5 June 2025: VARCITIES Final Event – Shaping Greener, Healthier Cities
Join us as we wrap up VARCITIES and look ahead to the future of sustainable urban living. We bring together policymakers, researchers, city leaders, and innovators to explore how nature-based and digital solutions can transform cities into healthier, more livable places!
🗓️ 5 June 2025 13.45 to 18.00
📍 Location: CIVA Rue de l’Ermitage 55, 1050 Ixelles, Belgium
Discover our programme
Our project coordinator, Professor Dionysia Kolokotsa (Technical University of Crete) will open our final event. A leading expert in energy efficiency, smart buildings, and urban sustainability, Denia will present the general framework of VARCITIES, for the initial vision we had to the actual five-year implementation!
Session 1 – Results in seven pilots to help shape a greener, healthier City
Discover our portfolio of almost 30 different social, digital & nature-based Visionary Solutions, implemented across 7 Pilot sites to help redefine public spaces are as people-centered areas that support creativity, inclusivity, health, and happiness for the citizens. We will also present two key IT products to support awaress: our Health & Well-Being Platform and the GoNature Game!
Our Pilot representatives from Castelfranco Veneto (Italy), Chania (Greece), Dundalk (Ireland), Gżira (Malta), Leuven (Belgium), Novo mesto (Slovenia) and Skellefteå (Sweden), will share insights and learning from the co-creation process on the ground and how VARCITIES is a stepping stone towards greener, healthier and more inclusive future cities!
Our Keynote speaker, Dr. Barbara Widera will broaden our horizon with an inspiring talk on future cities that are greener and healhier, looking at visionary examples from and beyond Europe! Barbara is an architect and Associate Professor at Wrocław University of Science and Technology, and a member of the EU Mission Board on Climate Adaptation and Lead Expert for the New European Bauhaus.
Session 2 – VARCITIES’ learnings and recommendations for Greener, Healthier Cities
Hear from our research team on specific innovative aspects of VARCITIES: what can we learn from the Visionary Solutions’ implementation process? How to further support stakeholder participation through co-creation? How to promote the integration of health and well-being in city development? What standards are needed to move forward towards greener and healthier cites?
Representatives of the European Commission will present the future research agenda for nature-based solutions and cities and our team, together with the audience, will be able to engage in a discussion moderated by Barbara on key actions to foster greener and healthier cities, through nature-based solutions, increased building resilience and other maybe underexplored topics!
Come and test our ICT tools!
Test VARCITIES Health and Well-being (H&WB) Platform, a dynamic bridge connecting the tangible reality of our seven pilot sites with their digital twins: it integrates data from of each pilot site and relays time-series environmental data and user feedback through interactive dashboards and 3D renders.
Test VARCITIES GoNature Game, a citizen engagement tool developed as to foster environmental awareness and promoting active participation in our Pilot sites through augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR)!
In the evening: join our side event in Leuven!
*Upon registration to the Final Event you will receive a pre-registration link for the side event Leuven
