Among the panels organized during the Research and Innovation Days 2025, “Cities of Tomorrow” stood out for its practicality and local approach. The event organized by the European Commission had an ambitious agenda covering key topics such as the increase in R&D budget, green and digital transitions, Al, dual-use technologies, health and life sciences, innovation ecosystems and startups, European collaboration and global competitiveness, and gender equality in STEM. However, many panels ended up being superficial, abstract, and too brief to provide concrete solutions. Broad commitments to harmonize, deregulate, and attract private investments were presented, but the almost complete absence of Member States and local administrators, crucial to funding and implementing R&l projects, made promises practically empty.

“Cities of Tomorrow”, conversely, brought a refreshing shift to the abstract and performative rhetoric of the event by emphasizing real-world applications. It brought to the table three local politicians, namely Tomas Häyry (Mayor of the City of Vaasa), Thomas Van Oppens (Deputy Mayor of City of Leuven), and Adelina Pinto (Deputy Mayor of Municipality of Guimarães), and the Rector of University of Vaasa Minna Martikainen.

Deputy Van Oppens elaborated how the Material Bank in his city came to life through integrated thinking. The city’s plan to bring scope 1 and 2 emissions to zero through building modernization would have indeed driven up demand for raw materials, solving one problem while creating another. To address this, an Urban Resource Center was established to promote recycling and limit the environmental impact of renovations. Interestingly, the deputy stressed the importance of the Leuven Climate City Contract, signed by all key local actors, to improve coordination and maximize efficiency and effectiveness of climate projects. His speech was inspiring, as it demonstrated how prioritizing goals rather than political rhetoric can bring people together while guaranteeing good results.

Mayor Häyry stressed the importance of energy systems and collaboration between universities and businesses, highlighting the need to opt for holistic and integrated approaches when it comes to energy, within the same city and beyond. After touching on how Vaasa uses methane coming from biowaste in local public transportation, he urged the EU to act swiftly in keeping its competitiveness and to focus on “how the ETS (Emission Trading Systems) can be taken into a broader use in the cities”.

Deputy mayor Adelina Pinto contended that green policies rarely translate into votes, as their results are not in the short-term. She stressed that “you can’t do a green transition only at the political level” and that “the big problem is convincing our citizens to act differently […] [and changing] the way [people] look at the world”.

For this reason, in Guimarães, the 2026 European green capital, educational programs play a central role in providing legitimacy to the green policies implemented by the municipality. Moreover, local universities provide both technical skills and an understanding of the sociology of the community, ensuring effective information campaigns tailored to the needs of the local population. At ECEPAA, we fully share this view with her and thus coordinate programs that put education and youths at the centers. An example of this is IMPACT, a project aimed, among the other goals, to provide a toolkit for teachers and educators to effectively teach the effects of climate change on migration.

Rector Minna Martikainen of University of Vaasa highlighted that “collaboration […] and co-creation is what companies and stakeholders need” and she illustrated this through the Co-Doc program wherein PhD students receive training in close partnership with companies, demonstrating how her vision is put into practice. She was very pragmatic, as she stressed that change cannot happen overnight. There is the need for long-term, integrated, and coherent policies to ensure real policy effectiveness.

In her powerful opening, the moderator of this panel, Pirita Lindholm, Director of ERRIN (European Regions Research and Innovation Network) remarked, “Cities are at the frontline of Europe’s green and digital transformation […], and yet we see that cities and regions are not represented in Brussels’ discussions […] [despite] their representation [being] absolutely essential”. This must change. The Research and Innovation Days 2025 remain a missed opportunity on the matter: only 30 minutes allocated to local administrators with no interaction between them and EU Commission’ representatives reveal its shortcomings.
Using Adelina Pinto’s words “the EU has to believe that the green transition has to begin locally, and believe more in the power in the cities”, which means giving cities stronger funding tools and a seat at the table in shaping the Union’s sustainability and circular economy agenda.