ENoLL at High Level Conference on Civic Engagement

On 21 March we participated at the High Level Conference on Civic Engagement in EU Missions organized by Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation within the scope of the French Presidency events. We presented the network and the Living Lab methodology at a booth and were supported by examples from different members of the network and projects which have a strong component of co-creation and citizen engagement. 

We were joined at the event by our Chairman Evdokimos Konstantinidis representing Thess-AHALL and its various projects, as well as Kaisa Spiling from Forum Virium Helsinki, ThessM@LL and Helena Fitzgerald from Limerick Living Lab. Wim De Kinderen and Olha Bondarenko representing Brainport Eindhoven were also active in the discussions and plenary sessions. 

Together with our members and ongoing projects we have covered four EU missions:

• Mission: A Climate Resilient Europe, represented by examples from GAIA, ThessM@LL, Krakow Technology Park and UNaLab, URBANOME, SCORE projects
• Mission: 100 Climate-Neutral Cities by 2030 – by and for the citizens, represented by examples from Forum Virium, Brainport Eindhoven, Limerick and oPEN Lab project
• Mission: Caring for Soil is Caring for Life, represented by examples from Demetra LL
• Mission: Conquering Cancer: Mission Possible, represented by examples from Thess-AHALL  
• Mission: Restore our ocean and waters by 2030, represented by examples from Watermining and Rewaise projects

(Pictured L-R: Spela Zalokar, Helena Fitzgerald, Kaisa Spiling, Evdokimos Konstantinidis)

Alongside our members who are directly including citizens in their work we also presented how various EU-funded projects have tackled the issue of citizen engagement. In particular the Urban Nature Labs (UNaLab) project which has been running since 2017 has contributed with many examples as well as tools and methods that can be used by any entity embarking on a citizen engagement activity. We have presented the co-creation toolkit and the Urban Living Lab Playground Game at the event. You can find more information on UNaLab co-creation here.