On 17 September 2026, MultiRoofs took part in the Interreg North-West Europe Communication & Impact Workshop at La Tricoterie in Brussels. Represented by Laura Jousset, Communication Manager for MultiRoofs at FARI/VUB, and Helmi Hansma, Project Lead at the City of Rotterdam, the consortium joined communication professionals from more than 70 NWE projects to exchange practical approaches for increasing project visibility and impact.
Communication as a shared responsibility
MultiRoofs brings together 14 partner organisations across five countries, with one shared ambition: to help cities better understand, map and unlock the potential of underused rooftops.
However, such a diverse consortium also creates a communication challenge. A central communication team cannot be everywhere, follow every local activity or master every technical topic. At the same time, the partners themselves hold the knowledge, local context and stories that make the project concrete and credible.
This is why MultiRoofs has been working on a simple principle: good project communication starts inside the consortium.
What we shared
During the Peer Learning Forum, MultiRoofs presented its approach to turning partners into communication ambassadors - one of 13 good practices shared by NWE projects during the afternoon.
Rather than asking partners to produce ready-made communication content, we focus on making contribution easy. Through monthly communication meetings, simple templates, regular reminders and direct exchanges, partners share their expertise, photos and local updates. The communication team then turns this material into accessible stories for wider audiences.
Just as importantly, this approach relies on trust. Showing partners how their contributions become visible content, recognising their expertise and keeping communication connected to the wider project has gradually created a stronger sense of shared ownership.
What comes next
The workshop was also an opportunity to learn from other Interreg NWE projects and bring new ideas back to the consortium.
For MultiRoofs, the next step is to keep developing this bottom-up communication approach as the project progresses. This means giving more space not only to the technical experts and partners developing the solutions, but also to the urban planners and professionals within local authorities who will use the MultiRoofs tools in practice. Their experience, needs and feedback are essential to understanding how these solutions can work in real urban contexts.
As more tools, pilots and local results emerge, these different voices will help us make MultiRoofs more concrete, useful and accessible to the cities we ultimately want to reach.
After all, communication works best when the people developing, testing and using the project’s solutions are part of the story.
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If you would like to learn more about the MultiRoofs approach, partner engagement or the tools we use to support consortium communication, get in touch with Laura Jousset, Communication Manager for MultiRoofs at FARI/VUB.