MedCities was represented in 3 of 9 Interreg MED Communities within the exhibition area: Urban Transports (GO SUMP Project), Biodiversity Protection (PANACeA Project) and Green Growth (MADRE Project) and contributed in the guidelines and stand on “Organising Sustainable Events”.

MedCities is part of MADRE project which aims at launching a transnational cluster dedicated to metropolitan agriculture and developing a proposal for eco-innovation and inclusive green growth. As part of this project, MedCities, with the support of the AMB, has created a working group on agriculture in Metropolitan Barcelona as well as participated in the transnational exchanges. 

Furthermore, MedCities participates as partner in the Urban Transports and Biodiversity Protection Communities, by coordinating activities within the Community Building chapter. The aim of Go-SUMP is to promote sustainable urban mobility, to facilitate the introduction of low-emission transport measures in Mediterranean countries and thus help to improve the corresponding public policies. PANACEA aims at protecting biodiversity and natural ecosystems by strengthening networking and management of protected areas.

The MADE in MED event, conceptualized as a “Fabrication Laboratory”, aimed at presenting the first results of the 90 on-going projects through a conference and an exhibition. It was an opportunity to convey the idea and values of the transnational thematic communities, knowledge sharing and promoting sustainable development all around the Mediterranean, while assessing the potential synergies among projects and partners by promoting crosscutting initiatives between the different thematic communities.

The conference was articulated around climate change, blue economy and inclusive growth, as transversal themes and was focused on three different levels: the technical, with presentation of results; the policy level, trying to scale up them into policies; and, the political, through a joint session of the funding EU Programmes targeting the Mediterranean region in order to debate towards the future of cooperation by reinforcing a common message at local and European policy level.

On the occasion of the MADE in MED event, MedCities developed a series of project activities and meetings among the following communities:

• Urban Transports: the second Community Building event was developed among the 7 modular projects, which are currently developing innovative measures and solutions by piloting urban mobility actions among the Mediterranean. It was organized as a series of tailored workshops to deep on projects’ contents. Also, GO SUMP Project had the opportunity to conduct a project steering committee meeting. Next GO SUMP International Event will be hosted by AMB in Barcelona next November 2018.
• Biodiversity protection: A Steering Committee meeting of the partnership was organised as well as separate one to one meetings were conducted with different projects of the community in order to prepare the upcoming event in Montenegro on 16-18th May.

For a storyline of the event, visit the twitter hashtag #MADEinMed