Europe’s cultural heritage is a vast, multifaceted mosaic showing who we were, who we are and who we aspire to be. We are all responsible for this huge, precious and fragile legacy. The coronavirus pandemic revealed that unexpected events can suddenly change our way of life. In the future, other threats could well pose further challenges to our safety, health and environment as well as our so…
Europe faces a historic opportunity. We need to reimagine European unity as a collective endeavour, as the only way in which we can turn threats to our way of life into the possibility to create a better life for all. This report focuses on three core areas where EU-wide political ambition and investment are truly necessary: Rapid technological change amid increasing global competition, with di…
By the end of this century, 9 out of 10 Europeans will live in an urban area. But what kind of city will they call home? You'll find all the answers in CITY, TRANSFORMED, the new essay series from the European Investment Bank. This panoramic first essay in the series lays out a great sweeping history of European cities over the last fifty years—and showcases new directions being taken by some…
Once upon a time there was a city in a cold place a long way to the north. One day the city started to tell a story about itself. As the chapters unfolded, life in the city changed, and soon it didn’t even seem so cold or far away any more. People listened to the story and realised that the city wasn’t quite what they expected. They started to tell the story to each other about how the city…
Europe’s COVID-19 recovery strategy calls for large-scale public investment to “building back better.” Municipalities account for 45% of all public investment – which makes them a key partner in recovery efforts. As poles of social and economic activities, municipalities will also be critical to addressing climate change and to improving digitalisation. Our municipality report analysis …
A green digital economy could change the future of the Old Continent. The new Smart Europe will be based on three elements: new communication technologies, new sources of energy and new modes of mobility. But the transition will require a transformation of the continental infrastructure. Digitalisation, the Internet and renewables will play a major role in the so-called Third and Fourth Industr…
Africa’s digital transformation is generating big changes and benefits for many parts of the economy and society. But hundreds of millions of people still have no internet connections. For those who have internet access, prices can be high and bandwidth is often severely limited. Many African countries lack the technical capabilities and financing to plan big telecom projects that can fill th…
Located between three European capital cities, Győr has to work hard to attract investment and jobs. The Hungarian city has set itself up to attract innovative companies, creating new urban values such as education-based innovation, a high-quality urban environment and a lively cultural sphere. Here's how a “secondary city” builds on its industrial past even as it breaks away from its depe…
Despite decades of effort and billions of dollars spent, two thirds of people in sub-Saharan Africa still lack access to electricity, a vital pre-cursor to economic development and poverty reduction. Ambitious international policy commitments seek to address this, but scholarship has failed to keep pace with policy ambitions, lacking both the empirical basis and the theoretical perspective to i…
Effective Research Data Management (RDM) is a key component of research integrity and reproducible research, and its importance is increasingly emphasised by funding bodies, governments, and research institutions around the world. However, many researchers are unfamiliar with RDM best practices, and research support staff are faced with the difficult task of delivering support to researchers ac…