CircularCityChallenge

The cities of tomorrow need to be created by the bright minds of the future. The aim of CircularCityChallenge  is therefore to set up a pan-European competition for students through which the consortium will collect  creative and novel ideas for circular city approaches. 

The Background

Research on education for sustainable development has shown that teaching sustainability and circularity is a  challenge, as it requires a departure from the disciplinary and subject-focused teaching that predominates  current educational paradigms, particularly in engineering education. A simple integration into existing courses  is not enough because sustainability is a multifaceted problem that requires modern systems in order to  understand drivers and solutions, societal and economic aspects.  

To communicate the complex topic of sustainability, interest and relevance must be promoted, not only to  students, but also to educators and policymakers. Moreover, it is key to understand, that the focus on circularity  is not only limited on its analysis alone, but also on design and synthesis. Social justice and socio-economic  impacts of climate change are key aspects that need to be connected to topics such as sustainability, economy,  waste reduction, urban strategies, etc. 

The Goals

In order to address this challenge, the CircularCityChallenge project will develop a participatory contest that  allows students to design and submit their own ideas, concepts and solutions to this multifaceted problem. As  such, this approach will build on the logic of co-creation and informal learning, which are characterised by  intrinsic motivation.  

Thus, the project ensures a horizontal learning effect, which will lead to a broader and deeper understanding. In  this sense, CircularCityChallenge givesstudents the right to choose their education and learning style. The project  will contribute to filling a gap in research, advancing knowledge in the field, and integrating environmental action  in education curricula. 

The Project will therefore: 

• ANALYSE curricula, education methods, tools, good practices, and topics to set up the  CircularCityChallenge in the context of the circular city approach as a way to address challenges of  urbanisation.  
• CO-CREATE an innovative challenge concept, select relevant topics, and define contest categories,  formats and prizes in co-creation workshops with education experts, schools, municipalities, and young  people  
• BUILD an interactive challenge platform with multifunctional modules including an open information  hub with resource directories, an intuitive contest submission system, and awareness channels. 
• CONDUCT the CircularCityChallenges across Europe, focussing on the involved cities, with several  contest categories and creative submission types to foster education on circularity and sustainability  among young people.  
• DEVELOP curricula roadmaps and educational kits with supporting material for schools, and derive  lessons learned on and experiences with educating circularity through participative challenges.
• BOOST interest in the project in performing targeted, measurable and traceable communication and  dissemination efforts to spread the results achieved and outline a sustainable exploitation strategy. 

The Consortium

Coordinated by SYNYO GmbH (AT) and throughout a duration of 30 months with a total number of 118 person  months, 6 partners will be working on analysing the body of knowledge as well as conducting empirical research  on the challenges and needs. Among these partners are Stadtgemeinde Trofaiach (Austria), Ayuntamiento de  Logroño (Spain), Municipiul Bistrita (Romainia), BISS Institute at Maastricht University (The Netherlands),  University of Architecture and Urban Planning (Romania). They will reflect the complexity of individual and  structural dimensions, geographical scale as well as the forms and levels of responses related to different  stakeholder groups and practitioners 

Keywords

Circular, Youth, Teenager, Children, Future, Development, Sustainability, Challenge, Competition, Citizen  Engagement