This year's CIVITAS Summer Course will be hosted in Zagreb!

Join us in Zagreb (HR) on 2-5 September for the CIVITAS Summer Course 2024! The course offers a unique and inspiring experience for urban mobility professionals from across Europe. 

The objective of the 3.5-day event is to exchange on experience and insights linked to sustainable urban mobility planning, contribute to finding new solutions to local mobility challenges, enhance personal capacities, and develop individual knowledge and skills. A key point of focus and the overarching theme will be to develop and exchange experience regarding soft skills, namely effective communication and cooperation with stakeholders, and public participation and co-creation. The CIVITAS report on the EU Urban Mobility Labour Market highlighted that effective communication with stakeholders (stakeholder management) and public participation and co-creation were indicated as the two most sought after soft skills to acquire by surveyed European urban mobility professionals. This year's CIVITAS Summer Course responds to that need.

Participants will, furthermore, become acquainted with “action learning”, which includes a mix of expert lectures, interactive tasks and case study group work related to the identified local mobility challenge. Practical assignments will help participants to apply the lessons learnt and meet peers from all over Europe. The course also includes introductions from representatives of the City of Zagreb and CIVITAS, a city tour that passes several areas that are related to the mobility challenges faced by the city, presentations by mobility experts (e.g. from CIVINET Slovenia – Croatia – SEE, Mobiel 21, University North, University of Zagreb), group work to find solutions to identified mobility challenges, presentations of new solutions by participants, and social activities. Further details regarding the programme will be shared soon.

Among the main goals of this CIVITAS Summer Course is to support Zagreb in finding solutions to some of their mobility challenges by looking at them from different angles, e.g. regarding target groups, principles, locations, specific goals and challenges. The City of Zagreb presents three concrete mobility challenges, all of which are linked to the overarching theme of the course:

• Challenge #1 is related to residential parking: Due to the local circumstances, it would be necessary to reduce the parking places by 30% - 50%. The general public is in favour of such measures, but the residents tremendously resist. How can this much-needed mobility change be implemented successfully?
• Challenge #2 is linked to expanding the pedestrian zone in the city centre: While removing cars from the streets is seen favourably, how can the access of different stakeholders be regulated? Where should changes take place and how can it be presented to the public?
• Challenge #3 addresses school streets. The City of Zagreb would like to introduce progressive school streets in Zagreb in order to improve traffic safety, especially for children, but also to reduce pollution and noise. A concrete outcome of the CIVITAS Summer School could be one school street that is ready to be implemented, as well as a set of guidelines related to the reconstruction and traffic regulation of the schools in Zagreb.

At the end of the course, certificates will be awarded to all participants .

The CIVITAS Summer Course is a free event. To help cover travel and accommodation costs, a limited number of scholarships are available through CIVITAS MUSE, the Coordination and Support Action of the CIVITAS Initiative.

Who is invited to join?

The CIVITAS Summer Course is aimed at urban mobility professionals and at (a limited number of) students from European universities and universities of applied sciences or similar. Some examples of target audiences include, but are not limited to:
-    Public authorities (municipalities, regional or national authorities)
-    Non-governmental organisations (city networks, bicycle initiatives, environmental groups, etc.)
-    Public-private organisations (cycling embassies, etc.)
-    Knowledge and research institutes (universities, universities of applied sciences, research centres)
-    Private organisations (consultancies, engineering companies, service providers)

Particularly suitable participants include project officers and managers, policy advisers and officers, civil servants, consultants, experts, researchers, students (preferably Master and PhD), designers, engineers, and mobility team leads.

Register today!

Are you interested in this unique exchange and learning opportunity? Register here!
Registrations must be submitted by 31 May 2024.

Block the course dates in your calendar: Monday, 2 September 2024 (start: 8:30 CET) to Thursday, 5 September 2024 (end: 12:30 CET). We encourage applicants to reserve Sunday, 1 September 2024 for travel to Zagreb, since the CIVITAS Summer Course starts in the early morning on the following day.

See also the Event listing.

For more inspiration, check out previous CIVITAS course editions: CIVITAS Winter Course in Klaipėda (Lithuania) and CIVITAS Summer Course in Rethymno on Crete (Greece).

Additional background information on the current capacity building activities, including this CIVITAS Summer Course, could also be found in the CIVITAS Study Guide.

If you have questions or remarks, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at academy [at] dtv [dot] nl.

Stay tuned for more information!
 

Authors: Uli Lerche, Marjolein van de Nadort, DTV Consultants

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