Creating NEBourhoods Together, an EU flagship project of the New European Bauhaus, Transition Hub

As part of the project, the Transition Hub is trialling a comprehensive co-creation approach: academia, business, politics/public administration and civil society are to be involved, bringing their diverse interests, experiences and specialist backgrounds to the table. Local stakeholders from Neuperlach are contributing their needs. The academic community is contributing ten state-of-the-art project ideas. Testing these ideas together and further developing them in a locally relevant way in collaboration with all sections of society yields faster and more thoroughly tested results that can be sustainably embedded at a local level. This benefits the academic community as well as local civil society and businesses. The city administration, in turn, can identify obstacles and opportunities in these pilot projects and incorporate them into strategies for other neighbourhoods. The co-creation taking place here on the ground brings major advantages for transfers of scientific ideas into society. To achieve a high level of participation, we had to hold many discussions with residents and raise awareness of the project. We found the best way to do this was with our cargo bike: during simple events where the bike is used as an information stand, passers-by can, for example, have a ‘solar coffee’ with us – that is, a coffee brewed on the spot using solar energy. This allows them to strike up a conversation with us in a relaxed manner and find out more about the idea of setting up a local energy community.

To raise awareness of a real-world laboratory for local food supply chains, we offered visitors the chance to make their own herb butter using local herbs. To recruit participants for our real-world laboratory on mobility, we built finger-skateboard ramps out of old cardboard boxes with the children. As a result, the cargo bike has become a mini-exchange centre and a key factor in fostering local participation. Creating low-threshold meeting places of this kind is an important starting point for finding interested co-creators and sustainers for the Living Labs and for enabling effective co-creation.