Cities across Europe face increasing pressure from climate change, rapid urbanisation, spatial inequality, and rising demands for transparent governance. Addressing these challenges requires planning and design decisions that are grounded in evidence, spatial analysis, and stakeholder knowledge rather than intuition alone. The TWIN2EXPAND Project Brochure summarises the project activities, outputs and achievements.

TWIN2EXPAND – Twinning towards Research Excellence in Evidence-Based Planning and Urban Design was launched to respond precisely to this need. Funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme, the project set out to strengthen research capacity, analytical tools, and institutional cultures for Evidence-Based Design and Planning (EBDP), positioning Cyprus as a strategic living laboratory for methodological innovation and policy-relevant urban research.

Building Capacity for Evidence-Based Urban Decision-Making

Coordinated by the University of Cyprus, through the Society and Urban Form (SURF) Research Lab, TWIN2EXPAND brought together leading European partners: University College London, Chalmers University of Technology, Politecnico di Torino, and Space Syntax Limited. Over its three-year duration (2023–2025), the project strengthened research excellence through intensive trainings, academic exchanges, joint publications, and applied research collaborations.

At its core, TWIN2EXPAND advanced Evidence-Based Design and Planning as a systematic, iterative approach that integrates empirical data, spatial modelling, and stakeholder engagement to support informed, transparent, accountable, and future-oriented planning decisions.

From Research to Practice: Key Achievements

Throughout its implementation, TWIN2EXPAND delivered a suite of concrete outputs and methodological innovations, including:

• Hybrid spatial modelling workflows that combine open data, curated local datasets, and transparent assumptions, remaining effective even in data-scarce contexts.
• The EBDP Applicability Matrix, a diagnostic tool that helps institutions assess readiness for evidence-based approaches by evaluating technical capacity and institutional conditions.
• Policy-relevant spatial analyses on accessibility, green infrastructure, and public service provision in Cyprus, directly informing two Policy Briefs on inclusive green space planning and sustainable location strategies for citizens’ services.
• A Social-Ecological analytical framework exploring the relationships between urban density, biodiversity, and environmental performance.
• Extensive stakeholder engagement, including advocacy meetings, participatory workshops, mapping walkshops, exhibitions in public space, and policy dialogues.These outputs demonstrate how evidence-based approaches can inform real planning decisions — early enough to test alternatives, anticipate impacts, and refine strategies before they become irreversible.

These outputs demonstrate how evidence-based approaches can inform real planning decisions — early enough to test alternatives, anticipate impacts, and refine strategies before they become irreversible.

 European Relevance and Broader Impact

TWIN2EXPAND aligns closely with key European priorities, contributing to:

• The European Green Deal, by supporting evidence-informed pathways toward climate-neutral and socially just cities.
• The New European Bauhaus, by promoting planning solutions that are sustainable, inclusive, and grounded in place-based knowledge.
• The EU Mission for Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities, by strengthening analytical and experimentation capacity at the urban level

Beyond Cyprus, the project adds Mediterranean-specific evidence and transferable methodologies to the European research landscape, reinforcing the role of Evidence-Based Design and Planning in urban governance across diverse contexts.

Looking Ahead

As the funded phase of TWIN2EXPAND concludes, its impact continues. The project has laid the foundations for a stable, evidence-driven planning culture in Cyprus and a strong international network committed to advancing EBDP in research, practice, and policy.

Future efforts will focus on expanding open datasets and reproducible workflows, deepening collaboration with municipalities and national agencies through pilot applications, and sustaining the international EBDP network through joint projects, exchanges, and the establishment of a long-term evidence-based planning hub at the University of Cyprus.

Knowledge Resources

Resources developed through TWIN2EXPAND on evidence-based planning and urban design are available at: https://twin2expand.surf.com.cy