The Cross Border Thematic Living Lab entitled "Sustainable Cities & Islands" aims at the establishment of cross border working groups including research institutes, SMEs from the agri-food and culinary sectors as well as local administrative bodies in the intervention area and Civil Society actors to come up against major sectoral challenges on:

• Developing Local Food Policies to foster sustainable food systems through social, economic and ecological innovation in the agri-food sector;

• Promotion of sustainable diet (healthy, safe, environmentally friendly and accessible by vulnerable social groups) through relevant information programmes, with focus on schools, care centers, markets and media;

• Proposals for the development of tools for the promotion of sustainable diet and the distribution of edible residues from food production, supermarkets, wholesale and retail sale of agri-food products as well as culinary and hospitality units;

• Improvement of small producers’ position in local agri-food distribution chains through cooperation among agri-food SMEs and other business actors.

Five working groups of quadruple helix actors shall analyse challenges of the Greece- Italy cross border intervention area on each one of the abovementioned thematic pillars, in order to plan and propose actions and policies to promote sustainable food management in cities and islands of the two Regions of the intervention area.

The working groups’ sessions shall begin in May 2020 and be completed until the 15th October 2020. Due to the restrictive measures for the COVID-19 pandemic, the sessions shall be digital.