InterRevita

During the pandemic small and mid-sized cities offered a variety of benefits to their residents that are not available in big cities, such as lower cost housing, greater outdoor spaces or better sense of community. At the same time, they fail to provide attractive business opportunities and they face many challenges brought by unemployment, young people outflow, aging population, but also to the climate change crisis and degrared areas, just to name a few. This calls for a place-based approach that target the specific circumstances in an integrated way adapted to regional needs and context.

The InterRevita project is willing to offer a broad view on sustainable integrated urban development in small and medium sized cities, as well as strengthening the linkages with their hinterland, by highlighting the role of revitalisation and regeneration for improving the quality of life. The project will benefit from the inclusion of regions and cities from EU-wide territories that can exchange experiences and learn from each other (Belgium, Italy, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Spain).

We understand revitalisation as a broad term for integrating interventions at the regional and local level for improving the liveability and quality of life based on 3 pillars: social, economic and environmental. These integrated revitalisation strategies (integrating different perspectives from the point of view of general development issues, regeneration, climate change or entrepreneurship) are key for the implementation of the New European Bauhaus, the EU initiative that connects the European Green Deal to our living spaces and experiences.

In total 6 policy instruments (2 regional policy instruments, 2 cities policy documents and 2 municipal strategies) will be improved through interregional learning process. The InterRevita project intends to provide a valuable input to all EU stakeholders with special focus on integrated development of small and mid-sized cities for the 2021-2027 period.