Support for Uppsala Municipality’s Application to the European Capitals of Culture 2029

In conjunction with the application, the municipality has commenced, or rather strengthened, cooperation with various stakeholders within the municipality that may eventually be able to contribute to the municipality’s application.

Uppsala University is one of those stakeholders.

“As part of this collaboration, the University has conducted the survey The Cultural Ecosystem in Uppsala in cooperation with Uppsala Municipality. Professor Christer Gustafsson of the Department of Art History has been in charge of the survey, which makes an important contribution to the municipality’s application,” says Mattias Martinson, the University’s contact person for Uppsala Municipality’s application to the European Capitals of Culture 2029.

Important partners

The Vice-Chancellor has appointed Mattias Martinson as the University’s contact person in order to facilitate cooperation on Uppsala Municipality’s application to the European Capitals of Culture 2029.

Naturally, the University and Uppsala Municipality already collaborate in a number of areas, including through a strategic partnership agreement.

“Here at the University, we know all about research and education and we are only too pleased to collaborate in areas of the municipality’s initiative in which we have the resources and opportunity to add value to the application,” says Martinson.

“The city is important to us and we are important to the city. We need one another,” affirms Annika Sundås Larsson, who is coordinating the University’s contribution to the application.

Identified projects and people

Annika Sundås Larsson has been appointed coordinator to assist Martinson. Together with the municipality, they have identified relevant projects and key individuals.

“We will not be starting new projects nor will we take control of those that are already ongoing. However, we are such a large organisation that we need to coordinate ourselves to ensure we have an information channel to those involved and to ensure that we can identify any synergies and do not duplicate work,” explains Larsson. “We are confident that we have a pretty good idea of which projects are relevant. Above all, it is the various EU projects that the University is already involved in that are of interest.”

The ENLIGHT European university, EIT Culture and Creativity (an EU collaborative project to strengthen Europe’s competitiveness), the research project Circular models Leveraging Investments in Cultural heritage adaptive reuse (CLIC), and the University’s 550th anniversary in 2027 are examples of projects identified as interesting in relation to the municipality’s application.

Compilation completed by the summer

The immediate task of those involved is to prepare brief descriptions of relevant projects and collaborations. These descriptions will be compiled by Uppsala Municipality along with descriptions from other stakeholders and the municipality itself, for use in the application process.

The descriptions are to be completed during spring 2023.

“If you are working on something that you think fits into the municipality’s application to the European Capitals of Culture, please let us know,” concludes Larsson.