The event: “ECS projects for Carthage, EdiCit Carthage”, which took place on March 19, 2020 in Tunis, was organized by REACT in collaboration with the Municipality of Carthage. This is the interview stage of the selection process of candidates in response to the “Edicit Carthage” call. This call aims at identifying innovative and sustainable ECS projects to be implemented in Carthage. This event was dedicated to interviews of the invited five candidates. Each ECS holder presented his project, which was discussed with the members of the evaluation committee made up of members of the Municipality of Carthage, REACT, and expert. This discussion provided an opportunity to exchange deeply with the candidates. The assessment was made based on criteria such as the feasibility and sustainability of the project, the commitment and the know-how of the candidate. The interviews conduction by the committee was perceived as specific coaching for ECS holders who demonstrated enthusiasm and motivation for making Carthage edible city e.g.; Improving the quality of life was the motivation and the goal:”It is a project which aims to improve our lives, a healthy and clean life for all the citizens of Carthage” Karim Ben Yaala, Amiris Carthage project.

Also, this call was for other an opportunity to revive the past: “Regarding this project, it is in my native neighborhood, that has become a black point between Carthage and Kram, we hope with this project to replicate the lived past to create our future, to renew the ties of neighborhoods which were very solid “Jaafer Abdellaoui, An edible garden for all in Carthage Yasmina project.

The interview session was followed by the selection session, during which committee members discussed the projects and their adequacy with the criteria and objectives of the “EdiCit Carthage” call. The selected projects will be considered as pilot projects at the municipality of Carthage and it is expected that their establishment in the city will boost the change to an edible city. We thank a lot all candidates for this call and salute their engagement and initiatives to make the city of Carthage an edible city.

“I really wanted to thank REACT and the Municipality of Carthage who gave us the opportunity to present our projects, and especially the initiative they took to make Carthage a greener city, it’s really refreshing” Moez Farhat, Kartagrow Project. The movement of the transition of Carthage to an edible city seems well underway!!

At the last City Team meeting five fields of actions were defined: urban food system, urban planning, education, empowerment and environmental justice & climate. Those actions fields were further discussed and specified. These fields of action might still be altered and will be further developed and discussed in working groups. The BOKU Wien gave an input to define system elements for the different fields of action.

Furthermore, there was an update by the process of the different Living Labs in Berlin. A status of the analysis and interviews of the different edible cities solutions in Berlin was given.

The webinar series “Innovation for SDGs: inspirational tools towards sustainability challenges” focuses on opportunities and new trends in the fields of research and innovation. The goal was to debate and advance towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The session was moderated by Joaquim Comas, researcher at the Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA) and WP2 leader of EdiCitNet project. Corinne Trommsdorff (CEO & Founder at Water Cities.org), delivered an inspiring presentation about Water-Wise Cities. Regina Gnirss (Head of Research & Development, Berliner Wasserbetriebe) presentation was focused on sustainable management of Water Cycle, with especial attention to the city of Berlin.

Joana Castellar as a representative of WP2 lead (ICRA) delivered a presentation entitled “(Circular) nature-based Solutions”. The presentation delivered a critical discussion about what is and what is not a Nature-Based Solution (NBS), with special focus on the role of biodiversity for the conceptualization of NBS. Moreover, insights were given about the design of NBS for promoting circular management of resources in cities, especially water and food.

Finally, The EdiCitNet toolbox was presented, as an interactive space for knowledge sharing. Special attention was given to the diverse functionalities provided such as:

• An interactive Catalogue in which any person can create profiles for their (edible)NBS. Such profiles showcase technical information and offers a set of interactive functions that make it a true social network for users (civil society, urban planners, researchers).
• A Design and planning tool which enables users to create their own initiative(s) by giving insights about resources needed and food potential.
• A Performance assessment tool which enables user to compare the performance of these initiatives in terms of sustainability, urban challenges, and ecosystem services.

Josep Pueyo-Ros, the main designer of the Edible City Game, in WP2, is invited to do a conference in the forthcoming Tygron Edu Event 2021, on 8th April. Tygron is the software used to develop the Edible City Game (the Edicitnet’s serious game). The conference’s title is “Work independently with the Tygron Platform”. Josep will explain how he got started with the software himself. And, of course he also will show his use case, a serious game to foster Edible City Solutions.

Likewise, Josep will also introduce the Edible City Game in Ecosystem Services Partnership European Conference, will will take place on the second week of June, in Tartu, Estonia (but also virtually). The title of the accepted communication is “The Edible Game: A participatory approach to foster edible nature-based solutions” and will be presented in the session “S8b – Planning nature-based solutions while keeping people’ s preferences in mind”.

Both are great opportunities to share Edicitnet beyond the project.

In this episode of the podcast series “Sprout to Be Alive!” they discuss how cities like Berlin can use urban agriculture initiatives to ensure a sustainable and local food supply, while also improving urban climate and Berliners’ quality of life.
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The interview is available in German and you can find it here: https://www.urania.de/sprout-be-alive-3”

Defining fields of action for the master plan process was the aim of this City Team meeting in February. ⁠

The master plans are a key part of the EdiCitNet project, and will guide the City Teams in developing a tailor-made strategy to integrate Edible City Solutions (ECS) into disadvantaged inner city and suburban neighborhoods, to promote social cohesion and to improve quality of life for the inhabitants.⁠

After a short input by the Working Package 4 lead BOKU Vienna, the City Team collected ideas in a lively online brainstorming session. ⁠

They ended up defining five key fields of action: ⁠

• consumer and producer relationship⁠
• urban planning⁠
• education⁠
• empowerment and ⁠
• environmental justice. ⁠

These fields of action might still be altered and will be further developed and discussed in working groups.