On 22-23 of June 2022, the project partners were welcomed by CUAS in their beautiful Austrian town Villach.

The various program of our Austrian team started off by the training in the frame of “Creativity & Urban Governance” for the project partners and several stakeholders, focusing on regeneration of public spaces, industrial vacancies and sustainable use of existing infrastructure.

With support of our colleague, Mag. Dr. Thomas Zametter, senior researcher in urban and regional development. The main topic regarded the positive effects of the CCIs for a sustainable, competitive and innovative urban and regional development, to further inspire the local and regional stakeholders from municipalities, chambers, economy, public administrations and regional managements in the field of urban and regional governance for the specifics and synergies of CCIs.

Besides, participants had opportunity to increase their network through new interesting and international contacts.

After the training, the city tour with the motto “Creative Urban Development” started in the technology park Villach, where CUAS is also located.  The Technology Park Villach is a key player in innovation in Carinthia and beyond. There are 40 national and international companies located here, the majority of them working in the sectors of research and development, innovation and technology.

Here, we visited the CUAS Gründergarage [garage of the founders], which proactively supports innovative and creative founders with expertise, infrastructure and a sustainable and renowned network, which are crucial for a successful foundation; and build! Gründerservice, which promotes and strenghtens the start-up scene in Carinthia with various initiatives.

On the second day of the city tour, we visited Infineon Technologies Austria AG in Villach, an internationally leading enterprise in the semiconductor solutions. Infineon has invested a total of 1.6 billion Euros in the Villach site in recent years, making it the largest private investment in Austria and one of the largest all over Europe in this branch.

Finally, we walked through the city of Villach guided by a member of the city marketing department to see what Villach has already achieved in the creative and cultural industries, innovation, sustainability and urban development.

During the whole city tour, the projects partners were asked to participate in a photo challenge with the title “Creative Urban Development”. Five pictures from each stop will be selected – following the criteria: originality, relevance, impact, sustainability and transferability. These – along with the pictures taken by the partners later in July, in the second part of the city tour, this time in Karlsruhe, Germany – will be implemented in a virtual gallery on the project website.