The analysis carried out in cooperation with Local Universities (LUs), city and national authorities, stakeholders, during ah-hoc meetings, highlighted the need to improve transport services in Georgia (GE) and Ukraine (UA), benefiting of the new opportunities offered by telematics which boost innovations in smart passenger and goods mobility. The increasing pressure on achieving societal goals within the transport sector (e.g., reducing traffic emission, improving traffic safety, reducing congestion) is one of the main drivers for its smart development.There are still many challenges for implementing smart mobility, and to what extent this potential will be materialized depends on its design and management by public authorities as well as by the competence of experts.Besides, a lack of experience on planning, management and control of these services emerged in GE and UA, also due to inadequate academic paths for supporting exploitation and dissemination of smart transport culture, including the limits of their research and their limited international relationships.Then, SmaLog was designed to overcome such identified lacks. SmaLog reformed and conformed the academic paths for supporting exploitation and dissemination of smart transport culture, including the overcoming of the limits of current scientific research and limited international relationships in involved PCs. LUs were the key-actors to start and consolidate this process.In SmaLog Consortium, 11 research institutions, 4 from EU, 5 from UA and 2 from GE have been collaborating to:•develop and test/implement/delivering Masters (120/90 ECTS) in smart transport and logistics for cities (SmaLog) in GE and UA;•support the implementation of laboratories dedicated to SmaLog;•disseminate through the newsletters, events, workshops, seminars, the importance of high educational programmes, and to promote research in urban transport and logistics exploiting the opportunities offered by new technologies;•set up national coordinated networks of HEIs, public bodies, private companies and NGOs involving them in the wider European research network on smart urban transport and logistics.Therefore, starting from this consideration, SmaLog strengthened the role of research in managing smart transport and logistics in cities on an evidence-base in UA and GE, and thus transferred to UA and GE the most recent knowledge and good practices developed in Europe as well as worldwide in the field of smart mobility.These aims were achieved thanks to a mix of activities such as: education, training, workshops, conferences and public events, web-based and physical dissemination and exploitation activities. The main outputs were:•SmaLog masters formally approved and delivered;•new and updated courses;•two first completed cycles of master students in SmaLog (first graduates);•distance learning advance courses for staff in SmaLog;•guidelines for developing PhD in PC HEIs in SmaLog;•teaching and training materials developed for supporting lectures’ delivering and students’ study;•staff training and students’ studying at ProgC HEIs;•guidelines for IQAS, and its implementations in PC HEIs;•internationalization of teaching/training on smart transport and logistics for cities;•internationalization of research on smart transport and logistics for cities;•urban smart transport and logistics networks in GE and UA;•active involvement of PC HEIs members in international smart transport and logistics for cities research;•implementation of local laboratories on urban smart transport and logistics;•dissemination and strengthening of culture of smart transport and logistics;•agreements of cultural and scientific collaboration between each PC and ProgC HEIs.

The proposal is aimed at development of competency-based curricula for continuous comprehensive training of specialists in the field of climate services in Ukraine, as well as the initiation and development of additional education in climate change for decision-makers, experts in climate-dependent economic sectors and the general public, which contribute to stabilization of the national economy in the face of climate change and its adaptation to the upcoming climate change.We will develop competency-based concepts on professional education in the field of climate services and additional education for experts in climate-dependent economic sectors, with regard to existing European experience in this field; teaching and methodological materials, distance and blended learning courses in order to form methodological support for the continuous and comprehensive training of specialists in the field of climate services; blended learning courses in the field of climate change and adaptation to it for decision-makers, as well as massive open online courses in the same area for experts in climate-dependent economic sectors; massive open online courses in the field of climate change and adaptation to it for the broad masses of the population. In order to reach the largest possible audience, ensure ongoing knowledge exchange and initiate new academic opportunities, a virtual research and education platform with a branched system of distance learning courses covering all training cycles and target groups, and the tools for conducting research in the field of climatology and climate change will be organized.Thus, this project proposal completely solves the issues on organization of climate education, which Ukraine is facing, and will contribute, due to the building-up of infrastructure capacity and human resources, to establishment and development of climate services in Ukraine, that, in turn, will contribute to the achievement of sustainable development goals.

U_CAN facilitates a practical bottom-up approach with Ukrainian cities towards climate neutrality. Following the European standards and the European Green Deal (EGD), the project starts with a core group of 8 Ukrainian cities, Dresden as a Mission City, NGOs and research institutions. This networking and co-creation process addresses the current challenges of the Ukrainian cities and their key sectors. Within 48 months, the CNSC-UA twinning partners exchange experiences with further network municipalities throughout the country, adapting to European climate standards with experts like DIN and transitioning together. The core stakeholders work closely with their city administration in building capacities in the key sectors identified. In light of the war, co-creation and Citizen Science augmented training activities ensure an effective, value-based and needs-oriented approach. Communication and dissemination by EU partners near the UA borders enable – besides an online platform – the personal exchange of experiences with the CNSC twin cities. This step-by-step synergy building and facilitation includes vision workshops, road mapping and stakeholder co-creation to twin European and Ukrainian cities. This leads to use case development in each pilot city supporting pilot implementation of measures for climate mitigation and adaptation. This is combined with an extensive plan for dissemination, exploitation and communication led by European and Ukrainian umbrella organisations, standardisation initiatives, and local and national representatives. These efforts are assisted through functioning and already working city partnerships, seamlessly integrating the Ukrainian Cities into the vision of the EGD. The given diversity in geopolitical characteristics ensures the involvement of all relevant sectors and the equal distribution of support, ranging from smaller cities to the Ukrainian capital and most important lighthouse City Kyiv.