Inside SDG-BASED: The URBASOFIA Team

The SDG-BASED project brings together a highly multidisciplinary European consortium dedicated to advancing sustainable urban transformation through the development of an innovative rating system for Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) and Positive Energy Buildings (PEBs). Coordinated by the University of Catania, the consortium combines universities, a technological institute, urban and sustainability researchers, architects, engineers, and urban planning consultancies from Italy, Sweden, Austria, and Romania. 

What makes SDG-BASED particularly unique is the diversity and complementarity of its expertise. The project combines scientific research, technological innovation, participatory planning, urban governance, and real-life case study implementation into one collaborative framework. This interdisciplinary approach allows the consortium to address Positive Energy Districts not only from an energy and technical perspective, but also through social, environmental, economic, and governance dimensions inspired by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

The communication plan developed for SDG-BASED aims to create high-quality and structured digital content that showcases three essential dimensions of the project: the uniqueness of the consortium and its European cooperation; the multidisciplinary collaboration between researchers, engineers, architects, and urban planners; and the project journey itself — from desk research and KPI development to stakeholder questionnaires, workshops, simulations, co-creation activities, and case study validation. 

Within this framework, URBASOFIA plays a central role in connecting research, cities, stakeholders, and implementation processes. As leader of the Work Packages dedicated to Stakeholder Engagement and Dissemination, URBASOFIA contributes its expertise in participatory urban planning, co-creation methodologies, communication, and strategic urban development. The organization’s name itself reflects its philosophy: combining “urban” thinking with “sofia,” meaning wisdom — an approach centered on intelligent, collaborative, and human-focused urban transformation. 

The URBASOFIA team involved in SDG-BASED reflects this multidisciplinary perspective. Irina Panait contributes expertise in strategic urban planning, sustainable development, and integrated urban policies. Giorgia Romagnoli supports the project through sustainability research, SDG integration, and environmental assessment methodologies. Olimpia Nicolae brings expertise in communication strategies, stakeholder engagement, and participatory planning processes, ensuring that the project’s tools and methodologies remain accessible, inclusive, and connected to local communities and decision-makers. 

Together, the SDG-BASED consortium demonstrates how European cooperation and multidisciplinary collaboration can generate practical, scalable, and socially inclusive tools for the future of climate-neutral cities and sustainable urban development.

1. How does SDG-BASED contribute to capacity building for cities and institutions?

Irina Panait (Urbasofia): SDG-BASED builds capacity by providing cities and institutions with structured, actionable frameworks. The project describes a six-step methodology that progressively equips partners with the tools they need: from establishing a transparent rating system, to translating the SDGs into practical benchmarks, to providing a core list of KPIs for scalable strategies. Crucially, step 5 focuses explicitly on "stakeholders' engagement and co-creation," and step 6 ensures "exchange and co-creation of knowledge with the CETPartnership Knowledge Community." This means capacity is not only transferred top-down but co-constructed with the relevant actors — cities, institutions, and communities alike.

2. What skills, knowledge, or tools are partners gaining through this project?

Irina Panait (Urbasofia): Partners are gaining a broad spectrum of competencies. On the technical side, they develop skills in energy simulation, KPI development, and performance assessment of buildings and districts against SDG benchmarks. On the strategic side, they gain experience in scalability analysis and impact measurement. On the process side, they practice co-design and multi-stakeholder engagement methodologies. The URBASOFIA team specifically contributes expertise in strategic urban planning, sustainability research, and participatory planning — reflecting the mix of skills being exchanged. The project also produces an interactive digital rating tool, so partners gain hands-on digital tool literacy.

3. How does European cooperation strengthen the project outcomes?

Irina Panait (Urbasofia): The project brings together 12 partners from Italy, Sweden, Austria, and Romania — each contributing unique national contexts, regulatory frameworks, and urban realities. The presentation illustrates this clearly through the legal framework slide, which maps how energy community legislation has evolved differently in each country (Italy, Austria, Romania), showing why cross-border learning is essential. European cooperation allows the consortium to test and validate the rating system across diverse contexts, harmonise working formats and methods between case studies, and ultimately produce replicable tools applicable far beyond the four pilot cities.

4. What role does URBASOFIA play in connecting research, cities, and practice?

Irina Panait: URBASOFIA occupies a bridging role in the consortium. The team — led by Irina Panait (Senior Urban Planner and expert in strategic planning and sustainable development), alongside Giorgia Romagnoli (Sustainability Researcher) and Olimpia Nicolae (specialist in communication and participatory planning) — connects the academic and technical outputs of university and research partners to the practical governance and community engagement needs of cities. URBASOFIA's specific expertise in participatory planning is particularly significant: it ensures that the project's tools are not just technically sound but genuinely usable by and with local communities and public authorities.

5. How do universities and cities benefit from working together in this framework?

Irina Panait (Urbasofia): The partnership structure is explicitly designed for mutual benefit. Universities (Catania, Palermo, Dalarna) contribute research capacity, simulation tools, and methodological expertise. Cities (Monreale, Graz, Eisenstadt, Lienz, Cluj-Napoca Metropolitan Area) provide real urban environments where these methods can be tested, validated, and refined. The methodology's step 3 — "Case Studies & Rating System Validation" — formalises this exchange, ensuring that research outputs are grounded in actual urban conditions. Cities in turn gain access to evidence-based planning tools, KPI frameworks, and direct links to the European knowledge community, significantly enhancing their capacity to plan and implement Positive Energy Districts.

6. What makes capacity building a critical component of sustainable urban transitions?

Irina Panait (Urbasofia): The presentation frames this directly: the SDG-BASED project exists because cities need to move from having sustainability goals to actually implementing them. The gap between policy ambition and place-based outcomes is the central problem the project addresses. Capacity building — through tools, guidelines, training, co-creation, and knowledge exchange — is what fills that gap. Without the ability to measure progress (rating system, KPIs), engage stakeholders (co-design processes), understand the local energy landscape (resource mapping), and navigate the policy context (legal framework analysis), even well-intentioned cities lack the means to transition. SDG-BASED treats capacity building not as a side activity, but as the very mechanism of urban transformation.