
January 2025
What is behind the DUT Roadmap Update?
February will bring key opportunities to engage with the DUT Roadmap. What is the Roadmap about, what will happen at the upcoming events and who should join them? A conversation with Orsolya Küttel, CEO at DUT.
The coming weeks will bring exciting and valuable discussions for the Driving Urban Transitions Partnership. At their heart lies the so-called DUT Roadmap: “The DUT Roadmap is the long-term vision and guidance on how we want to achieve our mission within the Driving Urban Transitions Partnership. It is a strategic document which defines the whole setting in which we work. The Roadmap helps us reflect on the whole ecosystem around us and how our programme fits into it,” explains Küttel.
As we look ahead, the Roadmap update comes at a crucial moment. “With the European research and innovation landscape set to undergo significant changes – including the Von der Leyen Commission 2024-2029 and the upcoming development of FP10 – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation – we need to ensure DUT and its partners are well-prepared for what lies ahead,” Küttel notes. “This update is not just an internal exercise but a co-creative process with our national partners. It allows us to take stock of our progress so far and align our future priorities with both national and European developments.”
Since its publication in 2022, the DUT Roadmap has provided a strategic framework for guiding the Partnership’s work. During the Roadmap Update we discuss how we potentially need to adapt our vision to ensure the DUT community’s perspectives shape our next steps but also look back at our internal achievements. We can see this as a mid-term stocktaking and planning for the future.”
Gathering input
As part of the Roadmap Update, DUT now invites a broad range of stakeholders to provide their input, which includes two key events coming up in February.
On 12 February 13:00-16:00 Central European Time (online) DUT invites participants from diverse disciplines and backgrounds to an AGORA: Strategic Dialogue around “Thriving Urban Areas in 2040: Navigating Crises and Uncertainty.” The event will identify action areas for the urban future in the face of climate change and biodiversity loss and contribute insights into the Roadmap Update. Küttel emphasizes: “During the AGORA, we invite people to think outside of the box and in the shoes of someone else. We try to create a space for imagination and being visionary.”
Two weeks later, on 26 February 14:00-17:30 Central European Time (on-site in Rome) the DUT Scientific Consultation Workshop will take place with the topic of: Refining the Roadmap Towards Innovative Climate-Neutral Cities. The workshop is part of a three-day conference on Research Alliances for Climate-Neutral, Sustainable, and Equitable Urban Communities. The event will have a similar set-up to the AGORA with the difference of being on-site and geared towards a smaller audience as Küttel outlines: “This event is really targeting our researcher basis and those who have been or plan to engage in DUT projects. We want to understand what their views are and how these fit into, for example DUT’s multi-annual call agendas.”
She adds: “We also want to learn what novelties researchers have been working on outside of DUT that we may not be aware of. It is a key opportunity for scientists to engage with and help shape the upcoming thematic priorities.”