Project Director at the city of Barcelona | Spain

Isabella Longo is Project Director of BIT Habitat, the Urban Innovation Center of Barcelona City Council, which aims to tackle the social, economic, technological, and environmental challenges the city is facing. To do this, she combines the involvement and collaboration of members of civil society, universities, researchers, the business network, and the public sector. She also coordinated the establishment of the EIT Urban Mobility Initiative. For most of the past decade, Isabella has coordinated Barcelona’s Urbanization Observatory (Autonomous University of Barcelona), an urban research centre with a focus on analysing urban and societal transformations and designing strategic plans and policies to tackle specific needs. She has also been coordinating the International Master’s Degree of Landscape and Heritage Management (UAB-MUHBA). With an Engineering and urban planning background Isabella is a trend-watcher who is passionate about the city, society, sustainability, innovation, digital transformation, arts and culture, and world-changing ideas. She is a member of the Catalan Territorial Planning Society and works as a curator and designer of cultural events with a societal impact, addressing open debate and dialogue around the big challenges cities are facing.