Apply by: 19 October 2026
How can cities become more inclusive, sustainable, and responsive to the needs of their communities? Join us for an insightful lecture exploring how intentionally designed, highly standardised languages break down linguistic barriers in high-stakes environments.
Bringing together perspectives from urban research, administrative law, and smart city development, this session examines how co-creation, innovative legal frameworks, and digital solutions can help address complex urban challenges. Discover how knowledge, people, and technology can work together to transform cities while considering issues of inclusion, responsibility, trust, and social and environmental value.
Key Takeaway: Attendees will gain insight into how collaborative approaches, supportive legal frameworks, and smart city solutions can contribute to more sustainable, inclusive, and liveable urban environments.
Date: Tuesday, 20 October 2026
Time: 11:00 – 12:30 CEST
Format: Online Lecture + Live Q&A
Audience: Free and open to everyone (students, researchers, professionals, and general public)
Register here
Register by 19 October!
Please keep in mind that the link to the Zoom platform, you’ll receive one day before the online lecture.
Editha Marquardt is a senior researcher at the Institute of Geography at Heidelberg University. Her research interests focus on current urban developments in the knowledge society, the sustainable transformation of urban spaces, and real-world laboratory research. In her new project “Higher Education Research for the City: Pilot Projects for Effective Knowledge Transfer and Collaboration between Universities and City Administrations” (funded by the German BMFTR), she works to strengthen local and regional knowledge exchange by developing more effective transfer structures and skills development.
The dr. Editha Marquardt during the online lecture will give a speech on Shaping the City Together: Universities and Cities Co-Creating the Urban Future.
What will the cities of tomorrow look like? To answer this question, universities and cities increasingly work together to transform our cities into sustainable, inclusive, and liveable spaces. Through collaborative approaches such as urban living labs (real-world labs) and integrated campus development, knowledge institutions and local communities can turn research into real-world solutions and develop new spaces for experimentation and exchange. Drawing on experiences from Heidelberg, the talk explores how universities and cities can co-create urban transformation, bringing together knowledge, people, and places to address shared challenges and unlock new opportunities.
Sara Valaguzza is Professor of Administrative Law at the University of Milan and scientific coordinator of its Construction Law Lab. Her research focuses on public procurement, construction law and public-private partnerships, with particular attention to collaborative agreements and sustainable urban development. She examines how legal frameworks can coordinate public and private actors and help complex projects create measurable social and environmental value.
The Prof. Sara Valaguzza during the online lecture will give a speech on From Rivalry to Collaborative Dialogue: Legal Research for Urban Transformation.
Urban transformation changes how people access housing, services and economic opportunity. It can connect communities, but it can also deepen social and spatial divisions. This talk asks how legal research can help institutions, universities, businesses and residents shape urban change around shared public goals. Drawing on research at the University of Milan and its Construction Law Lab, it approaches the city as a common good and examines the limits of bilateral contracts in complex projects. Collaborative procurement offers a framework for coordinating participants, defining related social and environmental objectives, and measuring results while preserving each party’s responsibilities. Italy’s collaboration agreement under Article 82-bis of the Public Contracts Code and the University of Milan’s MIND campus provide points of reference for considering how universities can put these ideas into practice.
Grzegorz Kula – lecturer and Erasmus coordinator at the Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw. Member of 4EU+ Flagship 1 program committee. Research interests focused on the consequences of aging, in particular on the local aspect on ageing.
The Dr. Grzegorz Kula during the online lecture will give a speech on The professor during the online lecture will give a speech on Costs and benefits of introducing smart city solutions.
Due to the collection of Big Data, the development of Artificial Intelligence algorithms, 5G broadband data transmission technology, the Internet of Things, and mutual communication between machines, cities are becoming more and more intelligent. The use of technology allows for the improved connectivity of rapidly increasing urban populations, promotes the creation of smarter and safer modes of transportation, and promises better traffic, congestion, energy and water management. An important barrier to the development of this type of technology is that of the still high costs and lack of regulation. Low deployment costs (also in the environmental-impact sense) are a key factor for the sustainability of smart city solutions. Such solutions also need to be safe, reliable, scalable, inclusive, and transparent to citizens. The smart city may therefore offer a number of benefits in the management and optimization of traditional public services.
This event is organised as part of the 1CORE project (Work Package 7) and co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.