The Bilbao Effect: UNIC CityLabs Festival Boosts the UNIC City-University Network

4 May 2023

Delegates from Cork attended the UNIC General Assembly and CityLabs Festival in Bilbao at the end of April 2023. The festival brought together participants from city, university and community sectors from UNIC partner cities for a three-day schedule of meetings, brainstorming activities, and signature UNIC CityLabs. In UNIC, the European University of Cities in Post-Industrial Transition, UCC is creating innovative forms of mobility and community engagement with nine partner universities across Europe and their cities.

14 UCC staff attended from across academic and professional units, alongside UCC's UNIC student representative Mr Ben Bolger, and Co-ordinator of Cork City Public Participation Network Ms Orla Burke. Up to 200 people in total participated in the CityLabs Festival, hosted by the University of Deusto and the city of Bilbao. 

The UNIC General Assembly brought together university leaders to discuss the ongoing development of the UNIC alliance. The assembled Presidents, Rectors and Vice-Presidents approved the future governance framework of the UNIC alliance, presented by UCC's Dr Jean van Sinderen-Law who was leading the negotiations during the 30 months of development. A Cities Speed Meeting brought together city and community representatives alongside university colleagues to meet and contribute city aspirations and needs from the UNIC partnership and initiatives.

Interactive site visits addressed challenges that are particular to Bilbao while resonating in the context of Cork, such as the maintaining of regional (Basque) traditions and identity, housing, flooding, and the role of culture in the city's transformation.

The final day of events allowed UNIC cross-partner groups to advance key work in the areas of mobility, publicity, joint degree programmes, teaching and learning, diversity and inclusion, community engagement, and the UNIC virtual campus.

The vibrant city of Bilbao was an important setting for activities, presenting an example of a post-industrial city that has developed from a past in mining and port activity towards the creative and economic hub of today; helped along by the so-called 'Guggenheim effect' as the installation of the Guggenheim modern art museum triggered further developments. 

Not pictured but also in attendance: Claire Crowley (IT Analyst and Project Manager, UCC); Dr Jason O'Shaughnessy (Senior Lecturer in Architecture and Academic Co-ordinator of RePIC MSc, UCC); Ciara O'Halloran (Programme Officer, Civic and Community Engagement, UCC); Dr Claire Dorrity (Lecturer in Social Policy, UCC); Dr Susan Calnan (Postdoctoral Researcher in Public Health and Research Support Officer on Superdiversity Academy, UCC); Dr Anna Santucci (Senior Lecturer in Teaching and Learning Enhancement, UCC).