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The Transforming cities hub has launched a call for seed funding to stimulate new internal and external collaborations on urban sustainability transformations. The Transforming cities hub organizes several activities on specific topics for researchers at Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ to stimulate collaboration and applications for seed funding. On Wednesday 10 March the hub organizes a seed funding workshop on Smart Urban Governance. The aim of the workshop is to set a research agenda and formulate one or more ideas that lead to a seed funding proposal.

A smart city is not just about implementing a bunch of innovative technologies

Background

Over the last ten years cities around the world started to develop and implement their first ideas on how Information- and Communication Technologies (ICT) could transform their operations into so-called 'smart cities'. Caragliu et al. (2011: 70) describes ‘... a city to be smart when investments in human and social capital and traditional (transport) and modern (ICT) communication infrastructure fuel sustainable economic growth and a high quality of life, with a wise management of natural resources, through participatory governance.’

From this definition it shows that a smart city is not just about implementing a bunch of innovative technologies, but asks also for intelligence, innovation, collaboration, and a sustainability perspective. Likewise, such a smart city asks for a dedicated way of governance.

How do we intend to continue

Departing from previous studies and experiences we would like to initiate the start of a Special Interest Group (SIG) in which people from within and outside Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ collaborate on research into Smart Urban Governance (SUG). We strive for an emphatic integration of a conceptual and a more empirical line of research. We are convinced that by close collaboration between people from academia and practitioners we will be able to better contribute to both the practice and the science of SUG in a comparative degree.

Preliminary ideas are the composition of an edited volume or special issue for an international journal on subfields within this research line (e.g., urban futures) and parallel, we want to write a proposal for seed funding within a call for proposals on Urban Sustainability Transformations.

The workshop is organized in collaboration with Stan Geertman, Patrick Witte and Peter Pelzer. 

The research hub Transforming cities is part of the Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ strategic theme Pathways to Sustainability. By connecting knowledge and collaborating with stakeholders in transdisciplinary settings, the Transforming cities hub aims to explore and provide sustainable solutions for cities.

For other seed funding workshops, please check the program.