• Urban Forest Innovation Lab

    The city of Cuenca (Spain) has more forest area than any other EU city (86% of its municipality surface), but the forest is relatively underexploited. The Urban Forest Innovation Lab (UFIL) project developed an innovative business sector around Cuenca's forest, by promoting public and private forest management and the creation of primary and secondary processing industries. The aim was to make the forest bio-economy a driver for social and economic development. To this end, the UFIL project addressed the existing lack of training and employment opportunities, and other socio-economic problems within the city such as depopulation and an ageing population. The project’s innovative bio-economy-centred training model focused on incubating and accelerating innovative businesses around Cuenca's forest, to enhance the preservation of the forest through sustainable management and to bring together key actors to develop the local and regional bio-economy. 

     

    What SOLUTIONS did the Urban Innovative Action project offer?

     

    The main solution was an innovative bio-economy-centred training model. This combined training, research, and the incubation and acceleration of forest-related businesses. The training comprised 21st century skills, forestry bio-economy and business, and environment innovation. It was complemented with practical work, using a ‘learning by doing’ methodology. During training, participants advanced innovative business solutions through a ‘bio-economy fab lab’, using Cuenca’s forest as a testing ground for prototypes. The main bio-economy areas to focus on were identified in a baseline study. To complement the training, businesses were invited to participate as sponsors and launch challenges to entrepreneurs, who tested their acquired knowledge and ideas against the needs of real companies. The project’s governance solution involved the partnership with stakeholders endorsing Cuenca's Rural-Urban Agenda, which establishes a bio-economy action plan for Cuenca’s forestry sector to 2030.

     


    What DIFFERENCE has it made at local level?


    From 2020 to 2022, the UFIL project team trained 84 people. Multidisciplinary groups of participants from different backgrounds (e.g. industry, agroforestry, business administration, IT, unemployed) were selected for the training programme, facilitating diverse exchanges and innovative business models. By the end of the training programme, 44 business models were presented with 15 of them constituted as bio-economy companies in the city or its rural surroundings. As a result, 78% of the people trained found a job, improved their skills or launched a start-up. Linked to social aspects, 63% of these latter entrepreneurs came from outside Cuenca. Also, due to the project’s business sponsor model, a company expanded its business development to the city. Finally, under UFIL's partnership work with stakeholders, over 51 000 ha of forest was certified under Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) forest management standards.

     


    What PARTICIPATORY APPROACHES have been put in place for the project?

     

    The UFIL project was implemented by a strong consortium representing many bio-economy dimensions and competences. This enabled active participation and a richness of approaches to Cuenca's bio-economy from the start. Public authorities (municipality and region), public and private universities, a forest certification NGO, a local public sawmill (the only one remaining in Spain), a local business confederation and a private consultancy all worked together in this committed and representative partnership. Throughout the project, and supported by the different partners' networks, participation and communication activities raised awareness about opportunities in Cuenca's forest, and gave insights into people's vision of jobs linked to the forest bio-economy. This allowed a better delivery of the activities and a grounded implementation of the project. The training programme was constantly being improved through contact with the participants and the local bio-economy sector, with the project team adapting the model and content to meet the needs and interests of the sector. However, the project team remained focused on the main objective: the establishment of new innovative start-ups linked to Cuenca's forest management.

     


    How does the project tackle different aspects with an INTEGRATED APPROACH?

     

    The UFIL project offered an integrated solution to the challenge of fostering sustainable economic development in Cuenca's forest. The incubation and acceleration of businesses in the bio-economy sector helped overcome the low resilience of the city’s economic fabric and its strong dependency on the tertiary sector. From a social perspective, the training programme and its results created economic opportunities for Cuenca, thus boosting the city's economy, and attracting and retaining talented people to counter the trends of depopulation and ageing. In addition, the project addressed the lack of forest-specific skills and knowledge in Cuenca by launching a training programme that included technical training in forestry. Finally, the project’s promotion of forest management and bio-economy business models ensured the active conservation of forests, the production of sustainable and low carbon products and services, the reduction of fire risks, and the economic valorisation of ecosystem services.    

     


    Why should other European cities use the solution the project explored?

     

    The UFIL project has been a success and has received many awards, with the main recognition coming from the Spanish Government through the Spain Entrepreneurial Nation High Commissioner. Therefore, it stands as a model that can be transferred to other European cities associated with forests. Furthermore, its success and potential to be transferred to other territories is shown by the fact that the UFIL continues operating and supporting forest bio-economy entrepreneurs beyond the Urban Innovative Actions funding period. The know-how generated during the project has been analysed, improved and kept within the local ecosystem and stakeholders, ensuring a viable ongoing model. All aspects and insights are ready to be exported. Entrepreneurship within the forest bio-economy is versatile and can be modularised and adapted to suit specific contexts and territorial realities. For example, it can be adapted to particular opportunities in areas, and the employment and skills needs of cities. It could play a role in many cases, as all EU cities are required to transition to more sustainable socioeconomic models.

     

    Mariano Aragón Marín
    Municipality of Cuenca
    53512
    0
    Are you a candidate Lead Partner looking for partners
    Yes
    Are you a potential Partner looking for a Lead Partner
    Yes
    Your job title
    Chief of Service of Promotion and Development
    Institution website
    https://www.cuenca.es/
    Jobs and skills
    Fostering local economic development through innovative forest exploitation
  • AVEIRO STEAM City

    Aveiro (Portugal) is considered as a digital cluster and a territory of innovation, but while the city prepared for a new technological revolution with the adoption of a 5G and Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructure to greatly improve the local innovation ecosystem, it also faced severe hurdles related to a shortage of digital skills.

     

    The challenge was not about how to create more jobs, but how to improve the added value and social and economic wealth produced by the jobs created. The AVEIRO STEAM City project aimed to help companies rethink the resources they needed to innovate, and to establish the means to attract a new range of talent – including artistic, creative and human sciences areas – to the new digital opportunities in a STEAM approach (adding the “A” for Arts and creativity to the domains of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths).

     

    At the same time, the project team developed a first-mover strategy towards a radically new technological infrastructure – Aveiro Tech City Living Lab. This innovative approach, integrating STEAM education with Tech Labs into a new urban concept, had not yet been tested anywhere. Aveiro therefore became a trial city for advanced communications, valorising the full range of talents, RD&I, open data and development of new products and services, for the growth of companies and the creation of new jobs.

     

    What SOLUTIONS did the Urban Innovative Action project offer?

     

    The AVEIRO STEAM City project addressed the city of Aveiro's capacity to attract and retain talent for its economy to grow, by structuring a set of innovative activities and projects through 4 main axes under the name “Aveiro Tech City”: 

     

    1. Education (Students): Tech Labs at schools for all levels of teaching; UBBU (code literacy platform); Live Science School; STEAM Artistic Residences. 

    1. Training (career reshaping for adults): Tech City Bootcamp; Criatech Artistic Residences; MTF Labs (arts + tech); Labour Observatory. 

    1. Technology, Services and Applications: Aveiro Tech City Living Lab / Testbed; Digital Urban Platform; Innovative Use Cases on mobility, environment and energy. 

    1. Challenges to the community: Innovation Challenges (5G and urban implementations) for startups and R&D centres; Participatory Budget; Aveiro Tech Week. 

     

    A new governance model was developed, allowing Aveiro Tech City Initiative to have more than 14 public and private entities after 3 years of implementation of the project.


    What DIFFERENCE has it made at local level?


    For the Education axis, the teachers and students involved increased their STEAM and digital skills by 82%. This result was based on (all) 42 schools being equipped with Tech Labs; + 500 teachers with training; + 200 exercises and + 2 300 hours in the classroom and + 22 600 students involved.

     

    The Training Axis involved 3 bootcamps, with 59 trainees completing from a total of 450 candidates and achieved 75% integration in the local job market.

     

    On the Technology axis, the Aveiro Tech City Living Lab laid down 16 km of fibre optic network to connect 44 communication points with sensing and data computing. More than 40 companies and R&D centres developed projects in the Living Lab allowing them to achieve a higher Technology Readiness Level of maturity.

     

    As for the Challenges axis, this involved more than 10 stakeholders mentoring 40 startups, SMEs and R&D centres that applied from more than 200 applications from 26 different countries.

     


    What PARTICIPATORY APPROACHES have been put in place for the project?

     

    The main participatory approaches implemented in the project were: 

     

    - Innovation Challenges for startups and R&D centres – Bringing experience and real use cases from stakeholders and municipal services (mentors), to able entrepreneurs and the startups community to connect with real world scenarios. 

     

    - Participatory Budget - By co-financing small projects submitted by local citizens, who actively participate in their implementation, to empower citizen engagement and co-creative processes. In the last 3 years, AVEIRO STEAM City launched 2 editions and 17 projects, selected among 40 applications and voted for by 638 citizens. 

     

    - Aveiro Tech Week - A week in October dedicated to technology, art and culture, during which the city hosts a wide range of conferences, exhibitions, live innovation demos, educational laboratories, hackathons and other experiences and performances. This event reinforces the municipality’s capacity to attract researchers, technological and creative industries, with more than 3 500 on-site participants in the Tech sessions and more than 25 000 visitors. 

     

    - On the governance model of Aveiro Tech City, where the 14 members from public and private areas actively cooperate to develop shared activities and funding, to ensure long-term sustainability of the initiative and talent retention in the territory. In 2020 it won an “Innovation in Community Engagement Award" from the University of Harvard.


    How does the project tackle different aspects with an INTEGRATED APPROACH?

     

    The AVEIRO STEAM City project addressed economic, social and environmental aspects in an integrated approach through the 4 axis of the Aveiro Tech City Initiative.  

     

    On the economic front, the project led to a strong governance model that supports long-term partnership between the major players of the local tech ecosystem in several Industry areas: Paper and Forest, Telecom, Manufacturing, Tourism, Construction material, to name a few. It also supported the development and testing of innovative and disruptive projects in real context, minimising the “death valley” of startups. It also involved major education stakeholders, like the University of Aveiro, to address the methodology for sustainable job retention through training. 

     

    On the social front, the project team implemented life-changing opportunities for people with low job prospects by allowing them to enrol in tech skills training for rapid re-entry into the jobs market. Also, by focusing on methodologies of STEAM Education in schools, the project was able to contribute to a more knowledge-based society, able to adapt and easily respond to challenges. In the arts arena, the project created intense interaction dynamics, enabling artists in a local context to evolve their skills by mixing arts and technology. 

     

    Finally, on the environmental front, the project team implemented a comprehensive IoT network of mobility and environmental sensors in the city, and aggregated and shared this data through the Urban Platform.


    Why should other European cities use the solution the project explored?

     

    Cities will find in Aveiro a living laboratory in STEAM Education open to international cooperation. Aveiro is actively involved in the development of a European Network of STEAM Education and is already conducting knowledge-sharing activities with other European cities. 

     

    The Aveiro Tech City Living Lab has proven to be an innovative infrastructure capable of attracting startups and R&D Centres internationally. Steps are being taken with living lab partners to create a “Technological Free Zone” where national or international startups come to test their products in areas like telecommunications or autonomous mobility. Aveiro Tech City provides a long-term strategic vision by involving different players of society, from public, institutions, academia, industry, scholar community to citizens, to use technology and the city as a living lab in preparation for the digital world. The project team are ready to share their vision, action plan, challenges and opportunities with other European cities. 

     

    Carla Semedo
    Municipality of Aveiro
    80880
    1
    Are you a candidate Lead Partner looking for partners
    Yes
    Are you a potential Partner looking for a Lead Partner
    Yes
    Your job title
    Head of Economic Development and Innovation Division
    Institution website
    www.cm-aveiro.pt
    Jobs and skills
    Upgrading STEAM Skills and Increasing Jobs Added-Value through Digital Transformation
  • SPIRE

    SPIRE proposed a revolutionary approach for reusing heavy metal-polluted land, which was demonstrated in the city of Baia Mare (Romania), using plants and returning the land to the community. The project team tested and implemented nature-based solutions, involving several successive plantings to find the optimal formula for using plants. The resulting biomass was used to improve the energy performance of an educational institution.

     

    SPIRE stimulated the evolution of the local economy by means of new companies using bio-based materials for innovative construction products and materials; and initiated ‘living laboratories’, co-designed with the community, through workshops in the Innovation Hub in Casa Schreiber.

     

    Citizens were also involved in vitalised sustainable local entrepreneurship through iLEU - a virtual system of rewards intended to encourage behaviours oriented towards sustainable development in the city and to support citizen commitment to the project and, further, for various benefits and discounts at the level local. The wider aim was to change peoples’ behaviour against pollution. Finally, the project team developed a long-term master plan for the Baia Mare Metropolitan Area aimed at recovering polluted lands, reusing them, and expanding the bioeconomy of the city.

     

     

    What SOLUTIONS did the Urban Innovative Action project offer?

     

    The project applied phytoremediation techniques to contaminated land (to remove heavy metal pollution from urban soil), generated inclusive land-use participatory management (e.g. co-design participatory processes with students), changing behaviours by increasing awareness, knowledge and capacity building towards an eco-friendly culture, helping to recover the city's health and trust in authorities, and created new local bio-based value chains developed on new green business models (a master plan to create a new 2050 urban reality).

     

    The project’s approaches were mapped and monitored through a GIS smart system to show the benefits of the process to the city’s inhabitants. Based on the results of the measurements of the soil contamination, the project team developed a phytoremediation calculator to estimate when the soils reach normal levels for contaminants.

     


    What DIFFERENCE has it made at local level?

     

    SPIRE introduced a pioneering approach encompassing three core elements: i) phytoremediation to combat heavy metal pollution, ii) an environmental token system that rewards pro-environmental actions and supports eco-initiatives, and iii) biomass upscaling to address energy challenges through sustainable utilisation of green waste. These solutions were collaboratively designed, developed, and rigorously tested. The project's primary objective was to demonstrate the viability and effectiveness of eco-solutions within post-industrial regions grappling with heavy metal contamination and the imperative for economic revitalisation. 

     

    Two key project achievements were planting 7 hectares of land to assess the phytoremediation potential of a specialised plant selection, together with citizens’ environmental behaviour shifts, such as through the “Donate your Christmas Tree” initiative (citizens taking fir trees to established collection points for them to be transformed into biomass).  


    What PARTICIPATORY APPROACHES have been put in place for the project?

     

    Youth and creative citizens were mobilised and empowered through the SPIRE Makerspace, which served as a creative hub designed to provide citizens with tools, knowledge, and support for engaging in eco-initiatives. The school gym was retrofitted to include a biomass heating installation during the winter, with biomass sourced from municipal green waste and, soon, with biomass harvested from the 7 ha of planted land used for phytoremediation. 

     

     

    SPIRE combines cross-sectoral spheres with Baia Mare Municipality as the lead partner. Six more change agents share responsibilities, from academicians such as the University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Cluj-Napoca (USAMV), which deals with contamination and remediation plants, or public authorities such as the Baia Mare Metropolitan Area, which secures the long-term 2050 project strategy; to private enterprises, such as Green Energy or ARIES Transylvania, who deal with the SPIRE mentoring programme, bio-based models, and the communication activities of the project. SMEs such as Urbasofia (Urban policy, planning and design), and Indeco Soft (IT) underpin the knowledge of participatory urban planning and software development to create and implement the iGIS, iLEU, and Maker Space platforms. Doctors, experts in environmental health and international urban advisors provided by the European Commission, accompany the project process. 


    How does the project tackle different aspects with an INTEGRATED APPROACH?

     

    The SPIRE project followed the triple bottom line at the nexus of environmental, societal and economic matters.  

     

    Society: i) urban health improvement due to soil remediation; ii) awareness, knowledge and capacity building related to sustainability; iii) citizens' environmental behaviour shifts towards an eco-friendly culture.  

     

    Environment: i) 7.15 ha of polluted land reclaimed for public use; ii) urban landscape co-design and co-production through phytoremediation techniques; iii) urban system re-naturalisation and re-connection strategy. 

     

    Economy: i) underused local resources stimulation; ii) bio-based products and business models; iii) bio-based energy supply to reduce the overall GHG emissions in Baia Mare.


    Why should other European cities use the solution the project explored?

     

    Pollution is one of the most significant environmental challenges worldwide and SPIRE phytoremediation techniques tested in Baia Mare have great potential for scalability and marketability. In particular: 

     

     

    - A GIS Dynamic Atlas platform developed to track phytoremediation progress and the status of plants at the pilot sites. 

     

     

    - A Conceptual Adaptive Site Management Application (CASMA) designed to score the proposed remediation options according to different measurements: local fit, phytoremediation capacity, life-cycle duration, the timing of the first harvest, time horizons, biomass produced and applications; value chains / cascading use, landscaping qualities and cost.  

     

     

    - A remediation toolkit guided by CASMA that provides a specialist catalogue based on soil remediation capacity per planting cycle, biomass harvest cycle, the cost-effectiveness of soil preparation and plantation, primary and secondary potential applications, and cascading uses, as well as a set of design options. 

     

    Dorin Miclaus
    Municipality of Baia Mare
    123738
    0
    Are you a candidate Lead Partner looking for partners
    Yes
    Are you a potential Partner looking for a Lead Partner
    Yes
    Your job title
    Urban Strategy Expert
    Institution website
    https://www.baiamare.ro
    Nature-based solutions
    Smart Post-Industrial Regenerative Ecosystem