NORWAY-CHINA Innovation Platform on Sustainable Urbanisation

I 2022 får UNC ett års forlengelse. De siste årene har vi sett et raskt voksende engasjement fra studenter og ansatte mot klimanøytrale, bærekraftige og handlingsrettede fremtider. EU-kommisjonen har lansert sitt Mission on Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities, som har som mål å oppnå 100 klimanøytrale og sosialt innovative byer innen 2030, samt New European Bauhaus-initiativet, som har som mål å gjøre denne overgangen bærekraftig, vakker og inkluderende. Basert på disse kontekstene designet vi en rekke aktiviteter for URBAN-NORWAY-CHINA-prosjektet som skal utføres i 2022 under konseptet Student Think/Do Tank. En Think/Do Tank er definert som enhver samarbeidende, tverrfaglig (STEAM) studentgruppe. Konseptet er lånt fra det nyfinansierte Horizon Europe-prosjektet CrAFt (Creating Actionable Futures) som ledes av NTNU og er en del av New European Bauhaus Initiative. I følge CrAFt streber "Think/Do Tanks mot kontinuerlig interaksjon mellom å "gjøre" (skape, gripe inn, ta handling, pilotere, etc.) og "tenke" (forutse, teoretisere, rasjonalisere, etc.)." I hver aktivitet knytter de seg til en eller flere interessenter og i forhold til den spesifikke problemstillingen som blir løst av Think/Do Tank.» Med denne ideen har UNC designet en UNC Student Think/Do Tank, hvorav følgende aktiviteter i 2022 er hovedresultatene. Prosjektet URBAN-NORWAY-CHINA hadde som mål å styrke Norge-Kina-samarbeidet om bærekraftig urbanisering. Påtar seg det oppdraget, UNC: 1. vært vertskap for tre intensive kurs med deltakelse av 190 studenter fra 19 land som dekket en rekke emner fra hvordan man kan gjøre landlige områder bærekraftige, attraktive og inkluderende til hvordan man kan forbedre deltakelsen i urban bærekraftig utvikling på en digital tvillingbyplattform; 2. organiserte åtte online/fysiske multi-stakeholder workshops/seminarer som dekket emner som urban living labs, sosial inkluderende transformasjon, New European Bauhaus-inspirert samskaping og klimanøytrale byer etc. som befestet det akademiske samarbeidet mellom Norge og Kina og skapte en felles forståelse av hva bærekraftig omstilling betyr i Norge og Kina; 3. inviterte studenter til å bli med på to tverrfaglige hackathons med 53 studentdeltakere fra 13 land som skapte en intellektuell utveksling om å bygge en post-Covid bærekraftig inkluderende og rimelig, klimanøytral urban fremtid; 4. bygget en UNC Student Think/Do Tank inspirert av New European Bauhaus og Horizon2020-prosjektet CrAFt. UNC Think/Do Tank var med, for og av studenter. På denne plattformen dro studenter fra Norge og Kina på en reise for å samskape byen sin for å være klimanøytral. Think/Do Tank-initiativet spilte en viktig rolle under den 11. sesjonen av World Urban Forum, det 2. datadrevne samskapingskurset og 2022 Social Hackathon. Gjennomføringen av prosjektet ble endret på grunn av Covid-19-pandemien og flere planlagte aktiviteter ble kansellert eller utsatt. På slutten av 2021 ble prosjektet innvilget en forlengelse til 2022 og endret kurs for å samsvare med den nåværende EU Cities Mission og Green Deal Transformation, spesielt med fokus på å bygge en Student Think/Do Tank. Læringserfaringen og leksjonene har blitt dokumentert og delt i UNC-publikasjonene, inkludert to bokkapitler: ett om urbane levende laboratorier og ett om studier i historiske distrikter; en konferanseartikkel om en diskusjon av verktøyene for å lage effektivt tverrfaglig studentgruppearbeid; og en konferansepresentasjon om virkningene av rask urbanisering i Kina.

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.