This  ‘Toolkit’  presents  the  outcomes  of  the  North  Sea Region INTERREG IVB project Creative City Challenge (CCC). Its main target group are local and regional policy-makers. It therefore aims

• to  identity  levers  that  policy-makers  can  pull  in  order  to stimulate  creative  city  development  or  the  creative economy in a focused (rather than generic) way;
• to  indicate  constraints  and  points  of  attention  policy-makers should take into account.

This report ist now online.

 CCC Transnational learning report [act. 6.5] (5.37 MB)

The BRENNEREI next generation lab is a laboratory for professional development in the context of interdisciplinary processes. The BRENNEREI next generation lab, in conjunction with young professionals, experts and mentors, develops new concepts to find answers to the economic, technological and social challenges of tomorrow. The projects are based on a mixture of experimental and practical tasks in the areas of business, science and society. The focus of this year's work is on assignments in the areas of corporate communication and urban development.

Most of the presentations at the "Creative City Challenge Final Conference: Creating Space" are now available online.

01 October 2012

Slotcongres Creative City Challenge

Door Kees de Graaf [Studio Platz] en Gerben Kleiman [NimioN], Groningen

Op een andere manier met gebieds- en stadsontwikkeling omgaan, dat was het onderliggende thema van de manifestatie Open Lab Ebbinge (Groningen, 20-22 september). Ook in de metropool van het noorden werken oude manieren van werken niet meer en ontstaat ruimte voor nieuwe ideeën. Een prettige steun in de rug vormen dan de ervaringen die in diverse landen rond de Noordzee in het kader van het EU-programma 'Creative City Challenge' zijn opgedaan. Ze laten zien hoe rond kennisclusters en culturele hotspots de stad nieuwe impulsen kan krijgen. De creativiteit aan de macht dus.

September 2012

After three years of working together, discussing the contents, debating money matters, exchanging ideas and bringing projects into life during partner meetings or informal encounters, via e-mail or telephone calls, the Creative City Challange (CCC) project is coming to its official ending.

The CCC project aimed to build and implement an innovation and creativity strategy - now presented in the book "Creative City Challenge - Highlights and Best Practices".

The establishment of special Live-Work Environments (LWE) for creative and innovative individuals has become very popular in various cities during recent years. Since there is not always a clear division between work and leisure in the creative sphere, people in creative milieus often choose to live in areas that are multifunctional, seeing as they often prefer working from home. As a consequence, urban planning is focusing more and more on the creation of attractive LWE as a way of fostering the development of the creative sector.

In the municipality of Hoeje-Taastrup (HTM) there is no clear political definition of the concept of LWE, therefore we will present a discussion on the necessary conditions for the establishment of such environments.

20 September 2012, Groningen, The Netherlands

In the creative sector, cross-disciplinary collaboration and knowledge sharing have always been powerful catalysts of innovation. So one can argue about the role of the creative industries in cross-sectoral knowledge transfer and therefore in the innovation ecosystem, in smart and sustainable growth.

With project partners from the EU North Sea Region Hamburg, Bremen, Oldenburg, Kortrijk, Høje-Taastrup, Göteborg, Dundee, Newcastle, Delft and Groningen much work has been carried out in developing and exchanging expertise and experience in the field of creative knowledge clusters, hotspots/incubators, entrepreneurship and transnational networks. Time for sharing and debating!

19 September 2012

The KEA study on 'The use of Structural Funds for Cultural Projects' was presented in Brussels on Wednesday 19 September 2012 at the European Parliament.

EU policies are moving towards a comprehensive understanding of culture as a tool contributing to urban regeneration, attractiveness, entrepreneurship, innovation, jobs and sustainability. Cities and regions are going through the same path. Unfortunately, the new Cohesion Policy proposal for 2014-2020 only partially captures the pervasiveness of cultural investment. This report analyses the use of Structural Funds (SFs) in the period 2007-2013 and provides advice on how to facilitate access to SFs for culture under the new Policy.

Høje-Taastrup  Municipality  is  a  Copenhagen suburb  in  the  Capital  Region.  There  are around 47,000 inhabitants in the municipality and approximately 32,000 workplaces.

The story of Høje-Taastrup is the story of the modern  suburb,  and  the  many  new  citizens and  businesses  who  settled  from  the  late 1950s  and  1960s.  Høje-Taastrup  started  its development as a city in 1962 when it came under the responsibility of the capital's urban planning system.