Around 359 million individuals, 72% of the entire Europe in population, live in city’s, suburbs and towns. The open areas actually face a lot of multiple and interconnected challenges which is completely related to employment, demography, migration, soil and water pollution. It is something that requires a lot of thinking and attention. They also supply complete engines when it comes to new ideas and solutions. We need to think about dynamic places where changes are happening on a much larger scale and a much faster pace as well. To answer all these increasingly complex challenges which these people face, the urban authorities need to actually go beyond the completely traditional services and policies which have to be bold and fully innovative. Innovation is one of the most important things for anything we do. If we are innovative, we can get stuff done much faster.
Even though all the research on urban issues is very well developed and potential solutions are not always put into the practice, we need to consider the fact that open authorities are very reluctant when it comes to using the money to test some unproven and new risky ideas. Yes, I understand why they hesitate, because it is very risky. But, unless you take risks and innovate, you will not move forward. If the new and innovative ideas are risky, but work, we need to consider the fact that we need to take a couple of steps forward no matter what. The main objective of the UIA is to actually provide the open areas which are throughout Europe with all the resources to test these innovative solutions, to maintain all of the open challenges that they face. They also want to see how they work in practice is and then respond to the proper complexity when it comes to real life.
If you are an urban authority of more than 50,000 individuals or a grouping of a couple of open authorities with a total population of at least 50,000 individuals, if you are located in one of the 28 European member states, you will be supported.
Are you someone who has a bold idea that can never be implemented before you tackle a lot of challenges? Are you someone who needs support to implement it? Do you think that your idea can do a good job at generating some positive changes for your citizens? If you are one of the above, then UIA can actually help you quite a bit.
The beneficiaries of the above are urban authorities. It all depends on the complexity of the open challenges that people face. Designing and implementing effective and innovative solutions is all that is needed.