Monday, 14 September 2026 marked the kick-off meeting of WISE – From Widening to Urban Sustainability Innovation and Excellence, a four-year project within the Transform4Europe (T4EU) alliance.

The kick-off meeting was held at InnoRenew CoE, UP IAM, in Izola, bringing together project partners to officially launch an initiative that will run from September 2026 until August 2030. Over the course of the next four years, WISE will focus on three main objectives aimed at strengthening research excellence, institutional capacity and researchers’ careers.

The first objective is to raise scientific excellence and strengthen knowledge valorisation in well-identified research communities. WISE features three research projects focusing on different aspects of urban sustainability. These projects range from innovative building materials to sustainable city monitoring and policy transfer methodology development across regions and countries.

The second objective is to enhance the global competitiveness and visibility of higher education institutions (HEIs) by building a critical mass of expertise around those research communities. This includes creating a strong pipeline of EU proposals, fostering collaboration between academia, industry, public authorities and civil society, and strengthening connections between HEIs and local, regional and international ecosystems. Particular attention will be given to FAIR data management, Open Access (OA) publishing and citizen-science engagement.

The third objective focuses on improving researchers’ career development by implementing institutional reforms in research assessment and management, in line with the principles promoted by CoARA and Research Management and Administration (RMA). WISE will promote transferable skills through a range of training programmes, while also advancing fair research assessment, diversity, gender equality, inclusiveness and open science.

Through these activities, WISE strives to create an ecosystem of excellence-driven and well-connected institutions, fostering collaboration, equality, inclusiveness and continuous improvement across the European research and higher-education landscape.

The WISE project is coordinated by the University of Primorska, and involves two other Slovenia partners, IQWood and the Regional Development Agency of the Ljubljana Urban Region. Within the project, they will together enhance the position of Slovenia in the urban sustainability innovation area.