EU-China Innovation Platform on Sustainable Urbanisation

Project Information

URBAN-EU-CHINA

Grant agreement ID: 733571

DOI

10.3030/733571

Project closed

EC signature date 23 December 2016

Start date 1 January 2017

End date 31 December 2019

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Europe In A Changing World - Inclusive, Innovative And Reflective Societies

Total cost

€ 1 500 000,00

EU contribution

€ 1 500 000,00

Coordinated by

NORGES TEKNISK-NATURVITENSKAPELIGE UNIVERSITET NTNU
Norway

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - URBAN-EU-CHINA (EU-China Innovation Platform on Sustainable Urbanisation)

Reporting period: 2018-07-01 to 2019-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The key objective of URBAN-EU-CHINA is to develop a robust, evidence-driven bottom-up approach to complement the existing top-down EU-China strategic approach to sustainable urbanisation. This will be accomplished via a coordinated series of actions including: a strategic R&I agenda, scoping and assessment, networking events, peer-to-peer exchanges, benchmarking and monitoring, and joint demonstration projects. By creating tighter coupling between city-level, national, and supra-national programmes, planning, policies, and projects, URBAN-EU-CHINA will yield a significant increase in cooperative EU-CHINA R&I activities.
The key barrier addressed by URBAN-EU-CHINA is the disconnect between strategic visions and targets and operational realities of time/resource constraints, language and cultural barriers, differences in planning/policy/ governance framework conditions within European and Chinese cities, and lack of effective bi-directional transmission mechanisms of transferable planning and policy instruments for sustainable urbanisation.

As URBAN-EU-CHINA Innovation Platform, it will:
1. Promote and develop Joint Policy Strategies for EU-China cooperation on sustainable urbanisation, by:
• Developing a Strategic R&I Agenda as a methodical, robust, and long-term frame of reference for innovative urban entrepreneurs from EU and China to test solutions, invest in cooperation, and become first movers in their respective fields;
• Supporting better alignment of bilateral funding and cooperation instruments and resources;
2. Create a Nursery of Joint Projects, from a broad range of low-threshold to a few high-performance
projects, by:
• Creating a more efficient, productive, accessible, and predictable stream of cooperative innovation projects and initiatives, in contrast to the current manifold but fragmented landscape;
• Developing a critical mass of EU and Chinese cities cooperating with each other on urban innovation, sustainability, and quality. Cooperation processes and actual impacts will be documented and monitored to facilitate rapid learning, favorable investment and entrepreneurship conditions, and a large experience base for replication in other cities;
3. Promote Brokerage of City-Industry-Science Partnerships using virtual and face to face meeting places, by:
• Lowering the threshold for new as well as experienced stakeholders to get mobilized and engaged in EU-China cooperation on sustainable urbanisation;
• Promoting more extensive involvement of stakeholders from, and more linkages between, cities and regions, research, industry, and civil society;
4. Manage the Platform, its Stakeholders and Advisory Board effectively and inclusively, ensuring to:
• Achieve project objectives as outlined in the proposal within the planned time-frame and the allocated budget, and delivering results of high quality;
• Practice smooth communication between the Consortium and the European Commission, and with other relevant initiatives and clusters.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

As project co-coordinator of URBAN-EU-CHNA, China Academy of Urban Planning and Design(CAUPD) is the co-lead of WP4-Plateform Management and Coordination, and the contributor of every other WPs. According to the detail proposal, CAUPD participates the Task below:
• Lead: Taks 3.2-Event Clusters;
• Co-lead: Task 3.3-Strategic Cooperation Group within the European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities and Communities(EIP SCC); Task 4.1-Legal Financial, Administrative and Risk Management; Task 4.2-Platform Coordination and Quality Management;
• Contributor: Task 1.4-Impact Assessment of the EU-China Innovation Platform; Task 3.1-Evidence Base, Website and Social Media;

According to the proposal, the main deliverables of CAUPD should includes:
• Events clusters
• Management and coordination plan
• Risk management and contingency plan
• Data management plan
• Summary progress report
• Periodic project progress report, etc.

From January 2017 to June 2018, CAUPD has finished:
• The Risk Management and Contingency Plan for each WP, including description of potential risks and proposed risk-mitigation measures, etc.
• The Summary of Events Clusters 2 (D29) as main deliverable of WP3 and Task 3.2 including the general agenda of events cluster 2, the participants lists of each meeting, the summary of each meeting, the conclusion and decision of each meeting. It’s 46 pages in total.
• Periodic project progress reports.

Under the support of URBAN-EU-CHINA project team, CAUPD has organized:
• “2017 CHINA-EU Conference on Sustainable Urbanisation——Innovation-Driven Development in New Areas” as project’s consortium meeting, the 25-26 October.
• a side event “Open Innovation as a Driving Force for Smart Sustainable Cities——The role of Sino-Norwegian cooperation in the EU-China Partnership on Sustainable Urbanisation”, the 4 September.
• the application work and working meetings for the first Ministry of Science and Technology Joint Call.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The key expected impact of URBAN-EU-CHINA(UEC) is to develop a robust, evidence-driven bottom-up approach to complement the existing top-down EU-China strategic approach to sustainable urbanisation. This will be accomplished via a coordinated series of actions including: a strategic R&I agenda, scoping and assessment, networking events, peer-to-peer exchanges, benchmarking and monitoring, and joint demonstration projects. By creating tighter coupling between city-level, national, and supra-national programmes, planning, policies, and projects, UEC will yield a significant increase in cooperative EU-CHINA R&I activities.
UEC has provided a basic cooperation platform for the Chinese and European policy makers, urban authorities, real estate developers, citizens and other urban stakeholders. It also played a positive role in the TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA project and Ministry of Science and Technology Joint Call project. In addition, the URBAN-EU-CHINA project gives a strong support to the construction of Urban Living Labs in the theoretical level.
On the base of UEC, the project partners have also reached further cooperation in other international research project, such as the pilot call between NSFC and JPI Urban Europe, the International Technical Cooperation call of Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the Shenzhen-Israel R&D Cooperation Program etc.

Summary of Events Clusters 2