Dear Friends,

The summer months have drawn to a close, and we here at IPR are in the midst of a busy fall season. In this issue, you can read about Integrated Territorial Investments (ITI) in Prague and its metropolitan area, the Prague Creative Center, and the second workshop focusing on Prague's vision for climate and water resilience. We'll also give you a short recap of the last few months and an overview of what’s to come.

Happy reading!

Best,
The EU and International Affairs Team, IPR Prague

What happens at the Prague Creative Center? 

The Prague Creative Center, established by Prague City Hall in 2017, is the city’s living creative laboratory. It links residents, representatives of non-governmental organizations, and the private sector with representatives of the public sector. The mission is to discover innovative solutions for a creative city and foster cooperation that IPR can incorporate into Prague’s urban development strategy. The Creative Center hosts lectures, screenings, and workshops for the public, and provides a hub for a number of creative institutions.

The Creative Center is housed in a historic building adjacent to the Old Town City Hall, in the heart of Old Town Square. This historic building was vacant for 10 years and fell into disrepair before being renovated for the Creative Center. 

In May, the Prague Creative Center hosted an event called “Next to the Astronomical Clock”, during which the institutions that are centered in the Creative Center were introduced, and attendees were able to tour the entire building while learning more about how to get involved with the Center’s activities. 

You can read more about the Prague Creative Center here.

photo: ITI mobility project for an integrated bike network incorporating four towns

Update on Prague's ITI strategy

Integrated Territorial Investment (ITI) is a financial tool in­troduced within the European Union's structural pol­icy for the 2014-2020 programming period to boost the implementation of territorial integrated strategies in metropolitan areas. The Prague Metropolitan Area is one of seven metropolitan areas in the Czech Republic using the ITI tool; implementation in Prague began in 2017.

The three priority areas of Prague’s ITI Strategy are: 

1. Mobility: develop “intelligent” transport, improve speed within the Prague Metropolitan Area, encourage stron­ger preference for public transport, increase regional mo­bility by linking network infrastructure, reduce the negative effects of the transport system on the en­vironment, focus on sustainable transport; 
2. Protection against natural risks and floods; and
3. Education: ensure affordable and quality education, in­crease the capacity of pre-school education, and improve the capacity and quality of educational facilities in line with labor market requirements.

IPR’s ITI team administers call for proposals for various ITI projects and evaluates compliance with the ITI strategy of the city. By October of this year, our team had worked on 22 calls for proposals. 

Thus far, calls have been made for 100% of the allocated budget for education. Some education projects are still in the evaluation phase while others are being realized. Of the transport budget, 40% has been allocated to projects, with some projects in the evaluation phase and others in implementation. Most of the allocated budget for protection against natural risks and floods has also been allocated, with implementation of most of the projects still pending. 

You can read more about ITI in Prague here (Czech only).
 

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