In the context of the French Presidency of the Council of the EU, the French Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation (MESRI) is holding a High-level Conference on Civic Engagement in the EU Missions on 21 March 2022 at the Iena Palace in Paris and online.  This conference will be dedicated to the EU missions, a new element of the Horizon Europe research and innovation programme launched by the European Commission in September 2021. The five EU missions aim at providing concrete solutions to tackle some of the greatest challenges we are facing today: adapting to climate change, beating cancer, restoring oceans and waters, living in climate-neutral and smart cities, and ensuring soils’ health.

The event will be organised in two parts:

  • Conferences and round tables on civic participation and engagement in research in general and in the EU Missions in particular
  • A civil society and research forum in which projects and concrete solutions for the participation of citizens in the Missions will be presented.

NetZeroCities will participate in the civil society and research forum with a booth and a side-event. NetZeroCites side event will focus on presenting the EU’s Mission 100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities by 2030 and NZC’s role to support the Mission. The event will feature a round table on citizen engagement in urban transformation in which NZC’s systemic innovation, social innovation and governance approaches will be presented. The event will provide French cities and practitioners an overview of the work ahead to reach net-zero by 2030. Please see below the list of speakers:

  • Anthony Zacharzewski, President, Democratic Society
  • Erwan Dagorne, Director for Participative Projects, Missions Publiques
  • Anna Lisa Boni, Deputy-Mayor of Bologna, Member of the Mission Board
  • Barbara Trachte, Secretary of State of the Brussels-Capital Region in charge of Economic Transition and Scientific Research and Minister-President of the French Community Commission, in charge of Health Promotion, Family, Budget and Public Service
  • Matthew Baldwin, Manager of the EU Mission “Climate Neutral & Smart Cities”
  • Thanh-Tâm Lê, Director Impact and Performance, Climate KIC
  • Vincent Chauvet, CEO, LGI Sustainable Innovation

A detailed agenda of the conferences and roundtables is available here.

Registration information: https://registration-missions22.eu/

Digital platform of the event (www.missions22.eu).