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In the last week of August, Hanna Szemző and Kata Kepes from the Metropolitan Reseach Institute presented their case study within the REDESIGN project at the 32nd International Horticultural Congress 2026 (IHC2026) in Kyoto, in the session “Redesigning Urban Food Systems: Greening Cities through Food.”

🌱🏙️ Their presentation, “Reinventing market halls – solutions and dilemmas in contemporary Budapest and Bratislava,” explored how historic markets can adapt to changing food systems, consumer habits and neighbourhoods, focusing on three markets:
1) The Hunyadi Square Market Hall,
2) the Rákóczi Square Market Hall and the
3) Old Market Hall in Bratislava.

The research highlights that markets can evolve beyond traditional food retail to become:
🥕 Places for diverse and local food and short supply chains
🤝 Community spaces that foster personal relationships and cultural activities
🌱 Spaces for sustainable and ethical food sourcing

Physical renovation is often essential for a successful transformation but governance is equally crucial: different ownership and management models create different opportunities for experimentation, financial sustainability and social inclusion. One key challenge remains that food is still often missing from urban policy agendas in Central and Eastern Europe, where food, social issues and sustainability tend to be addressed separately. The goal, therefore, is not only to preserve historic market halls, but to rethink their role in contemporary cities.

Within the REDESIGN project, one of the main tasks of Metropolitan Research Institute is to enable organisations working on sustainability to learn from each other’s challenges, creative ideas, losses, and successes. One of the main objectives of the project is to create a platform for green community gardens, sustainable urban markets, and researchers working on sustainability, where they can connect and share their negative and positive experiences with one another. This is why last week’s meeting in London was particularly special for us. At the meeting, not only the project partners (the so-called “living labs”, research institutes, and universities) participated, but also the community organisations whose cases can serve as inspiration (“inspirational cases”) for one another and for the project partners. For the participants of the event, the staff members of Városkutatás Kft., Hanna Szemző and Kata Kepes, organised an interactive workshop where the organisations and the partners introduced themselves to one another so that, in the future, they could jointly seek solutions to the challenges affecting them.

For more details, visit the project website: https://horizon-redesign.eu/work-packages/

 

The European Parliament hosted a public, cross-party conference on the role of cities in Cohesion Policy, in which Iván Tosics summarized in his keynote talk the results of the ESPON URDICO project.

We visited Warsaw as part of the SOLACE-CEE project, marking the official halftime of the program. The three-day meeting was combined with an extended management (SC and PM) session and the 15th Innovation Team meeting. In the weeks leading up to the event, our institute designed and distributed an online questionnaire to gather feedback from the partners, and during the Warsaw meeting, we presented the synthesized results of this internal monitoring exercise. The meeting also marked an important leadership transition: Eszter Somogyi stepped down as the leader of the Innovation Team, and Alena Vachnová took over the role starting from this milestone. It was also a major highlight and success for the project that in the days preceding our consortium meeting, the SOLACE-CEE project was showcased through partner presentations at the prestigious FEANTSA FORUM 2026 conference, which was also hosted in Warsaw. This provided an excellent opportunity to introduce our work to a wider international professional audience. Based on the monitoring feedback compiled by our team, the participating organizations have significantly strengthened their capacity and expertise over the past year. Although local pilot activities—ranging from telemedicine in shelters to establishing integrated regional HUBs—have been successfully launched, partners faced major systemic barriers during implementation. These include persistent staff shortages and high turnover, rigid funding frameworks, as well as the intense level of client needs and a hidden mental health burden among the target group. Concluding the meeting, we discussed future steps, agreeing that the focus must shift from administrative duties toward practice-oriented, peer-to-peer knowledge sharing and stronger integration with stable housing policies.

In April 2023, the Municipality of Budapest launched an exciting new initiative: the City Governance Academy. The course offers a comprehensive blend of theoretical and practical insights, where participants can gain invaluable knowledge about all aspects of urban governance. They can learn about the most relevant questions and challenges cities currently face from Hungary’s most renowned academics and practitioners and together explore possible solutions. Led by Iván Tosics, the course promises a deep dive into urban governance.

The course gained a lot of interest already in its first year, having received 120 applications. After a two-round selection process, 25 participants were admitted, forming a vibrant and diverse inaugural class. While some worked in the public sphere and had direct contact with city governance, many came from startups, civil organizations or private companies. The group included people with political ambitions, those looking to enrich their studies and
others passionate about making the city more liveable.

On each of the 13 immersive learning days of the course, students attended three presentations covering topics ranging from transport and budgeting, to climate protection and housing. Each learning day was usually followed by a fun activity such as exploring the architectural design of the capital, visiting the Budapest Waterworks or touring the tunnel of metro line 2, which houses the former Rákosi Bunker. The cost of the course is sponsored by the Municipality, meaning that there is no tuition fee for participants.

The first class of the City Governance Academy concluded in early December 2023, followed by a 2-day-long field trip to Vienna offering students insights into Austrian and European urban policy. To cap off the course, students prepared and then defended a final essay in a closed professional conference. Those who successfully completed the programme, received an accredited adult learning diploma from the Budapest Cultural Center.

Following the positive reception of the first year of the VKA, the second year was held between October 2024 and June 2025, with 27 students selected in a similar manner. The third year, also with 27 students, runs between October 2025 and June 2026.

TOPICS OF THE CITY GOVERNANCE ACADEMY (EXCERPT)
Theoretical Foundations for the Study of Urban Governance. The Place and Role of Urban
Governance in the Governance System, in an International Comparison
European and Hungarian Practices in Local Government Regulation
How Does a Local Government Function in Reality?
Budapest: How Is a Local Government Budget Formed?
European models of integrated urban development and domestic practice
Municipal asset management and real estate development
City diplomacy. The role of Budapest’s representation in Brussels from the perspective of
local, national, and EU decision-making
Regulation and tools of municipal urban planning and development
Domestic regulation and practice of organizing local infrastructure public services

Good mobility solutions adaptable to Budapest, the transformation of public transportation in
Budapest
Urban rehabilitation and the renewal of brownfield sites, environmental policy, the
enhancement of public spaces for community purposes
Housing and social services
Combating homelessness, poverty, and exclusion, and educational segregation
Cities and tourism
Models for ensuring citizen participation
Participatory budgeting
Municipal communication
Data-driven urban governance in practice

City Governance Academy: the organizing team and the Academic Board
Program Director: Iván Tosics
VKA Secretariat: András Milánkovich, Dániel G. Szabó, Zsuzsa Mohai
VKA Academic Board:
János Atkári, former Deputy Mayor, Director of Pénzügykutató Zrt.,
Judit Bodnár, PhD, university professor, CEU Department of Sociology and Social
Anthropology
József Hegedüs, PhD, economist and sociologist, expert in housing policy and local
government, Director of Városkutatás Kft.,
Ágnes Hitesy, expert in international urban development and grant applications, Director of
HitesyBartuczHollai Euroconsulting Ltd.,
István Hoffman, PhD, university professor, Department of Administrative Law, ELTE
Faculty of Law,
Ilona Pálné Kovács, full member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences,
Gábor Péteri, PhD, economist, municipal finance expert,
Péter Szegvári, former chief clerk of the capital city, former deputy state secretary,
international regional development expert, senior consultant, City Consult Bt.
Csaba Tordai, chief legal advisor to the mayor, former State Secretary for Legal and
Administrative Affairs at the Prime Minister’s Office.