Event report: DUT at the Cities Mission Conference

From 27-29 May, the fifth edition of the Cities Mission Conference took place in Turin, Italy. DUT used the conference to connect with Mission Cities and partners at the DUT booth and in various events. Here is an event report on the DUT-led session: “From Campus to City Hall: Building Partnerships for Urban Transitions”.  

Up to 34 degrees in late May. Turin welcomed participants with unusually high temperatures - another tangible reminder that climate change is no longer a distant challenge, but something cities are already experiencing firsthand. Against this backdrop, cities from across Europe and beyond gathered at the Cities Mission Conference to exchange around best-practices and discuss how to move climate-neutral urban transformation from ambition to implementation with the conference theme of Delivering Europe’s Urban Climate Transition. 

The DUT-led session “From Campus to City Hall: Building Partnerships for Urban Transitions” argued that cities cannot achieve the massive transformation towards climate neutrality alone. As Laura Hetel from the European Commission put it: 

“We won’t succeed in this mission without city–university partnerships." - Laura Hetel, Policy Officer, European Commission

But how can cities and universities or knowledge institutions work together in the most impactful way?  

Key ingredients of collaboration  

Cities have problems, universities love problems. This natural match can become a real engine for change – if we move beyond one-off collaborations and build long-term partnerships.  To frame the discussion, Laura Hetel introduced the “Three B’s” of city-university collaboration: 

• Buildings: university campuses as “micro-cities” where urban systems can be tested in real-life conditions.
• Brains: students and researchers bringing fresh, sometimes uncompromising perspectives. As Hetel noted: “A student in front of you won’t take no for an answer.”
• Behaviours: shaping how people live, act and engage in the transition. 

But throughout the discussion, a fourth “B” emerged repeatedly: 

• Bonding: because the real challenge is often not a lack of knowledge, but fragmentation between actors, sectors and governance levels. 

Gudrun Handlmaier, AIT (CATALYSE project), working closely with cities such as Rotterdam, Leipzig, Manchester and Vienna, highlighted that urban transformation “comes in many different shapes and forms” and therefore requires the right mix of people, institutions and governance approaches. 

Laura Ribotta from the City of Turin working on a DUT project, GREEN-INC also stressed the importance of long-term collaboration between cities and research actors. Referring to research results, she described cities as “foster parents” that need to adopt and implement innovations in practice. 

A global perspective: aligning research and action 

Zooming out to the international level, Giorgia Rambelli Director of the Urban Transitions Mission highlighted another major challenge: aligning different timelines and expectations. 

Political cycles, the urgency for climate action and the slower pace of research often operate on very different timelines. 

“We need to synchronise timing and cycles,” she stressed. 

Her key message was clear: urban transformation requires better coordination, clearer priorities and stronger co-creation between cities and research communities. Initiatives such as the Global Research Action Agenda aim to support this alignment and strengthen collaboration internationally. 

So what makes partnerships work? 

Throughout the session, speakers repeatedly returned to the ingredients needed for successful collaboration. 

Laura Hetel emphasised the importance of formalised partnerships, often initiated at leadership level: “The most efficient form of collaboration is a formalised partnership… often starting with a mayor and a rector.” 

Giorgia Rambelli highlighted the need for dedicated spaces for collaboration and experimentation: 

“We need places where collaboration can actually happen and bring results.” - Giorgia Rambelli, Director, Urban Transitions Mission

Across perspectives, several common success factors emerged: 

• Long-term commitment rather than short-term project thinking
• Trust and mutual understanding
• Clear roles for cities and knowledge institutions
• Spaces to experiment, learn and co-create together 

Looking ahead 

One thing became apparent throughout the session: the ambition is there – from cities, universities and initiatives such as DUT, the Cities Mission and the Urban Transitions Mission. 

But making partnerships truly transformational requires more than good intentions. It requires rethinking how cities and research communities collaborate, share knowledge and jointly shape urban transitions for the long term. In this context, there is a growing recognition that future European research and innovation frameworks should further strengthen and structurally embed city–university collaboration as a core pillar of urban transformation. 

In this context, future European research and innovation frameworks, including FP10, will need to go beyond fragmented initiatives and explicitly embed city–university collaboration as a core delivery mechanism for Europe’s urban transition and mission-oriented policy objectives.