The objective of the Seminar was to promote the use of existing and new upcoming ESPON territorial evidence in policy-making by bringing together and facilitating the dialogue among key stakeholders. The debate was also aimed at raising the awareness of ESPON support and increasing the usefulness of ESPON outputs by engaging stakeholders in designing the content of upcoming activities within the ESPON 2020 Cooperation programme.

The event was organised in cooperation with the EU Presidency of Slovakia.

Thematic focus

The EU Urban Agenda provides an important framework for developing and implementing better policies and providing better knowledge to tackle urban challenges. Targeted and timely territorial evidence to support the work of urban partnerships is one of the key preconditions for their success. Therefore, one of the new priorities of ESPON in the coming years will be related to supporting the work of urban partnerships and the debate on their role in a wider territorial context.

In this context, the agenda of the first day was focused around the topic of urban development. It was introduced by the presentations on the most recent trends in the development of cities and followed by parallel policy-labs engaging policy-makers and researchers in a debate on the policy needs and possible measures to promote sustainable and inclusive cities, as well as urban-rural partnerships.

The afternoon of the first day and the second day of the seminar were devoted to promoting the use of ESPON tools, creating new partnerships for targeted analysis activities and designing the content of next ESPON activities together with key stakeholders.

Special session Targeted Analyses

For the Seminar we designed a special session “ESPON on your demand: targeted analyses approach”, in order to bring forward and explore the experiences of stakeholders in designing targeted analyses and in applying their outcomes in policy-making. The presentations were followed by a Stakeholder Café, offering a platform for exchange, debate and networking. 

Audience

More than 200 people attended the event. Among them there were policy makers, stakeholders, and practitioners at different levels, as well as scientists and experts.

Where

Hotel Bôrik

Bôrik 15

814 07 Bratislava - Slovak Republic

More

• You can find below the programme of the event, practical information, list of attendees, presentations.
• Watch the Seminar on the ESPON YouTube channel.
• Keep talking about the event on ESPON Twitter #espon
• Please don’t hesitate to contact ESPON ([email protected]) should you need further information.