From 17 to 21 June, UIC Barcelona hosted the working sessions and meetings of the first phase of the Erasmus+ POLIS project “New paradigms of sustainability for inclusive and intelligent Latin American cities”. The sessions were coordinated by lecturers Eduardo Natividade, from the Polytechnic University of Coimbra; Stella Schroeder, from the University of Piura, and Dr Carmen Mendoza as principal researcher of the project at UIC Barcelona. The programme was born from the need to train specialists in urban and territorial planning in Latin American cities in order to address the main environmental and social challenges they are facing.

The main result of the POLIS project will be the design and implementation of a specialised course in Urban and Territorial Planning in six universities in Peru, Chile and Ecuador. This interdisciplinary postgraduate programme will focus on the skills and knowledge required for participatory urban planning, oriented toward sustainable development and with a strong component of contextualisation in the realities of Latin American regions.

POLIS will help increase the number of specialists in sustainable and inclusive planning in Latin America. These specialists will have the necessary transversal and specific skills, as well as direct connections with local communities to contribute to participatory design processes of tomorrow’s green and smart cities.

UIC Barcelona is participating in the project jointly with the University of Piura (Peru), the Jorge Basadre Grohmann National University (Peru), the Arturo Prat University (Chile), the University of La Serena (Chile), the Catholic University of Santiago de Guayaquil (Ecuador), the Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja (Ecuador) and the Polytechnic University of Coimbra (Portugal) and the INCOMA (International Consulting and Mobility Agency) based in Spain.