Erasmus+ Project UniCities

Unlocking the Transformative potential of Ukrainian Universities towards climate neutral and sustainable cities

Project acronym – UniCities  

Multi-Country Joint Project   

Priority – Higher Education and Society

Project duration: 01 February 2023 – 31 January 2026

EU funding instrument: ERASMUS2027, Key Action 2, CBHE

Erasmus+ (CBHE) grant  amount:  525 545.00 €

Target groups: university students

Grant holder: KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden

Coordinator and General Manager: Olga Kordas, Director of Viable Cities – the Swedish National Strategic Innovation Program for Smart and Sustainable Cities; Associate Professor in Sustainable Urban Development at KTH.  Contacts: tel +46 8 790 87 73, e-mail: olga@kth.se

Partnership:

• Kungliga Tekniska hoegskolan (KTH, Sweden)
• Universidad Politecnica de Madrid (UPM, Spain)
• National Technical University of Ukraine Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute (NTUU KPI, Ukraine)
• Chernihiv National University of Technology (CNUT, Ukraine)
• Higher education institution “Academician Yuriy Bugay International Scientific and Technical University” (ISTU, Ukraine)
• Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University (NLU, Ukraine)
• Charitable Organization Charitable Fund CANactions (CANactions, Ukraine)
• All-Ukrainian Association of Local Government Authorities Association of Ukrainian Cities
• Public union «Association of the engineers of stable energy technologies of Ukraine» (AESETU, Ukraine)
• Ukrainian Research Hydrometeorological Institute of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine and the National Academy of Science of Ukraine (UHMI, Ukraine)

Project goals and objectives:

The UniCities project is designed to unlock the transformative potential of Ukrainian universities as catalysts and accelerators of systemic change in cities towards sustainability, resilience and climate neutrality.

The project is built upon experiences of the impactful multi-stakeholder initiatives Viable Cities (KTH, Sweden) and citiES2030 (UPM, Spain) and expertise of a quadruple-helix partnership in Ukraine consisting of four Ukrainian universities covering complementary areas of education and research, NTUU KPI, CNUT, ISTU and NLUU, as well as societal partners including Association of Ukrainian Cities, CANaction NGO, AESETU – Association of the energy professionals representing major energy companies, and the academic research institute UHMI with focus on climate and environment.

The UniCities project delivers along three pillars of transformation:

• education innovation, where new interdisciplinary and challenge-driven learning activities will foster a culture of collaborative work across disciplines at partner universities;
• structural innovation, where university-city collaboration centeкs will be established at four Ukrainian universities as innovative intermediaries for multi-stakeholder ecosystems that would reinforce systemic innovation, distributed learning and leadership;
• collaborative portfolio by multi-stakeholder partnerships between Ukrainian universities and societal partners of the project to generate impact towards climate mitigation and adaptation.

In long-run, the project will provide a point of reference, inspire new university-city collaborations in Ukraine and Europe, and inform discussions across the global higher education sector on the transformative role of universities in transition to climate-neutral and sustainable cities.

 In general, the UNICITIES project aims to implement 6 main work packages:

• Project management and quality assurance,
• Capacity building,
• Design and launch of university-city collaboration centres,
• Piloting university-city collaboration,
• Challenge-driven education and student engagement,
• Dissemination and communication

On July, 21, 2023 a registration card of the project No. 5237 was signed in the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.

From this date, the project is considered registered as international technical assistance in Ukraine and the activities carried out within the framework of the project in Ukraine fall under the legislation on international technical assistance and the project is recognized by the state.