The fourth Community of Practice in Italy was held on 12 March 2026, organised by SELINA’s partners from the University of Trento, to define activities for the 2026–2027 period and support the Community’s ongoing mission to facilitate knowledge exchange across research, planning and practice.

The session opened with an introduction to the overall theme that will guide the Community of Practice over the next two years, which is understanding how scientific evidence can be jointly produced, interpreted, and used by public and private actors to support more informed and coherent decision-making.

Participants were presented with the results of a pre-meeting questionnaire, which helped define priorities, ways of collaboration and topics for future meetings.

A preliminary framework developed by the University of Trento was also introduced, describing how scientific evidence flows when public and private decision-making processes need to work in synergy to achieve sustainable, scalable, and replicable impacts. 

Practical examples were also shared, including urban greening, energy efficiency, renaturalisation and climate adaptation.

Future meetings will focus on ‘Governance and the integration of scientific evidence’, with participants encouraged to take a more active and practical role in the Community of Practice.