New White Paper: Unlocking Transformative Urban R&I – What’s Holding Us Back?

This white paper is designed to help DUT partners and governance bodies understand how the Partnership and the broader urban R&I landscape can better deliver transformative change. Based on over ten years of experience with DUT and its predecessor, JPI Urban Europe, it highlights nine key barriers that hold urban R&I back and offers actionable recommendations to overcome them. These include:

• Risk aversion in funding discourages experimentation. The paper calls for embedding calculated risk-taking into funding portfolios to unlock transformative results.
• Inaccessibility for many urban actors, such as smaller cities, community organisations, or cultural practitioners. More inclusive eligibility rules are needed to reflect the complexity of urban transitions.
• Short-term, fragmented project cycles prevent long-term learning and follow-through. The paper recommends integrating projects into broader learning and implementation processes.

The recommendations outlined in this paper not only aim to unlock DUT’s transformative potential but also offer strategic guidance for shaping a more dynamic, inclusive, and competitive European Research Area in the lead-up to Europe’s next Framework Programme (FP10).

“DUT’s holistic, participatory, and impact-focused approach provides a timely and relevant blueprint. It demonstrates how research and innovation can be mobilised to deliver not just growth, but equitable and democratic urban transitions that reinforce Europe’s role as a global leader in sustainability and innovation.”

– Johannes Riegler