Author: ISOCARP Institute

Delegation visit of Polish city of Zdunska Wola to Sestao

Posted on December 22, 2021 by - News

Eight representatives (and interpreter) from the Polish city of Zdunska Wola, including the mayor, came to visit Northern Spain. The purpose of the visit is to familiarize the representatives with the Smart City solutions and the project “60+ Smart City: innovations as a result of intergenerational cooperation”. The participants in this study are curious to know what innovative social solutions are used in Basque cities. They had a meeting with Bilbao in the morning, with SB during the afternoon, and the following day with Santander. The purpose of the visit is to exchange good practices and expand knowledge, in which +CityxChange was presented to them. 

Climathon Smolyan 2021

Posted on December 22, 2021 by - News

The Climathon in Smolyan was facilitated fully virtually under the motto “For cleaner, greener and more sustainable Smolyan in the future”, focusing on generating ideas inspired by the SDF Goals 7,11,12,13,14,15 and 17, and their respective channels. The event took place on November 25th and 26th, 2021 with over 50 participants from local high schools, divided into six teams, that was led by a group of mentors from the municipality of Smolyan as well as other professionals within the realm of energy and sustainability and urban development. 

During the initial stages of the organization of the Climathon, three main challenges were identified which were presented to the participants as a focus for the event. The climate-specific challenges were related to energy efficiency, waste management, and transport. The teams worked on the challenges that they considered important and developed solutions about how their city could be more sustainable in the future.

This event generated many ideas and useful insights for the +CityxChange project. It was fueled by an enthusiastic group of youth who were motivated to support the winning ideas to make real changes within their city. 

The Municipality of Smolyan has pledged it support to help implementing all the ideas from the Climathon whether through direct funding within existing programs on the subject or by assisting in securing funding for further research and development of the solution.

D5.10: Trondheim Innovation Lab Solutions Catalogue

Posted on December 20, 2021 by -

The deliverable D5.10: Trondheim Innovation Lab Solutions Catalogue was submitted by Trondheim Kommune (TK), with contributions from NTNU, SE, RK, and TE in December 2021. The executive summary of the deliverable is available below and the full deliverable at the end for download:

“This report is a catalogue of energy-related Innovation Lab Solutions, which have been developed and tested in Innovation Playgrounds in the Lighthouse City (LHC) Trondheim. Innovation Playgrounds are designated areas of a city where different physical and virtual places and activities relating to innovation are brought together to facilitate collaboration, empower citizens, and find new ways of addressing challenges that matter to people. Innovation Playgrounds in LHC Trondheim have focused on co-creation between business, public sector, academia and local residents.

An Innovation Playground includes a System (consisting of places, activities, data and enabling mechanisms), a Journey (which requires observation, sense-making, co-design and
prototyping) and Localisation (to bring various places and activities together in a coherent structure). The methods that have been employed to develop and test solutions in LHC Trondheim include:

● Ideations, competitions and games (which led to the generation of ideas, initiatives and proposals)


● Co-creation and learning workshops (which led to the development of policies, strategies shared understanding of tasks and collaboration agreements)


● Festivals and special events (which contributed to wider engagement, dissemination of ideas and promotion of Positive Energy Blocks/Districts)

Innovation Playgrounds in LHC Trondheim have used these methods to test and develop 13 innovation solutions, featured in the Catalogue of Innovation Lab Solutions (Section 4 of this report). The Catalogue features technical and social solutions ranging from energy trading platforms and green mobility apps to youth sustainability workshops and energy board games. These solutions have been demonstrated in LHC Trondheim, and have the potential for upscaling and replication outside of the demonstration areas.

In LHC Trondheim, the most successful testing of innovation solutions occurred where co-creation between business, public sector, academia and local residents was felt the strongest. For example, the Mobee mobility app solution required the formation of an advisory board across sectors, partnerships and data from mobility companies and user testing with students and local residents. This type of solution had a clear objective (to improve access to green mobility options) and received high levels of media attention and public support.

To replicate these results across the +CityxChange project, it is important to consider the intended impact of the solution, the business case for implementing such a solution and the partnerships and resources required to make it happen. In this way, LHC Trondheim, and Follower Cities across Europe, can co-create the future we want to live in.”

Energy Citizenship in New Energy Concepts

Posted on December 16, 2021 by -

Abstract

It is assumed by the projects demonstrating Positive Energy District (PED) concepts in cities across Europe that citizens should want and need to be involved in the development of new energy concepts, such as PEDs for these concepts to be deployed successfully. Six different PED research and innovation projects are investigating the types and expectations of citizen engagement. They evaluate the impact of energy citizenship on the success of PED deployment across Europe.

Year: 2021

Authors: Mark van Wees, Beatriz Pineda Revilla, Helena Fitzgerald, Dirk Ahlers, Natalia Romero, Beril Alpagut, Joke Kort, Cyril Tjahja, Gabi Kaiser, Viktoria Blessing, Lia Patricio, Sander Smit

Publisher: MDPI

New European Bauhaus and CommunityxChange

Posted on December 15, 2021 by - News

The +CityxChange Horizon 2020 project is focused on the clean energy transition of cities, positioning this within a broader UN SDG context. The +CityxChange approach places people at the heart of the transition towards decarbonisation, where community-led open innovation and co-creation activities and processes are linked to city governance structures in order to bring about change. 

Decarbonising our society and economy, alongside addressing climate change and biodiversity loss, are societal challenges with accelerating impacts on peoples’ day-to-day lives. Feeling powerless to meaningfully act is individually felt. Providing pathways and infrastructure to empower citizens, to enable individual action and to encourage collective responses to address local and global challenges is vital to realising more sustainable places and ways of life. 

The CommunityxChange frameworks developed in +CityxChange describe a mechanism to enable the co-creation of the future we want to live in. The frameworks have been designed to put in place a platform for innovation which places people at its core. The integrated concepts can initiate positive cycles of collaboration, where obstacles and opportunities experienced by people and communities can be acted on in a meaningful way. 

The frameworks which are designed for cities can be localised to a range of contexts. Though focussed on the clean energy transition and the creation of Distributed Positive Energy Blocks they can be adapted to suit broader transitions towards the UN SDGs. The frameworks are designed to leverage existing resources, knowledge, networks, skills, infrastructure and to make participation meaningful for people through top-down and bottom-up processes of engagement. 

Full details of all frameworks are published on the +CityxChange Knowledge Base and are summarised as follows: 

  • D3.1: Framework for Bold City Vision, Guidelines, and Incentive Schemes (SDG City Transition Framework) – describes a process to create a city vision and to identify goals which places the clean energy transition within the cities’ overarching planning and management processes, all located within a broader UN SDG sustainable development context. This deliverable, authored by Trondheim Kommune, has been selected for the EU H2020 Innovation Radar Platform as an innovation to watch. 
  • D3.2: Delivery of the Citizen Participation Playbook – contains best practice guidance for citizen engagement; a catalogue of physical and online engagement tools; and four participatory processes for co-design in the clean energy transition including Co-design of Urban Interventions, Collaborative Legislation, Participatory Budgeting, and Citizen Proposals. 
  • D3.3: Framework for Innovation Playgrounds – describes a spatial and socio-economic framework where physical and virtual places and innovation activities are assembled into a coherent whole, an Innovation Playground, where Innovation Playground journeys enable collaboration and empower citizens to innovate to address challenges that matter to them. 
  • D3.4: Framework for DPEB Learning and Education – includes a set of principles and a dynamic portfolio of activities on the +CityxChange website which integrates youth learning programmes at different age levels with active ageing society programmes. 
  • D3.5: Framework for a Positive Energy Champion Network – describes a campaign to initiate a network of people who can help translate the ideas, plans and innovations associated with the clean energy transition into local knowledge and actions. The Champions are co-innovators who explore, ideate, design and diffuse changes in behaviour to enable the city’s clean energy transition.  
  • D3.6: Framework for DPEB Innovation Labs – describes a framework for the implementation of dedicated centres for digital innovation within a city, located physically and conceptually within the +CityxChange Innovation Playground and where its operation can become manifest. A DPEB Innovation Lab comprises a programme of activities and events, and a network of virtual and physical locations connected to a citizen observatory system where citizens can make observations on local environments using mobile digital devices. The DPEB Innovation Lab enables new collaborations between government, academia, business, and civil society to meet the innovation agenda of a particular place defined through its Bold City Vision process. Its operation contributes to a positive cycle of collaboration, where citizens’ creativity and knowledge of their place can be channelled to effect change. The DPEB Innovation Lab is a point of intersection of the CommunityxChange frameworks and describes a physical space for innovation and co-creation, connected to a digital space promoting sustainable digitalisation and lowering the threshold to participation. 

Placemaking as a concept can, in addition to enhancing the natural and built environment, embrace culture, diversity, inclusion, sustainability, creativity and beautiful ways of life. The CommunityxChange concepts developed through +CityxChange can support the aims of the New European Bauhaus to create sustainable, beautiful and inclusive places through co-creation, place-specific community-led open innovation and the initiation of positive cycles of collaboration.

+Limerick Citizen’s Innovation Lab

Posted on December 1, 2021 by - News

Co- creating the future we want to live in.

The +Limerick Citizen’s Innovation Lab is a new way of engaging members of the public, groups and organisations in helping to create Limerick’s future.

Based in the old Dunnes Stores building on Sarsfield Street in the heart of Limerick City Centre, the Innovation Lab will provide a physical and digital space where citizens can work collaboratively with the local authority, University of Limerick and other interested stakeholders to develop solutions focused on the energy transition, climate action and sustainability.

Public consultation events, meetings, mapping, co-creation workshops, open innovation projects and do-it-together projects will happen in the space which is divided into three distinct areas.

The Space includes;

  • FABLAB – supported by UL, the FabLab is a digital fabrication laboratory that offers cultural, educational and research programmes
  • Citizen’s Observatory – a place physical and digital space that enables citizens to offer to utilise data to co-design solutions together.
  • Community Engagement Hub – a space for public participation and citizen engagement.  A space to ‘Co- create the future we want to live in’

The +Limerick Citizen’s Innovation Lab is in partnership with the University of Limerick as part of the Horizon 2020 +CityxChange Project

Coming soon. Watch this space!

D11.10 Data Management Plan 4

Posted on December 1, 2021 by -

The deliverable D11.10 Data Management Plan 4 was submitted by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), with contributions from all partners in November 2021. The executive summary of the deliverable is available below and the full deliverable at the end for download:

” This deliverable constitutes the fourth version of the Data Management Plan for the +CityxChange project. It specifies Data Governance and handling of data in the project, types of data expected to be generated in the project, and if and how it will be made open and accessible for verification and re-use. It will also specify curation and preservation, with details such as ethical, privacy, and security issues.

All beneficiaries are informed of the applicable regulations around human participation, informed consent, data processing, data security, and the pertinent regulations such as GDPR or H2020 Ethics or FAIR guidelines. When personal data collection or processing is started, the DMP information will be updated accordingly to include updated data summaries, consent forms, compliance, and institutional approval where necessary. Processing of personal data will respect the Data Protection Principles. This document provides an overview of data handling in the project and provides the initial guidelines for the project. The project will support openness according to the EU FAIR approach and the
principle “as open as possible, as closed as necessary” together with the project ambition of “Open by Default”.

This document is an update of D11.5: Data Management Plan – Initial Version, D11.7 Data Management Plan 2 and D11.16 Data Management Plan 3 and supersedes those documents. Changes to previous versions are detailed in the introduction section. “

D11.9: Risk Mitigation Registry 3

Posted on December 1, 2021 by -

The deliverable D11.9: Risk Mitigation Registry 3 was submitted by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), in November 2021. The executive summary of the deliverable is available below and the full deliverable at the end for download:

” This deliverable contains the +CityxChange risk management process and a regular review and update of the risk tables. It defines detailed risk management and review processes and sets expectations, procedures, and responsibilities. It presents an extended version of the risk tables, updated with the state at the time of writing with new risks based on lessons learned, and defines more detailed criteria for each identified risk, leading to an operational risk management and tracking. This report includes the process and results from an state-of-the-art review done in early 2021 of existing SCC-01 projects in order to identify gaps in the risk management strategy. It also includes a risk assessment section for COVID-19 implications. This report is the updated version of D11.6: Risk Mitigation Registry 2 and supersedes that document. Specific changes from the previous document are highlighted in the Introduction.”

D5.8: +Trondheim Citizen Observatory

Posted on November 23, 2021 by -

The deliverable D5.8: +Trondheim Citizen Observatory was submitted by Trondheim Kommune (TK), with contributions from RK, NTNU, TK, and ISOCARP in November 2021. The executive summary of the deliverable is available below and the full deliverable at the end for download:

” This report comprises a description of four physical and one digital Citizen Observatories (CO) in the Lighthouse City (LHC) Trondheim, Norway. The report describes how the COs are connected to the +CityxChange approach (prototyping – enabling – accelerating), and how they are implemented as a part of the project. The objective of Trondheim’s COs is to facilitate physical and digital spaces to support the acceleration of becoming a positive energy city. The COs are seen as a tool, platform, facilitator, enabler, and catalyst to secure and make citizen engagement and citizen involvement possible and easily achievable. The users of the COs are local authorities, energy providers, businesses, academia, citizens and communities. 

A five step framework, inspired by Work Package 3 in +CityxChange, was developed in order to plan and set up the COs. During the implementation process it was noted that changes were needed, so beneficial adjustments and adaptations were made accordingly. As a result, the COs in LHC Trondheim have become more diverse and complementary, covering a broader range of use. We see the framework as a starting point, suggestive information, and a inspiration list that must be fitted to the CO in question and the local conditions, not as a mandatory action list.This approach lowers the threshold, increases the success rate, flexibility, replicability and adaptability potential for other cities, especially when sharing the experience of added value and lessons learned in LHC Trondheim. 

The five COs, which are part of +CityxChange in LHC Trondheim, are; Powerhouse and Skipperkontoret; Bærekraftssenteret; Bøker&bylab Elgeseter; Lager11 and Playable Trondheim, the digital platform Decidim. The COs are hosted by partners within +CityxChange and serve more activities and projects than +CityxChange. The COs are established in the Knowledge Axis, the +CityxChange Demonstration District, and an area with several projects that define and will define urban development in LHC Trondheim. The location of the COs serve a purpose beyond the project, expanding the impact and contributing to positive synergies. In that notion it is worth mentioning the status as The UN Centre of Excellence on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) City Transition connected to Bærekraftsenteret CO since 2019. LHC Trondheim is also among the top three finalists to be awarded The European Capital of Innovation Award 2021. The award recognises the European cities that best promote innovations in their communities. LHC Trondheim has demonstrated the connection between UN SDGs and the city’s innovation vision through experiments, ecosystem building, scaling, accelerating and knowledge sharing.

The COs in LHC Trondheim are provided with different technical gear such as screens, cameras, and studio equipment that proved crucial during the global pandemic. The technical gear, and spacious areas within the COs, made it possible to produce digital content, keep up the activity level and secure safe working distance. All COs share visual features connected to the SDGs.

The added value and lessons learned from the work on planning, implementing and using COs can be interpreted differently depending on the reader’s vantage point. On a general term the work taught the involved partners to think, work and collaborate in a dynamic, sometimes unpredictable, environment. Being flexible and solution oriented, helped when quick responses and adaptations were needed. For LHC Trondheim it has generated an extended network and practical experience with methodology to enhance and include CE and CI in decision making, sustainable value creation and to accelerate LHC Trondheim becoming a positive energy city by 2050. Innovations and methodology from +CityxChange has a transferral value inducing cross-sectional approach. This allows for feedback mechanisms prototyping the future, through collaboration. The COs represent value by being creative, multidimensional public spaces, bringing citizens together. They provide the municipality with locations representing a common ground for ideation and innovation. LHC Trondheim acknowledges the COs as important spaces for innovation, interactions and involvement, and wishes to further develop and integrate the COs in the municipality. 

This deliverable contains a description of; 

  • The connection and relevance to other +CityxChange tasks and deliverables.
  • Prerequisites and necessary changes for successful COs.
  • Localization of the COs and relevance within the Trondheim Knowledge Axis.
  • A five step framework for developing a CO, for replication by others.
  • Implementation and demonstration of the physical and digital observatories in Trondheim. 
  • Comparison of the implemented COs.
  • Reflections, lessons learned, and conclusion.“

+CityxChange presented at 57th ISOCARP World Planning Congress

Posted on November 11, 2021 by - News

On Wednesday, November 10th at the 57th ISOCARP World Planning Congress, Dirk Ahlers (Project Manager of +CityxChange) presented the +CityxChange project at a special session organized by ISOCARP Institute on Innovative Solutions for Climate Resilient Cities and Communities. 

The format of the session combines a panel discussion with an interactive exercise: a World Café. This will promote cross-learning and knowledge transfer between participants and speakers. The panelists were made up three EU Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe projects that presented insights on how innovative solutions for climate-resilient were explored and developed in their respective cities and communities 

The +CityxChange project presented by Dirk Ahlers spoke on the various aspects of project such as the pilot cities, key objectives and the vast operational network. Furthermore, the presentation focused on the development of the Bold City Visions within the project where vision documents concerning the promotion of positive energy communities and transition to renewable energy were developed with each pilot city to operate as a strategic document in their urban development programs. 

The project is honored to be part of this fruitful discussion and exchange amongst like-minded professionals, researchers, and fellow EU Horizon projects.