Third consortium meeting of the U_CAN project takes place in L'Aquila

From 6 to 8 July 2026, the U_CAN project consortium convened in L'Aquila, Italy, for its third offline consortium meeting, hosted by the University of L'Aquila (ULA) at the Luigi Zordan Congress Center in the historic Monastery of San Basilio. Representatives from all 21 project partners came together to review progress, share outcomes from Year 2 of the project, and align on plans for the year ahead.

L'Aquila provided a particularly resonant backdrop for the meeting. The city, which experienced a devastating earthquake in 2009, has been undergoing reconstruction for over fifteen years - a process that carries direct relevance to U_CAN's work on supporting Ukrainian cities in building resilient and climate-neutral urban futures.

The meeting opened with institutional greetings from Engineer Raffaello Fico, Commissioner of the Special Office for the reconstruction of the crater municipalities, followed by opening remarks from Prof. Bruno Rubino, Vice-Rector for international affairs at the University of L'Aquila, and Prof. Marcello Di Risio, Director of the Department of civil, construction-architectural and environmental engineering.

The three days combined plenary sessions, work package updates, and an intensive co-creation lab format that brought together pilot city representatives and consortium partners in direct dialogue. A highlight of the meeting was the participation of honorary guests, including the Vice-Mayor of U_CAN pilot city Khmelnytskyi and a representative of Lviv City Council, both of whom underlined the importance of the project and expressed openness to continued collaboration. The meeting was also attended by Gianluca Borghi, councillor for environmental sustainability, energy, agriculture and mobility of the municipality of Parma and representative of the Italian Mission Cities, and Lorenzo Infante, representative of the City of Pescara and NetZeroCities. The programme also featured video messages from the Mission City of Dresden and from SUN4Ukraine (U_CAN's sister project) reinforcing the strong network of solidarity and shared purpose surrounding the project.

The L'Aquila meeting marked an important milestone at the halfway point of the four-year project, consolidating the achievements of Year 2 and setting a clear direction for Year 3. In the coming months, the progress made by U_CAN's pilot cities during the second year of the project will be presented in video format, featuring commentary from consortium partners across the network.