On 17 October 2025, the Urban Transitions Mission Centre (UTMC) hosted its Final Conference in Brussels, bringing together partners, cities and mission-aligned initiatives for a shared moment of reflection, alignment and future collaboration. The event was not intended as a traditional closing ceremony. Instead, it acted as a strategic point of convergence designed to ensure that the tools, platforms and methodologies developed by UTMC continue to support climate-neutral and resilient urban transitions.
The purpose of the Final Conference was twofold. First, to provide full visibility to the results of the Urban Transitions Mission Centre, including its platform, knowledge resources and global outreach. Second, to bring these achievements into direct dialogue with initiatives that can integrate and continue this work. This approach aimed to maintain continuity, avoid duplication and reinforce long-term alignment across the wider Mission community.
Setting the Tone: Reconnecting a Global Community
The conference opened with an informal networking session that allowed participants to reconnect with peers engaged throughout UTMC’s global activities. This created a collaborative atmosphere and reminded participants that the value of UTMC lies both in its technical outputs and in the community of practice that has grown around the Mission.
Presenting UTMC’s Achievements
The UTMC team provided a clear overview of the project’s core achievements. These included the UTMC Platform, the Knowledge Repository, the Funding & Finance Helpdesk, Funding Watch and extensive engagement across four world regions. Together, these elements demonstrated how UTMC has strengthened capacities, supported mission-oriented governance and improved access to structured knowledge for cities working towards climate neutrality and resilience.
This overview established the foundation for the discussions that followed and highlighted the pathways through which UTMC’s results can continue to support Mission Cities and international partners in the years ahead.
Connecting with Mission-Aligned Initiatives
A central part of the conference showcased contributions from European and international initiatives whose work intersects with the priorities of the Urban Transitions Mission. Their inputs demonstrated the richness of the wider ecosystem and the opportunities for stronger coordination.
NetZeroCities presented its systemic support model for climate-neutral cities. It highlighted lessons from Climate City Contracts, the importance of integrated project portfolios and the role of embedded City Advisors. The Climate City Capital Hub, the NZC portal and its measurement and learning frameworks showed clear potential for complementing UTMC’s Funding Helpdesk and knowledge tools.
Driving Urban Transitions (DUT)
DUT outlined its work as a major European research and innovation partnership. Its projects advance Positive Energy Districts, the 15-minute city and circular urban economies. DUT’s focus on structured knowledge, innovation portfolios and communities of practice strongly aligns with UTMC’s mission to consolidate actionable knowledge for cities.
LEAP-RE, representing long-term EU Africa collaboration on sustainable energy, highlighted the importance of research alignment, multilateral funding and peer-to-peer learning. Its emphasis on urban and peri-urban electrification connected directly with UTMC’s outreach activities in Africa and demonstrated how UTMC’s resources can support its community.
CapaCITIES presented its work supporting national and regional authorities in scaling the EU Cities Mission. Stronger governance structures, improved national coordination systems and reinforced capacities are central to its model. The initiative’s Europe-wide expansion creates clear opportunities to integrate UTMC tools and knowledge outputs.
DUT Urban Living Labs (Platform31)
Platform31 shared its structured approach to Urban Living Labs, including mapping national ecosystems, offering training modules, facilitating exchanges and producing practitioner guidelines. These priorities closely reflect UTMC’s methodologies for supporting place-based experimentation and collaborative innovation.
ERRIN highlighted the significance of multilevel governance and alignment across EU, national, regional and city levels. It emphasised the value of showcasing Mission achievements internationally, which mirrors UTMC’s focus on global engagement and knowledge dissemination.Â
NEUTRALPATH presented its approach to capacity building for Positive Clean Energy Districts, based on co-design and multi-year learning cycles. Its strong connection to Living Lab methodologies reinforces its alignment with UTMC’s mission-oriented approach.
CLIMABOROUGH shared lessons from its fifteen urban testbeds covering energy, mobility, circularity, waste management and heat islands. Its core message emphasised that urban transitions often fail not due to a lack of technology but due to challenges in deployment and scaling. This directly connects with UTMC’s focus on capacity building and mission-oriented implementation. The initiative’s upcoming climate-neutrality handbook, data catalogue and low-code platform illustrate clear complementarities with UTMC’s knowledge architecture.
A Shared Understanding of Future Needs
Across all contributions, participants identified several common priorities. These included the importance of maintaining access to UTMC’s platform, the value of coordinated knowledge sharing across initiatives and the need to strengthen complementarities across European and international programmes. The discussions confirmed that UTMC’s legacy lies not only in its tools but in the governance approaches, partnerships and shared learning cultures developed during the project.
Securing a Long-Term Legacy for the Urban Transitions Mission
By gathering European initiatives, international partners and Mission Cities in Brussels, the UTMC Final Conference successfully anchored the Centre’s achievements within a broader and long-term ecosystem. The event reinforced a shared commitment to maintaining UTMC’s outputs, aligning strategies and strengthening collaboration across the Mission community.
As the Urban Transitions Mission enters its next phase, UTMC’s legacy will continue to support cities around the world. Its knowledge tools, methodologies, global engagement activities and mission-oriented governance models will remain essential resources for cities striving for climate-neutral, resilient and inclusive urban futures.
