Damian Maye and Dan Keech have been in Lisbon to attend the second partnership meeting of the H2020 ROBUST project, which was hosted by the University of Lisbon’s Instituto Superior Technico.
The meeting, which took took place between 27th February and 2nd March, included a field trip to the municipality of Mafra, a 40 minute drive to the north of Lisbon, to examine rural-urban synergies in practice. These included organic vegetable supply chains into Lisbon, agricultural labour requirements, the role of municipalities in attracting regional inward investment, and tourism including imperial architectural heritage, surfing, and the renovation of vernacular rural buildings.
In the Robust project, the CCRI research team is working in close partnership with Gloucestershire County Council to consider issues including smart specialisation, job creation and urban-rural functional relationships. Twelve such teams of researchers-municipal practitioners comprise the Robust partnership.
