Miguel Torga Institute of Higher Education (ISMT) and Instituto Superior de Entre Douro e Vouga - Higher Education (ISVOUGA) are jointly organizing a Blended Intensive Program (BIP), in Portugal, within the Erasmus+ Consortium Right to the City, under the topic of (RE)CONNECTING THE CITY TO THE PEOPLE, in Portugal (Coimbra and Santa Maria da Feira, with a mid-day stop in Aveiro), from 23 to 27 October 2023.
We welcome a group of students and accompanying lecturer(s) and/or staff from partner HEI to participate in the event.
The departing idea for this BIP is as follows:

• The founding idea of the Right to the City is to demand more than individual freedom, property rights, and access to urban resources. The Right to the City cannot be dissociated from social ties, relation with nature, sustainability, lifestyles, heritage, aesthetic values, technologies, and digital literacy, among many other factors necessary to guarantee the quality of life of future generations. It is crucial to apprehend the possibility of policies to rescue the city as a common good, to think about social organization through the organization of space, and to debate social actors’ logics, strategies, and forms of active participation. What city do we want? This BIP intends to reflect and debate the problem of (Re)connecting the City to the People around the following axes: 
• ^{-    Community Spaces and Social Facilities;} 
• ^{-    Energy Efficiency and Environmental Sustainability; and} 
• ^{-    Smart Cities.}
• There will be lectures, debates and indoor and outdoor activities concerning topics such as neighbourhood revitalization, migrants and the city, age-friendly cities (with a focus on children and older people), the social, cultural and political dimensions of the energy transition in the city, impacts of the digital transformations on the mobility, quality of life and citizenship of different populations in the city, and others.

Students are expected to study in various areas, such as (but not exclusive to) Social Work, Management, Law, Sociology, Engineering, Geography, Marketing, Design, Journalism, Psychology, Architecture, among others. A certificate for 4 ECTS will be delivered to the students upon completing the BIP.
If you are a Professor or Staff interested in collaborating with us, by doing a presentation or proposing some other activity within one of the three axes and/or enrolling and accompanying students, please contact us for further details and discussion of your proposal. You can participate with a STA or STT Erasmus scholarship from your university.
If you are a Student interested in participating with a short term Erasmus mobility for studies scholarship, please contact us as well as the IR department of your university.