Alessandro Colombo is a freelance senior consultant and urban planner based in Lisbon (Portugal), specialized in housing policies and urban regeneration processes in distressed urban areas. He provides consultancy services in the area of territorial development, having 10 years of experience in technical assistance. He has worked as researcher and consultant in several Portuguese universities in the areas of participatory processes, socio-territorial intervention in disadvantaged communities, housing policies and urban regeneration, local development and new forms of multilevel, integrated and collaborative governance. He was also a consultant in a private sector company in the areas of spatial planning, local development and urban regeneration and managing editor of an urbanism magazine in Italy, and project manager in a public company in the area of sustainable urban mobility in Lisbon. Between 2019 and 2023, he was a consultant for projects financed by Portuguese national funds and manager of European projects in private consultancy companies in Portugal, in the areas of housing policies, urban regeneration and rehabilitation, urban transformation, territorial marketing, smart cities, adaptation to climate change, nature-based solutions, energy transition, carbon neutrality, co-creation, cultural heritage, farm to fork, sustainable urban mobility, circular economy. Alessandro has technical competences in strategic planning and robust soft skills, such as: urban and territorial analysis, including the development of diagnostics; autonomy and relational capacities for the development of strategic partnerships; design of territorial policy agendas, strategies, visions, roadmaps and action plans in different policy sectors supporting different type of organizations (public authorities; private companies; universities and research centers; community and local development associations and agencies; etc.) for the deployment of led-local integrated development initiatives. He combines data and evidence-based policy science with action and applied research based on engagement practices with key stakeholders in local contexts by adopting a transdisciplinary approach. From September 2023, Alessandro is a validated URBACT expert to perform ad-hoc expertise missions at network and programme level in the fields of energy transition, housing and strategic planning.