After two years of individual work in pandemic conditions, members of the euPolis project consortium met for the first time face-to-face on September 29th and 30th in the Zornić House ethnic complex on the outskirts of Belgrade and also used this occasion to visit two Belgrade demo-locations.

The conference was dedicated to showcasing the beyond-the-state-of-the-art innovations achieved by our partners until the halfway project course.

Realizing the downside of working both from a distance due to covid restrictions, but also keeping the very hermetic approach through work package structure, the euPOLIS partners presented their works about all tasks in the project description, but also their relation to the real-life circumstances and usefulness.

Synergizing all so far particular work, the euPOLIS consortia plan to leave a legacy for all future development and implementations in the field of nature-based solutions. Having gathered and connected all achievements, we will use this newly established knowledge base to create a comprehensive but simple guide. It will parallelly address empowered citizens to demand change, inspired professionals to reach further for innovative approaches, and finally, farsighted decision-makers to help them overcome all hurdles we encountered, and achieve the next level of NBS.

The event also incorporated a panel discussion “The happiest nation in the world”, tackling the very source of citizens’ happiness and well-being, with prof. Čedo Maksimović ICL, EU representative Nicola Bertolini, Stanislava Bošković ICL, and Predrag Voštinić, social activist, and Maja Lalić Mikser as the moderator of the conversation.

On the second day of the meeting, the euPOLIS partners visited the pocket-park demo location on Zemun quay and had an overview of how the pocket park is connected to the linear park across the Sava and Danube rivers, but also their connection to one of the HEART project demo-sites.