City governance is an area where the European Union, national and regional governments are currently investing a lot of time and effort. Both, the UK and Spain are taking serious measures and important, innovative initiatives towards a new devolved city model. We believe that sharing these initiatives and experiences will help further develop existing projects in the participating cities and will start a mutual collaboration between institutions, authorities and organizations which will be beneficial to all parties. The challenges are clear:

1. The majority of the population in Europe is now living in urban cities and, at the same time, we are experiencing serious demographic changes which lead to a deterioration of the quality of urban life. How does city growth affect the wider regions?
2. Globalization makes local governance more necessary than ever.
3. Cities must grow and build on existing infrastructures but, at the same time, they must be able to convert inefficiencies into strengths and create prosperity, equity and sustainability.

We believe many agencies can and must participate and have their voice heard for successful city governance. For this reason, we envisage the seminars to engage researchers, city planners, policy decision makers, developers, ONGs and journalists as all of these agents are important for the success of successful governance in cities. We also believe that true exchange require for city planners to be able to peer review each other and have incorporated this element for a few selected UK/Spanish cities. Finally, we hope to issue a publication which will include experiences gained in the seminar, some of the case study projects and findings in the peer reviews and a proper research in UK and Spain on City-hubs and Knowledge Management/transfer.
For further information please contact raquel.fernandezmontes@britishcouncil.es