SSPCR 2022 Organising Committee announces the first of this edition’s keynote speakers: Giulia Ulpiani will give talk will focus on the challenges of climate neutrality at city level and the status and timeline of the Cities Mission.
The EU Missions are a novelty of the Horizon Europe research and innovation programme for the years 2021-2027, meant to deliver impact by putting research and innovation into a new role, combined with new forms of governance and collaboration, as well as by engaging citizens.
The Cities Mission is a call for massive and responsible mobilisation to achieve two objectives:
1) deliver at least 100 climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030, and
2) ensure that these cities act as experimentation and innovation hubs to enable all European cities to follow suit by 2050.
The added value of the Cities Mission is that it takes a cross-sectoral and demand-led approach, creating synergies between sectors and existing initiatives and capitalising on best practices and lessons learnt (e.g., from the Covenant of Mayors).
Giulia Ulpiani is a Project Officer of the European Commission Joint Research Centre. Her work is centred in the 100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission and in the Covenant of Mayors. She was formerly Postdoctoral Research Assistant working joint with UNSW Climate Change Research Centre and UNSW Climate-Resilient Cities Lab, Sydney (Australia). She holds a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering (specialised in Environmental Applied Physics) and a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering. Giulia’s research, with a focus on climate and energy in the built environment, spans over the following topics:
- urban heat island mitigation/adaptation technologies and holistic assessment of the impacts on health, energy, and comfort,
- linkage between urban overheating and pollution, with special emphasis on spatio-temporal heterogeneity and extreme weather events (e.g. heatwaves, bushfires),
- advanced cooling technologies based on caloric materials and daytime radiative coolers, and
- smart automation of energy systems.
Cover photo from www.freepik.com