The main role of the National Dissemination Points (NDP) is to present information about the URBACT program and projects in national languages and thereby to make available to non- English speaking audience, information about integrated urban development. It thereby reaches a larger scale of urban practitioners around Europe.
The National Dissemination Points have not been created by URBACT, they are existing websites dedicated to urban affairs in their countries. They make space available on their website for URBACT news and content.
NDPs provide a chance to further disseminate experiences of European cities of urban sustainable development and to involve more people than the ones directly connected to the project to share this knowledge and ideas.
The monthly newsbulletin presents detailed information on results of URBACT projects for instance, as well as information important for cities in each country, such as the dates and places of the Information Days during which cities will have a change to get more information on the next possibilities to join the project. You can access last newsbulletin in Spanish here or in German here for instance.
The NDPs also present the work developed by the cities in their countries inside URBACT under a variety of formats:
- Presentations of cities and URBACT projects – see for instance Slovenian cities here
- Descriptions of projects –In German here the description of FIN-URB-ACT
- Results of an URBACT Project in one National City – for instance Hungarian city of Kőbányai in RegGov project
- Interviews – Here in Spanish an interview with Joan López Redondo, Director of urban studies at the institure of territorial studies of Cataluna.
It therefore offers a great opportunity for cities participating in URBACT projects to make known to the residents of their cities and countries the results of their projects.
NDPs have also sent regular updates and information on urban development in their cities, to be found on this blog or on the URBACT website.
You can find for instance the description of a project involving young people in Utrecht in the Netherlands, on promoting digital culture for older people in Cornellà de Llobregat in Spain or on Parliament Palace in Bucharest, Romania.
There are currently NDPs in 21 European countries:
Austria (OEROK), Bulgaria (National Association of Municipal Clerks in Bulgaria), Belgium (SPP – Service Politique des Grandes Villes), Czech Republic (Ministry for Regional Development of the Czech Republic ), Denmark( www.urbact.dk), France (Ministère de la Ville), Greece (Ministry of Economy, Competitiveness & Shipping), Germany (Deutscher Verband ), Hungary (VATI), Italy (UNICH), Latvia ( Latvian Association of Local and Regional Governments), Lithuania (Association of Local Authorities in Lithuania), Luxembourg (Cellule Nationale d’information pour la politique urbaine ), The Netherlands (NICIS), Norway (www.interreg.no), Poland (www.urbact.pl), Portugal (Ministério do Ambiente e do Ordenamento do Território, Direcção-Geral do Ordenamento do Território e Desenvolvimento Urbano ), Romania (Ministry of Regional Development and Tourism / Infocooperare ), Slovenia ( TRAJEKT), Sweden (City of Malmo), Spain (Ecosistema Urbano)
URBACT wants the presentations in national languages to improve in the next two years, that’s why it proposes to the NDPs new types of activities and roles, to reach a more dynamic presentation of URBACT and websites updated more often!
Currently new websites can apply to become NDPs as you can see in the Open Call. Applications can be received until the 16th of December at noon. So if you are interested, follow the steps indicated in the tender rules.
