opportunity Zones for innovation EcosystemS governance

Project Information

ZES

Grant agreement ID: 846144

DOI

10.3030/846144

Project closed

EC signature date 5 April 2019

Start date 1 October 2019

End date 30 September 2022

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 269 002,56

EU contribution

€ 269 002,56

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI MEDITERRANEA DI REGGIO CALABRIA
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - ZES (opportunity Zones for innovation EcosystemS governance)

Reporting period: 2021-10-01 to 2022-09-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The severe and pressing challenges affecting cities call for the redesign of urban development strategies for pursuing the just, green, and digital transition path towards resilience and sustainability.
Therefore, cities are called to detect and activate their relevant resources and target public policies and investments to accelerate the green, digital, and inclusive urban transition. Such a challenge outlines the relevance of urban planning and governance - nowadays influenced by the data-driven perspective - for managing the complexity of transition.
In light of the EU's envisaged transition, the understanding of how to create or reinforce the urban innovation ecosystem (UIE) is gaining more relevance as UIEs are central to creating the pre-conditions to make innovation emerge and establish in cities and to leverage transition. Exploring their dynamics and relationships with the context is crucial to address the complexity of the current cities' challenges (i.e. climate change effects, rapid urbanization, social exclusion, COVID response, and geopolitical events.).
The overall objective of ZES is to build a logical framework for prioritizing public choices at the city level towards Innovation Ecosystem (IE) rationale and characterize its urban dimension to drive urban planning and governance supporting actions for facilitating the urban transition of cities.
By exploring the urban informatics - urban planning nexus, ZES emphasizes the relevance of UIEs for leveraging urban transition towards resilience and sustainability supported by multi-level governance and urban planning and governance flexibility. In this overall framework, the nexus of urban informatics/urban planning and governance that characterizes innovative data-driven planning approaches proves to be paramount for the future design and management of urban transformations.

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

The research activities conducted during the fellowship have allowed to characterize the urban dimension of Innovation Ecosystems and to outline the supportive role of data-driven urban planning and governance for the creation/development of IEs with respect the need for transition of cities.
The investigation of the Boston area as explorative case study has unveiled interesting insights on the Urban Innovation Ecosystem (UIE) topic with potential implications for the design and management of cities’ transition: the importance of multilevel governance; the relevance of economic development measures – such as the opportunity zones – and the urban planning mechanisms as the mixed-use zoning approach; the centrality of the urban informatics (computational science) urban planning nexus in addressing the complexity of urban issues; the potential of Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) in the understanding of the current socio-ecological and socio-technological dynamics at the core of sustainable urban transformation; the importance of reinforcing and sustaining UIEs dynamics by public and private actors also through the civic data ecosystem, in which university and research-based partnerships play a crucial role.
These insights have been unveiled also thanks to training activities, that were centered on the urban informatics approach, which proves to be crucial for the planning of the future sustainable transformations. The training path pursued has contributed to the increase of the researcher’s knowledge in the urban studies and urban informatics fields, to explore more in depth the research topic, gain new skills and competences in the urban informatics area, and opening up new research trajectories.
Research and training results reflected in the dissemination and communication activities such as the MSCA Falling Wall Lab and the international New Metropolitan Perspective Symposium, in the publication of contributions in a special issue on Big Data and Urban Planning, the participation to several events, and also in synergies activated with other H2020 Projects as the TREND (Transition with Resilience for Evolutionary Development - MSCA) project.

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 research activities have provided essential elements for the urban characterization of Innovation Ecosystems (IEs) through the investigation of the exploratory case of the Boston area, outlining potential implications for the design and management of the transition’s complexity that cities are called to face.
As the case study analysis has revealed, the complexity of IEs (intended as Complex Adaptive Systems) dynamics and their interactions with the context can be captured by economic development and planning policies, and by urban governance and planning mechanisms able to combine economic development measures – such as the opportunity zones – and the planning mechanisms as the mixed-use zoning approach, and also by the nexus urban informatics – urban planning and governance.
Such a process can be relevant for local policymakers to identify and connect the local resources with global dynamics exploiting the ecosystem’s abilities for leveraging urban transition.
Research and training activities have unveiled the potential of big data analysis and visualization following the urban informatics approach, which has relevant implications for the design and management of the complex socio-ecological and socio-technological dynamics at the core of urban transition.
In this direction, understanding the underlying mechanisms of UIEs and cities by exploring knowledge and innovation dynamics through big data has the potential to impact the development of future novel research, educational, and urban development strategies towards resilience and sustainability. The investigation of this topic, and the implications for urban planning, proves the relevance of the topic for European cities for designing their urban transition strategies thanks to the new research knowledge and state-of-the-art techniques acquired by the fellow from the Host Institution (NEU) and within the Beneficiary lab in Italy by reinforcing their long-standing collaboration.
The results gained through the action paved the ground to explore new research trajectories thanks to the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), which has funded a research proposal that puts forward the activities of the ZES project (H2020-MSCA-IF-2018) by connecting Urban Innovation Ecosystem with ecosystem services under the umbrella of transition principles through the exploitation of the data science/urban planning nexus for the design of sustainable urban transformations.

The green and digital transition of EU Cities: urban innovation ecosystems and urban governance