URBASOFIA SRL

Their core work

URBASOFIA is a Romanian urban planning and design consultancy specializing in sustainable city development, cultural heritage regeneration, and green infrastructure. They bring expertise in co-design processes, community engagement, and translating urban sustainability concepts into actionable strategies for post-industrial and historic city contexts. Their work spans from revitalizing heritage districts to implementing nature-based solutions like urban agriculture and forestry, and more recently, supporting sustainable wood construction and climate resilience planning.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

URBASOFIA began with a strong focus on cultural heritage, social inclusion, and participatory urban renewal — projects like ROCK (2017) and proGIreg (2018) dealt with historic city centres, urban commons, and soil regeneration in post-industrial areas. From 2019 onward, their focus shifted toward climate-oriented and materials-driven work: sustainable wood construction (Build-in-Wood), organic waste recovery (NOMAD), and climate resilience through Earth Observation data (HARMONIA). The trajectory shows a clear move from socially-driven urban regeneration toward technically-grounded climate and environmental solutions.

URBASOFIA is evolving from a participatory urban planning consultancy toward a climate adaptation and sustainable built environment specialist, increasingly engaging with data-driven tools and green building materials.

How they like to work

URBASOFIA operates exclusively as a consortium partner, never as coordinator, which is typical for a specialized SME contributing domain expertise to larger research and innovation actions. With 129 unique partners across 25 countries in just 5 projects, they consistently join large, diverse consortia — averaging roughly 26 partners per project. This signals an organization comfortable working in complex, multi-country frameworks and valued for a specific niche contribution rather than project leadership.

Extensive European network with 129 unique partners spanning 25 countries, built through large Innovation Action consortia. Their Romanian base combined with this wide reach suggests strong connections across both Western and Eastern European urban development communities.

What sets them apart

URBASOFIA occupies a distinctive niche as a Romanian private consultancy that bridges social urban planning with environmental and climate innovation — a rare combination in Eastern Europe's H2020 landscape. Their strength lies in connecting participatory design methods with technical sustainability challenges, making them valuable for projects that need on-the-ground implementation expertise in Central and Eastern European urban contexts. For consortium builders, they offer both the SME flexibility and a credible track record across heritage, green infrastructure, and climate adaptation domains.

Highlights from their portfolio

• Build-in-Wood
  Their largest single project (EUR 308K) and a departure from urban planning into sustainable construction materials — signals a strategic expansion into the built environment sector.
• HARMONIA
  Most recent project (2021-2025) introduces ML/DL and Earth Observation technologies, marking a significant technical upgrade in their climate resilience work.
• proGIreg
  Five-year Innovation Action on productive green infrastructure combining urban agriculture, forestry, and social entrepreneurship — core to their nature-based solutions profile.