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INTPART-International Partnerships for Excellent Education and Research

NORWAY-CHINA Innovation Platform on Sustainable Urbanisation

Alternative title: Den norsk-kinesiske innovasjonsplattformen på bærekraftig byutvikling

Awarded: NOK 4.3 mill.

In 2022 UNC get one-year extension. In recent years we have seen a rapidly growing engagement of students and staff towards climate-neutral, sustainable and actionable futures. The European Commission has launched its Mission on Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities, aiming to achieve 100 climate-neutral and socially innovative cities by 2030, as well as the New European Bauhaus initiative, aiming to make this transition sustainable, beautiful and inclusive. Based on these contexts, we designed a range of activities for the URBAN-NORWAY-CHINA project to be performed in 2022 under the concept of Student Think/Do Tank. A Think/Do Tank is defined as any collaborative, interdisciplinary (STEAM) student group. The concept is borrowed from the newly funded Horizon Europe project CrAFt (Creating Actionable Futures) which is led by NTNU and is a part of the New European Bauhaus Initiative. According to CrAFt, “Think/Do Tanks strive towards continuous interaction between ‘doing’ (creating, intervening, taking action, piloting, etc.) and ‘thinking’ (envisioning, theorising, rationalising, etc.).” In each activity they connect with one or more stakeholders and in relation to the specific issue that is being tackled by the Think/Do Tank.’ Embracing that idea, UNC has designed a UNC Student Think/Do Tank, of which the following activities in 2022 are the main outcomes. The project URBAN-NORWAY-CHINA aimed at strengthening Norway-China cooperation on sustainable urbanisation. Undertaking that mission, UNC: 1. hosted three intensive courses with participation of 190 students from 19 countries that covered a variety of topics from how to make rural areas sustainable, attractive and inclusive to how to improve participation in urban sustainable development on a digital twin city platform; 2. organised eight online/physical multi-stakeholder workshops/seminars covering subjects such as urban living labs, social inclusive transformation, New European Bauhaus-inspired co-creation and climate neutral cities etc. which solidated the academic cooperation between Norway and China and created a common understanding of what sustainable transition means in Norway and China; 3. invited students to join two interdisciplinary hackathons with 53 student participants from 13 countries who created an intellectual exchange on building a post-Covid sustainable inclusive and affordable just climate neutral urban future; 4. built a UNC Student Think/Do Tank inspired by New European Bauhaus and the Horizon2020 project CrAFt. The UNC Think/Do Tank was with, for and by students. On this platform, students from Norway and China went on a journey of co-creating their city to be climate neutral. The Think/Do Tank initiative played an important role during the 11th Session of the World Urban Forum, the 2nd Data-Driven Co-Creation Course, and the 2022 Social Hackathon. The implementation of the project was modified due to the Covid-19 Pandemic and several planned activities were cancelled or postponed. At the end of 2021, the project was granted an extension to 2022 and changed its course to align with the current EU Cities Mission and Green Deal Transformation, especially putting the project focus on building a Student Think/Do Tank. The learning experience and lessons have been documented and shared in the UNC publications including two book chapters: one about urban living labs and one about historical districts studies; one conference paper on a discussion of the tools for making effective trans-disciplinary student group work; and one conference presentation about the impacts of fast urbanisation in China.

UNC is in close cooperation with two EU projects on sustainable urbanisation which define that urban development is for everyone and should leave no one behind. In the meantime, cities are facing challenges of climate change, inequity, limited resources, technology, governance, etc. Making a sustainable urban transition cannot be done without the involvement of urban multi-stakeholders who need to be guided into a co-creation process. It is also crucial to provide every citizen with a high-quality climate-resilient urban living environment that can be realised through a principle of inclusiveness after the major policy on urban development has been made. The indicators of an urban transition should be aligned with social sustainability if we promise to deliver a just, climate neutral, and high-quality future urban living space to everyone. The UNC activities follow those principles, especially on sustainability, inclusiveness, co-creation and beauty. Those principles are also the key elements of the New European Bauhaus that “connects the European Green Deal to our daily lives and living spaces. It calls on all Europeans to imagine and build together a sustainable and inclusive future that is beautiful for our eyes, minds, and souls.” (New European Bauhaus, 2022) Although some of UNC activities took place before the NEB campaign was announced in 2020, the results of UNC can nevertheless be examined through the lens of NEB principles. The implementation of the project was modified due to the Covid-19 Pandemic and several planned activities were cancelled or postponed. At the end of 2021, the project was granted an extension to 2022 and changed its course to align with the current EU Cities Mission and Green Deal Transformation, especially putting the project focus on building a Student Think/Do Tank. The learning experience and lessons have been documented and shared in the UNC publications including two book chapters: one about urban living labs and one about historical districts studies; one conference paper on a discussion of the tools for making effective trans-disciplinary student group work; and one conference presentation about the impacts of fast urbanisation in China.

URBAN-NORWAY-CHINA supports cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary cooperation between Norwegian, Chinese and international students and experts within the EU-China Partnership on Sustainable Urbanisation, in particular H2020-funded projects TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA and URBAN-EU-CHINA. The project enriches these innovation activities by connecting students to them, through courses, assignments, exhibitions and similar actions. Beyond H2020, the project connects to the new Horizon Europe programme, and in particular the EU Mission on Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities, and the New European Bauhaus initiative. URBAN-NORWAY-CHINA will: (1a) Organise Experts in Teamwork-inspired courses with students from NTNU, China and other international universities, to contribute to Urban Living Labs and Reference Cities, the EU-China Research and Innovation Agenda, and the Evidence Base on climate-neutral and socially innovative cities. The students analyse and help develop existing Living Labs and demonstration projects; create knowledge boards for data gathering, knowledge sharing and creation among urban authorities, real estate developers, public service providers and citizens; and extract their main success criteria, document processes and outcomes. Where possible, the activities are hosted on-site in Chinese cities, with study visits, interviews with decision makers and stakeholders, field work and desktop research. In 2021, we used Norwegian cities for field studies due to international travel restrictions. Online activities are organised when on-site ones are not possible to perform; (1b) In 2022, the courses are supported by a cross-disciplinary, cross-cultural student think/do tank on how to create climate-neutral cities that are sustainable, inclusive and beautiful. The students can participate individually or as groups in this think/do tank, based on their local context and experiences. The students' work is disseminated during Nordic Edge (Stavanger/Asia) and the World Urban Forum (Katowice, Poland); (2) Organise expert workshops, learning sessions, study visits and other joint activities between Chinese, Norwegian and international decision makers and planners. In 2022, online activities are combined with on-site sessions and exhibitions with experts and students during Nordic Edge and WUF, if COVID-19 restrictions allow; (3) Host an annual Nordic Edge event during the general Expo and/or Nordic Edge Asia, with industry workshops on cooperative innovation; roundtable discussions between cities, industry and research; workshops on the value of city-city partnerships; and foresight workshops on Norway-China sustainable urbanisation cooperation; (4) Communicate and exploit the results through an open-access summary report with projects results, insights and guidance for scaling and replication; 3 peer-reviewed scientific publications with Norwegian and Chinese authors; an annual open-access report including facts and references, guidelines and procedures, storytelling and good practices to enable replication and scaling up; a project website; and contributions to the social media and newsletters of project partners. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, all project activities are for the time being held online, and we are experimenting with digital formats to best fulfill the goals of this project.

Funding scheme:

INTPART-International Partnerships for Excellent Education and Research