being of citizens: women, children, young people, middle aged, and the elderly, who are exposed to diverse climatic conditions and challenges in and around Europe. VARCITIES sets the ambitious target to advance innovation across different urban scales by fully exploiting nature-based solutions from a digital, social and cultural perspective. Public spaces are envisioned as people-centred areas that support creativity, inclusivity, health, and happiness for the citizens.

Press Officer Yoann Clouet – ISOCARP Institute
Email contact@varcities.eu
Website https://varcities.eu/

About euPOLIS
The euPOLIS aims to improve Public Health in cities by introducing nature-based solutions into urban planning practices. That means that our experts are taking the best from nature’s ways to regulate and improve biodiversity by incorporating various BLUE (water) and GREEN (plant life) aspects of nature into urban open spaces where it can intensify people’s well-being in terms of climate, ecological and socio-economic conditions. Our methodology introduces several analytical procedures making the process more transparent and open to stronger IT support. One of the specialties is planning urban spaces populated with vegetation with a proven beneficial impact on cardiovascular, respiratory, and metabolic diseases. The philosophy is deeply grounded in the extensive and permanent citizens’ participation in urban-planning processes.

Press Officer Maja Lalić, Mikser Association
Email eupolisproject@gmail.com
Website https://eupolis-project.eu/