The EU-funded MICAD project (Metropolitan Inclusivity in Climate and Digital Transitions) has entered a new phase. Now, five Metropolitan Authorities are turning their transition priorities into clear action roadmaps.
These roadmaps are important because metropolitan areas face many connected challenges. These include climate risks, the need to reduce emissions, fragmented data, gaps in digitalisation, changing mobility patterns, and the difficulty of coordinating action across different institutions and levels of government.
But these challenges are different in each place. Every metropolitan area has its own context, governance, resources, and priorities. MICAD helps authorities create transition strategies that match local needs, using a shared European approach and learning from each other.
Five Metropolitan Areas, Five Local Roadmaps
In the first year, MICAD focused on building the foundation. The team gathered evidence, created a shared toolkit, and worked with partners to design a method for planning metropolitan transitions.
Now, this preparation is turning into real action.
Five Metropolitan Authorities have begun working on their own roadmaps.
- Barcelona, Tirana, and Milan are focusing on digital transition roadmaps.
- Metropolia GZM and Chișinău are working on climate transition roadmaps.
Each roadmap addresses different challenges.
Some metropolitan areas are working on better digital infrastructure, improved data use, and more connected, data-driven public services. Others are focusing on climate risks, cutting emissions, and practical ways to support a resilient transition. Institutional factors also play a role. Metropolitan authorities need to coordinate with municipalities, different levels of government, departments, businesses, research groups, and civil society, while dealing with rules, budgets, and organisational limits. All five authorities use the MICAD framework, but each has its own challenges, priorities, and starting points.
The Metropolitan Authorities lead the work and make decisions about their roadmaps. UTA and Kentyou help coordinate the process by bringing the five authorities together to share experiences, discuss challenges, and learn from each other.
One Methodology, Different Local Realities
MICAD has developed a shared method that gives all five roadmaps a clear and consistent structure. At the same time, each metropolitan area can adapt the process to fit its own situation.
The goal is not to create five identical roadmaps. The shared framework gives everyone a common starting point, but each authority can focus on the issues that matter most in their own area.
UTA and Kentyou adjust their support as needed. They provide group exchange sessions and one-on-one guidance when an authority needs more specific help.
These exchanges are already a key part of the process. By bringing the five metropolitan areas together, MICAD gives them a chance to share progress, compare approaches, and talk about challenges others have faced.
The roadmap process also allows MICAD to test its toolkit and methods. As teams use these tools in real metropolitan settings, they can see what works, where changes are needed, and how to make the approach more useful in practice.
Turning Challenges into Strategic Goals
As drafting continues, the five metropolitan areas are moving from listing challenges and broad priorities to setting clearer strategic goals.
They are defining their local context, identifying the main challenges they want to address, and setting priorities for their transition. Next, they work on a shared vision and turn it into strategic objectives.
But a roadmap is about more than just setting goals.
The authorities are also considering who should be involved in making these goals happen. They are identifying the right internal teams and external partners, and thinking about how different levels of government can work together. They are starting to address practical questions about implementation, financing, monitoring, and risk.
This is important because climate and digital transitions need more than isolated actions. They require coordination between policies, infrastructure, technology, institutions, and people.
Step by step, the work is moving from understanding local challenges to building a plan for coordinated action.
Learning from Different Metropolitan Experiences
MICAD brought together metropolitan areas with different governance structures, experience levels, and transition priorities on purpose. This diversity is now central to the project.
The five authorities face different challenges and are not starting from the same place. Their different experiences give them a chance to compare approaches, learn from each other, and find solutions that could work in other metropolitan areas.
This also means that progress will look different in each area.
Some authorities may already have data, strategies, or governance systems that others are still working on. Others may have institutional or resource limits that require a different approach.
UTA and Kentyou combine a shared framework with personalised support. This helps each authority meet its own needs while keeping the group connected.
Most importantly, the Metropolitan Authorities remain in control of their roadmaps. UTA and Kentyou do not write the roadmaps for them. Instead, they support the process, help coordinate, and create opportunities for peer learning.
Next Steps
This stage will focus on turning the new strategic frameworks into practical roadmaps for action.
The five authorities will continue refining their strategic goals and prioritise the concrete actions needed to achieve them. They will also involve stakeholders more deeply and work on plans for governance, implementation, funding, monitoring, and risk management.
During this process, peer review and learning between cities will remain important. This gives the authorities opportunities to share progress, question each other’s approaches, and improve their roadmaps together.
The MICAD General Assembly in Katowice, from 22 to 24 September 2026, will be an important opportunity to move this work forward and deepen the exchange between the participating metropolitan areas. After that, the project will share its experience with a wider audience at the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona on 3 November 2026. There, it will present new approaches, lessons learned, and practical experience from developing the roadmaps.
The MICAD project is moving from understanding metropolitan challenges to creating local pathways for action. The tools and methods developed in the project’s first year are now being used to help five metropolitan areas turn their climate and digital transition priorities into strategic roadmaps and, ultimately, into real action.