Dear readers,

after a long journey across cities, innovative technologies, citizen engagement and urban solutions, we have reached POCITYF’s tenth and final newsletter.

Over the years, POCITYF has brought together partners from across Europe to explore how historic cities can become smarter, greener and more liveable without losing what makes them unique. Much of this experience is now gathered in our final publication, Heritage cities welcome innovation, bringing together practices from Évora and Alkmaar, from market-ready solutions to actionable legacy, alongside the replication work carried out by our six Fellow Cities: Bari, Celje, Granada, Hvidovre, Ioannina and Újpest.

There is still plenty to share before this last month together comes to an end. From 23 to 25 September, our Open Innovation Call will invite people across the eight POCITYF countries to contribute their own ideas for smarter and more sustainable historic cities. Only the first 15 eligible submissions will each receive an electric scooter, so make sure to get yours in early.

Just a few days later, on 29 and 30 September, we will meet in Évora for our closing event Historic urban centres driving climate neutrality: POCITYF lessons and pathways, a chance to look back at what has been achieved and discuss how this experience can be carried forward.

For those who missed our final event in Alkmaar last year, and will not be able to join us in Évora, two new interactive pageflows offer another way to explore the work carried out in our Lighthouse Cities.

This final issue also features two infopacks released in recent months. The Replication Effect looks at the tools and approaches used to transfer solutions tested in historic urban settings to other cities, while Valverde renewable energy community explores energy sharing, peer-to-peer trading and the regulatory lessons emerging from the Portuguese experience.

Together, these resources capture different parts of POCITYF’s experience and will help keep its work useful and accessible beyond the project’s lifetime.

Finally, we would like to thank everyone who has been part of this journey: our partners, cities, local communities, experts and all those who have followed, supported and contributed to POCITYF’s work.

Enjoy the reading!

POCITYF team

Sustainable mobility, energy, digital solutions, public spaces, citizen engagement, resilience: any good idea that connects to at least one of the four POCITYF pillars (or Energy Transition Tracks - ETTs) is welcome!

The Call is open to adults from the eight countries where the POCITYF cities are located: Portugal, the Netherlands, Italy, Slovenia, Spain, Denmark, Greece and Hungary. Starting 23 September at 8:00 CEST, it closes at 12:00 CEST on 25 September or as soon as 15 eligible submissions have been received: each of them will receive an electric scooter.

Lightning talks and roundtable discussions, a tour of the historic sites in Évora where POCITYF’s innovative solutions have been installed, a closing training session to better understand our replication experience, and last but not least, physical copies of our final publication: the POCITYF closing event has so much to offer!

Registration for the event is still open: fill the form and meet us in Évora, Portugal, on 29–30 September 2026!

Transparent photovoltaic glass fitted into school windows, canopies that double as sun shelters, and roof tiles shaped and coloured to match traditional clay. Évora's Walk of the Sun brings you through seven sites in the heritage city centre, where the technology is hidden in plain sight. Join the scrollytelling here.

Alkmaar’s Sun Powered Circuit follows the city transition towards an energy-neutral future across eight sites in the Dutch heritage city. From public and sport facilities to homes and urban infrastructure, find out how clean energy and circular approaches are already embedded into everyday places: join the scrollytelling

Our collaboration with the Scalable Cities network has been full of outstanding joint activities with our sister projects and other EU funded PED initiatives. 

Check out some of the highlights here below and keep following our updates on LinkedIn in the next days: a final joint webinar, organized with the EU-funded project ASCEND, is in the planning for the begin of October!

Don't miss our final video, a visual wrap-up focused on energy reuse, citizen engagement, heritage-sensitive design, city-to-city learning and collaboration across Europe, with insights from Cees Groot (Gemeente Alkmaar), Bianca Banica (INESC TEC), Humberto Queiroz (EDP), Elena Conte (Energy@Work), Jade Connolly (EURADA).