Project goals and objectives:
₋ Develop and facilitate a framework for systematic coordination, management and continuous
improvement of university-city collaboration at four Ukrainian Universities;
₋ Establish university-city collaboration centers at four Ukrainian universities;
₋ Identify and plan for a transformative portfolio of research, innovation and education activities
aimed at climate and sustainability transition in cities in collaboration between faculty, students
and professionals;
₋ Provide insights and support shared learning from success, failures and obstacles of university-city
collaborations in Ukraine, Spain and Sweden;
₋ Improve capacity of UniCities partners in systems innovation;
₋ Initiate and promote an inclusive co-creation process among faculty, students and urban
stakeholders to design and nourish university-city collaboration centers at four Ukrainian
universities;
₋ Establish university-city collaboration centers at four Ukrainian universities
₋ Initiate and promote an inclusive co-creation process among faculty, students and urban
stakeholders to design and nourish university-city collaboration centers at four Ukrainian
universities;
₋ Identify and plan for a transformative portfolio of research, innovation and education activities
aimed at climate and sustainability transition in cities in collaboration between faculty, students
and professionals;
₋ Create a point of reference, inspire new university-city collaborations, and inform discussions across the global higher education sector on the transformative role of universities in transition to climate neutral and sustainable cities;
₋ Create momentum for student engagement through interdisciplinary, multi-stakeholder and
challenge-driven summer schools that link architecture, urbanism, sociology, history and policy-making to elaborate strategies for global challenges in different local contexts in the cities of Eastern
and Western Europe;
₋ To equip students from different MSc programs with the key concepts, theories and methods within the areas of ‘smart and sustainable cities’ and ‘climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies’ ;
₋ Provide students with hands-on experience in working on real-life challenges in multi-stakeholder
settings through challenge-driven project- and MSc thesis work;
₋ Establish university-city collaboration centers at four Ukrainian universities;
₋ Create a point of reference, inspire new university-city collaborations, and inform discussions across the global higher education sector on the transformative role of universities in transition to climate neutral and sustainable cities;

Activities:
− Analysis of success, failures and obstacles in current collaboration landscape;
− Study visit to Viable Cities at KTH;
− Study visit to itd UPM;
− Online training session on systems innovation;
− Sense-making workshop;
− University-city collaboration centers design, launch event;
− Sustainability planning for university- city collaboration centers;
− Establishing open inter-institutional collaboration to boost replication and scale-up;
− Prototyping and testing two interdisciplinary, challenge-driven summer schools “Shaping urban
environments for tomorrow”;
− Developing and piloting an interdisciplinary, project-based MSc level course (7,5 ECTS) “Smart Cities and climate adaptation and mitigation strategies”;
− Designing and implementing challenge-driven project work and Master thesis;
− Development of Dissemination plan for the project and for each institution ;
− Establishing visual identity, web and social media presence;
− Awareness campaigns for urban stakeholders;
− Content production and media relations;
− Final project conference.

Expected results:
In the short-term
1. Number of retrained staff in system innovation, models of university-partners collaboration and
interdisciplinary, challenge-driven learning through study visits to UPC and KTH, and an online
training session: faculty staff – 36, societal partners – 16;
2. Number of retrained staff at the training session and a sense-making workshop on university-city
cooperation: university staff – 28, societal partners – 8 ;
3. Number of co-creation sessions for network building and setting up strategies and development of
joint portfolios/ at least 6 per year/university;
4. Number of established Centers or administrative units for university-city collaboration: at Ukrainian universities: 3 new centers and 1 new unit within newly created center;
5. Number of universities adopted sustainability plans for university-city collaboration centers,
including initial portfolio of joint efforts, financing plan, and approaches to cultivate trust capital
and foster value creation: 4 universities adopted sustainability plans that were developed in
collaboration between more than 25 members of faculty, students and practitioners per university;
6. Number of downloads of the whitepaper on the transformative role of universities: 100 downloads;
7. Number of organisations signatories of the network agreement to use synergies and create
multistakeholder consortia for application for funding and etc:10 organisations;
8. Number of students, faculty and urban stakeholders participating in two summer schools: 40
students, 8 teachers, 10 stakeholders ;
9. Number of MSc programs at four Universities that will be upgraded with a new course “Smart Cities and climate adaptation and mitigation strategies” (7,5 ECTS): MSc programs ;
10. Number of students enrolled in the piloting of the MSc course “Smart Cities and climate adaptation and mitigation strategies”: 160 students;
11. Number of students presented a challenge-driven MSc thesis or project work: 15 students.

In the medium-term
1. The growing number of students attending the interdisciplinary and challenge driven courses
developed within the project;
2. The growing number of students doing their Master thesis and project work based on real-life
challenges of climate mitigation and adaptation;
3. The transversal skills and contacts acquired during the challenge-driven and collaborative learning activities introduced during the project improve employability of the students;
4. Acquired skills in systems innovation and challenge-driven interdisciplinary education and the
contact network with societal partners increase external funding for research and education
5. The challenge-driven learning activities based on real-life cases improves balance between time
allocated to research and education;
6. Motivating environment and external funding makes universities more attractive to talents;
7. Growing portfolio of joint research and innovation projects involving universities and urban
stakeholders funded by national and international research and innovation programs (Horizon
Europe, Ukrainian National Climate R&I Programme, Climate Smart City Challenge, etc);
8. Creative and trustful physical and virtual spaces for idea generation, co-creation and networking
open for academic and non-academic actors at four created university-city centres ;
9. Created university-city collaboration centers provide a common identity to the partners and enable more effective visibility campaigns for the collaborative education and research, which would
attract new partner organisations, faculty and studentsSocietal stakeholders;
10. Acquired knowledge and skills in systems innovation and the network with researchers would
enhance carrier opportunities for professionals and increase efficiency of their delivery towards
climate neutrality and sustainability.

In the long-term
1. New university-city collaboration platforms will be established outside of the project consortium;
2. Growing community of practice for university-society collaboration;
3. New interdisciplinary and challenge-driven programs, courses and other learning activities provide transversal skills of sustainability change agents and improve employability;
4. Transformative portfolio of joint research and innovation projects with sufficient funding;
5. Policy advice, innovative products, services, business models, and etc as results of the project
portfolio at the university-city collaboration centres.