OPEN BRAIN CITY

The Challenge 

European innovation districts suffer from a structural paradox: they generate the future but remain exclusive enclaves for tech experts and university students. Meanwhile, a large portion of local youth—including NEETs, secondary school students, and marginalized groups—are left entirely disconnected from these ecosystems. 

This exclusion results in a double loss: innovation districts miss out on diverse, unconventional talent, while vulnerable young people are deprived of the crucial digital and AI skills needed for their future. 

The Innovation 

OPEN BRAIN CITY transforms exclusive innovation districts into open, human-centered technology hubs. The project introduces a unique "Contamination Lab" mechanism: highly skilled young professionals and university students act as coaches for lessskilled and disadvantaged peers. 

Together, they co-create and train a localized AI platform tailored to the specific needs of the city's industrial sectors. Through this mutual learning model, AI technology becomes the driving engine for social inclusion, digital literacy, and territorial attractiveness. 

Key Actions 

OPEN BRAIN CITY is built on three integrated digital infrastructures locally hosted at the district’s hub, which are transferable open-source infrastructures for every partner city: 

• Open Brain — a locally fine-tuned AI model, trained by young people on local specific industrial sectors. This tool operates as the city’s digital expert: it answers hyper-local questions that commercial models often lack. 

• Contamination Labs — physical and digital spaces where young people learn by building, train by contributing, meet by experimenting. The district hub becomes the place where knowledge is collectively generated. 

• Talent Relay — a mechanism to connect Open Brain with young people and businesses. The Open Brain itself cross-references the competence profiles built in the Contamination Labs with the talent needs submitted by the district companies’ and generates motivated match suggestions. The annual Career Day ‘Match Your Talent’ is the live moment where these matches are tested through situation testing. Curricular internships represent a tangible follow-up.

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Desired Results 

As young people build the OPEN BRAIN AI open-source platform, the most skilled of them teach marginalized and vulnerable young residents how to use digital tools.  

NEETs discover the innovation district as a place that belongs to them too.  

Young women discover STEM pathways designed to include them.  

Talents find a concrete reason not to leave their territory. 

Who We Are Looking For 

OPEN BRAIN CITY targets European cities with an innovation district to transform their districts into young people-accessible open technology hubs. We are seeking Partner Cities facing  weak youth participation in technology, AI, and territorial innovation.If you want to bridge the digital divide, foster inclusive urban innovation, and strengthen cooperation between your local youth and enterprise ecosystems, join our network!