CIVITAS CATALIST - Sustainable Transport
Overview
Background & policy context:
CIVITAS CATALIST responded to Call FP6-2005-TREN-4 of the 6th Framework Programme, which called for a CIVITAS Dissemination and Best Practice Transfer Action. CIVITAS CATALIST was a newcomer in the CIVITAS family, with the aim of validating, exploiting and disseminating the results of the CIVITAS Initiative and, more importantly, of stimulating new cities in the adoption of sustainable, clean and energy efficient urban transport.
The project, which ran between 2007 and 2011, intended to accelerate and facilitate the CIVITAS multiplier effect, a key factor if we are to ensure that the effects of the CIVITAS Initiative are sizeable and durable at the local, national and European level.
Objectives:
The objective of CIVITAS CATALIST is to ensure that the experiences of the CIVITAS Initiative are exploited maximally. In concrete terms, this means deploying actions aiming at reaching manifold objectives, a synthesis of which can be presented as follows:
- consolidate, validate and deepen the knowledge of the wider impacts of CIVITAS through an integrated assessment of the CIVITAS measures;
- promote the results of CIVITAS through a continuing knowledge transfer process;
- increase the visibility of the CIVITAS policies to the external world of target groups, primarily citizens, institutions, scientists and industry, using innovative means for dissemination and easy to grasp language;
- maintain and expand the networks for information exchange, extensively resorting to the vast net of alliances available to the project, facilitating and building new alliances, with the ambition to extend the possibility of concrete policy uptake.
Ultimately, it was the intention of CIVITAS CATALIST to accelerate and facilitate the CIVITAS multiplier effect, which is the key factor to ensure that the effects of the CIVITAS initiative are sizeable and durable, at local, national and EU level.
The project endeavoured to meet these objectives with a wide ranging mix of studies and actions. Just to name a few, CIVITAS CATALIST prepared publications such as best practice manuals, topic-based guides and scientific articles, established and facilitated interactive partnerships between cities, organised study tours and staff exchanges, organised thematic workshops and conferences, conducted international, national and local networking, performeed impact studies, and built a recognisable image for CIVITAS-like policies.
Methodology:
The project offered an umbrella for a number of activities, which were mobilised according to the following straightforward work plan:
- WP1 - Project Management;
- WP2 - Interactive Partnerships;
- WP3 - Networking and Exploitation;
- WP4 - Communication and Dissemination;
- WP5 - CIVITAS Impact Assessment;
- WP6 - Policy Dimension.
In imagining and detailing the actions contained in this project, the partners recognised that an initiative of this nature required a considerable degree of flexibility, which was driven by the opportunities arising during the course of the project lifetime and by the inputs resulting from the continuous interactions with the new cities (and their local actors). The latter are considered by CIVITAS CATALIST as the prime reference point and the ultimate source for appraising the success rate of the project.
Share this page