UGPplus is an Horizon Europe project investigating how to sustain the implementation of the EU Nature Restoration Law through the development of Urban Greening Plans, thanks to the contribution of partners from heterogeneous fields such as urban studies, ecology, natural sciences, economics and politics, together with five different cities: Barcelona, Paris, Belgrade, Burgas and Mannheim.

The project is based on the premise that to make significant progress in biodiversity mainstreaming, it is necessary to consider three fundamental aspects:

• The promotion of bottom-up initiatives, particularly those led by cities and communities, which can effectively integrate national plans for sustainable development and green growth strategies at national level.
• The implementation and enhancement of appropriate methodologies and capacity-building programs to actively engage all societal stakeholders, with particular attention to market operators, citizens, and local government actors, in order to carry out coordinated actions aimed at restoring the most compromised elements of natural environments.
• A continuous commitment to promoting nature-based solutions through identifying connections and addressing disconnections between biodiversity conservation and social, economic, and technological challenges.

Researchers from the Politecnico di Milano are involved in Work Package 3 of the project, titled "Developing the UGPplus Framework" which has the following general objectives:

• Development of an action-oriented framework to accelerate biodiversity-positive and climate-resilient urban planning, facilitating the implementation of UGP as operational plans.
• Improvement of the UGP process by incorporating the learnings from the various project work packages into a UGPplus guide and toolkit.
• Assessment of the potential for scaling up UGPplus at a broader European level.

the Work Package led by the Department of Design focuses on the (co)design and (co)development of a replicable framework for cities and urban areas across Europe. This framework aims to identify pathways, long-term shared vision, integrated policy strategy, and action plan (including responsibilities, timelines, and financing) to achieve the urban ecosystem restoration goals outlined in the upcoming EU regulation on nature restoration.

The UGPplus framework will include the enhanced process, mapping, and evaluation of methods and tools to support its phases, along with guidelines for cities including:

• Combinations of economic solutions enabling the co-implementation of strategies and co-monitoring their realization.
• Innovative solutions and governance models to systematically integrate strategies into public, private, and personal decision-making processes, such as public procurement, transport and climate policies, spatial regulations, land management decisions, market incentives, etc.
• Innovative financing and business models and job creation opportunities.

This Work Package will assist cities and various stakeholders in effectively and efficiently managing ecological restoration processes. The goal is to enhance understanding of how diverse ecological restoration actions can be better integrated into existing strategies, development plans, and public policies, thereby supporting institutional innovation.

The research group at the Department of Design, led by Professor Alessandro Deserti, through the actions of Work Package 3, provides an integrated and innovative approach to enhance the planning and implementation of urban green infrastructure across Europe, addressing territorial challenges and promoting sustainability and well-being in urban communities.