STUD.IO: Sociability Through Urban Design Innovation Erasmus Project

Project Title

STUD.IO: Sociability Through Urban Design Innovation

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Research and innovation; Reaching the policy level/dialogue with decision makers; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

The STUD.IO project is a Strategic Partnership in the field of Higher Education realized in collaboration between 6 organizations, from Italy, Slovakia, Spain and Romania and Spain; specifically, the project includes 4 Universities and 3 private organizations (profit and non-profit) actively involved in the improvement of social welfare and the development of innovative social policies. The project stems from the need detected during studies carried out in the field by the leading organization, in collaboration with the partner universities, about the needs that today’s city-centres, whether they be small-medium-large, have in relation to new social challenges related to them. We need to consider that more than 70% of the population currently lives in European cities (Eurostat 2019), a share projected to grow to 80% by 2050; the city in fact concentrates the greatest opportunities for growth and employment, including more than 75% of jobs at EU level. On the other hand, at the same time, it is always in cities that the most serious social problems occur, such as difficulty in accessing services, housing problems, physical degradation and social and environmental disintegration: in this regard, recent reports and surveys conducted in Europe on happiness in European city life (Eurostat 2018 and Eurobarometer 419, 2016) show that in Italy, Romania and Slovakia (on a par), there is an “unhappy” propensity compared to the European average, with differences at a regional and local level depending on the size of population centres. The most vulnerable groups, such as children and the elderly, are necessarily more affected at the social level, and in modern societies, they are beginning to lose key relational references, which are the basis of what we indicate as happiness. One of the elements that affect the city life of the individual and his sociability is necessarily the urban organization and social policies related to it; for this motivation, knowing how to fully understand the needs, social needs, the main problems and strengths of the city context, as well as knowing how to plan and design appropriate interventions must be knowledge and skills of those who work in urban and territorial planning, taking into account the sociological and psychological aspects absolutely relevant.
The STUD.IO project, therefore, taking into account the need found both at local level and in university training courses, aims to relate complementary sciences of psychology, sociology and urban planning in order to create a specialized university path accompanied by innovative tools and methodologies, especially using cutting-edge technologies, to improve and perfect the career of university students and non-university students working and studying in the field of urban development and society. The main objective of the project is to provide universities with study pathways, divided into specific modules covering different thematic areas (urban, social, anthropological, environmental, political) to meet the needs of urban development to meet the psychological, relational, sociological and physiological needs of individuals living in cities. To achieve this objective, the implementation of 4 Intellectual Outputs is foreseen:
– A Literature Review on the main models and research currently available in the field of integration between Sociology, Psychology and Urbanism, in order to understand currents of academic thought and specific learning needs of students, which will be enriched by experiments and focus groups;
– The creation of the STUD.IO Platform, an OnLine platform to support the project, an interactive tool composed of several training sections and spaces for collaboration between teachers and students from different faculties, institutes and countries, in order to achieve a wider exchange of knowledge, skills and methodological approaches on the topic;
– The creation of the Joint Curriculum for the training of an expert in Consultancy, Planning and Management of available territorial resources, addressed in a pilot phase to 30 students who will take part in an Intensive Study Programme lasting 15 days.
– A field trial and the publication of guidelines for students and experts in the field to give students the opportunity to put into practice and directly experience the knowledge they have learned in order to implement the STUD.IO model in specific contexts.

The project is addressed to a twofold target group: on the one hand students, graduates and public and private employees of the sector, engaged in specialization courses; on the other hand, directly to local administrations, sector operators and companies in general where the STUD.IO model experimentation will take place.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 370575 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIONE DEGLI ASSESSORATI ALLE POLITICHE SOCIO-SANITARIE, DELL ISTRUZIONE E DEL LAVORO & Country: IT

Project Partners

• SORANGELI TRANS SRL
• SLOVENSKA POLNOHOSPODARSKA UNIVERZITA V NITRE
• Asociácia agrárnych a environmentálnych právnikov
• UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI ENNA KORE
• UNIVERSITAT POLITECNICA DE CATALUNYA
• CONSORZIO TARTARUGA
• UNIVERSITATEA DIN BUCURESTI