Project "TURаS Transitioning towards Urban Resilience and Sustainability"

№ ENV.2011.2.1.5-1, Seventh Framework Programme

Project Coordinator 
Aleksandar SlaevProject AccountantRadostina IvanovaCost of the project8 891 398 €Duration of the project01.10.2011 – 30.09.2016

Varna Free University is a partner under fifth-year project "TURаS Transitioning towards Urban Resilience and Sustainability", ENV.2011.2.1.5-1. The project is co-financed under the Seventh Framework Programme. The budget of the project amounts to 8 891 398,00 euro. The leading organization is University College Dublin, Ireland.

The "TURaS" project aims to bring together urban communities, researchers, local authorities and SMEs to research, develop, demonstrate and disseminate transition strategies and scenarios to enable European cities and their rural interfaces to build vitally-needed resilience in the face of significant sustainability challenges. To ensure maximum impact, the TURaS project has developed an innovative twinning approach bringing together decision makers in local authorities with SMEs and academics to ensure meaningful results and real change are implemented over the duration of the project. 11 local authorities or local development agencies are involved as partners in the project and they will orient research and development from the outset towards the priority sustainability and resilience challenges facing their cities. 9 leading academic research institutions and 6 SMEs will work with these cities helping them to reduce their urban ecological footprint through proposing new visions, feasiblity strategies, spatial scenarios and guidance tools to help cities address these challenges. The specific challenges addressed in TURaS include: climate change adaptation and mitigation; natural resource shortage and unprecedented urban growth