Age-Friendly Cities and Communities (AFCC) is a framework developed by the WHO to guide age-friendly transformations. Today, around 1,500 municipalities in over 50 countries are part of the AFCC network. However, there are still significant "white spots" on the AFCC map, including countries in South Asia—despite the fact that they are also affected by demographic aging.

Academic research highlights two key aspects that form the basis for the present project idea:

• Although AFCC goals can only be achieved through changes in the built environment (e.g., age-friendly mobility, diverse green spaces, active neighborhood life), planning disciplines (urban and social planning) are still insufficiently integrated into the AFCC discourse.
• Although AFCC aspires to be a global framework, participation remains heavily concentrated in Europe and North America with specific emphases such as "Aging in Place" and "Caring Community.

The proposed project addresses this situation. Specifically, a research team from the Department of Urban Planning at the non-profit University of Isfahan will undertake a visit at ZHAW, during which they will:

1. Explore and assess AFCC concepts in Swiss cities through field visits and interviews with urban planning stakeholders.
2. Discuss preliminary findings in an expert workshop at ZHAW with Swiss stakeholders from planning and politics, as well as experts from other EU projects of the applicant ("lessons learned from an Iranian perspective").
3. Collaboratively develop a set of “inspiring practices” that will support the City of Isfahan (recent agreement with the WHO AFCC network) in planning its own age-friendly transformation.

In the long term, the project aims to establish a sustainable cooperation between the University of Isfahan and ZHAW, which could also benefit other South Asian cities. An existing collaboration between the applicant and WHO is expected to be strengthened through this project.