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About InPlaLabs

InPlaLabs is a KA2 Cooperation Partnership Erasmus+ project in the field of Higher Education, and its full title is Transnational Network of Integrated Planning Labs: Co-creating knowledge on forward-looking transdisciplinary planning perspectives addressing climate change and urban life in the post-pandemic city (GA No. 2023-1-EL01-KA220-HED-000160477 Erasmus+).

InPlaLabs aims to form a multi-level, multi-stakeholder network of knowledge nodes on integrated planning, coming together to exchange, co-create and share knowledge on transdisciplinary planning perspectives and relevant forward-looking green and digital skills.

This novel approach is based upon the necessity to cover the inadequate synergy and lack of systemic collaboration in planning-related higher education with their surrounding knowledge ecosystems of practice and policy actors to co-create the crucial knowledge on forward-looking transdisciplinary planning perspectives and the required green, digital, and intercultural skills to address climate change and urban life in the post-pandemic city.

It is collaboratively implemented by the National Technical University of Athens (coordinator), the University of Cyprus, the Athens-based interdisciplinary planning group commonspace(Athens, Greece), the urban analytics company Urban Calculator (Gothenburg, Sweden) and the social cooperative Bond of Union (Palermo, Italy).

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Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the State Scholarships Foundation (IKY). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

The Challenge

There is a growing understanding of the urgency for planning-related actors to tackle the complex issues relating to climate change, the overuse of resources, and the associated local and global urban health impacts, and in parallel, to strengthen their own resilience. Furthermore, although the planning community experiences that urban planning can facilitate a change of paradigm towards sustainability, it still faces barriers in producing work that tackles climate-change issues and encourages environmental sustainability. The primary challenge in this goal is the lack of systemic collaboration in planning-related higher education with their surrounding knowledge ecosystems of practice and policy actors to co-create the crucial knowledge on forward-looking transdisciplinary planning perspectives and the required green, digital, and intercultural skills to address climate change and urban life in the post-pandemic city.

Vision, Objectives and Target Groups

InPlaLabs aspires to develop a Transnational Network of multi-stakeholder Integrated Planning Labs for knowledge co-creation on climate-resilient planning. It envisions to influence the higher education ecosystem towards integrated planning by approaching integration under a comprehensive 3-fold framework:

• Discipline-based integration: Highlighting the complementary value of different disciplines relevant to sustainable planning (urbanism, mobility, transport planning, participatory planning, evidence-based planning, urban analytics, social sciences etc)
• Method-based integration: Initiating the dialogue among different approaches and schools of thought involved in planning (quantitative approaches, qualitative approaches, participatory approaches)
• Role-based integration: Including the different city-panning knowledge actors (urban education and research, urban practice, urban policy) and the different experiences they provide, as crucial input for creating knowledge towards integrated planning.

In this context, InPlaLabs objectives are:

• Knowledge Exchange: Foster collaboration among higher education institutions and knowledge actors in planning.
• Knowledge Co-creation: Facilitate co-creation of knowledge among planning stakeholders for climate-resilient and transdisciplinary planning.
• Knowledge Sharing: Enhance the skills of city planning higher education students and other planning actors through targeted training and knowledge-sharing initiatives
• Inclusive Participation: Ensure diverse and inclusive participation in all network activities.
• Long-term Sustainability: Establish a sustainable and impactful network for continuous improvement and innovation in planning.

InPlaLabs envisions becoming a leading network of (diverse) labs that pioneers integrated urban planning methods and drives the global agenda for climate-resilient and vibrant cities. Plus, InPlaLabs endeavours to advance HEd ecosystem knowledge for promoting truly integrated planning. Actually, this planning concept embraces integration based on combining disciplines, roles and approaches (qualitative, quantitative and participatory).

Meet the initiators

A fundamental concept for InPlaLabs derives from the European Institute of Technology’s knowledge triangle. We re-conceptualized the knowledge triangle specifically for integrated planning, resulting in three nodes representing the crucial knowledge actors of integrated planning: urban education/research, urban practice, and urban policy.

Therefore, the Athens and Nicosia Integrated Planning Labs that we will establish are coordinated by the two Higher Education institutions of the team (National Technical University of Athens and University of Cyprus) since they have deep ties with local policy and practice actors that are included in the partnership as partners and associated partners specifically for participating in the corresponding local Integrated Planning Labs.

Commonspace, apart from its role as practitioners in Athens Lab, provides crucial expertise in participatory planning, participatory action learning, and participatory procedures in general since they have significant expertise in multi-stakeholder engagement by developing the city lab participatory LAB: Laboratory of Spatial, Urban and Environmental Participatory Planning for Climate Change Adaptation.

Also, in the Athens Integrated Planning Lab, the Greek Planners Association (practice and policy actor), the Hellenic Ministry of Environment and the City of Athens (policy actors) have been included as associated partners, while in its Nicosia counterpart, ALA Planning Partnership (practice actor) and Nicosia Development Agency (policy actor) have been included.

Urban Calculator, a newcomer SME involved in state-of-the-art urban analytics, plays a crucial role in the partnership as a Knowledge node/follower lab from the world of work, since we wanted to explore and pilot how an enterprise -without the infrastructure of an HEI- could participate in the Transnational Network of Integrated Planning Labs.

Finally, Bond of Union a social cooperative with extensive expertise on urban issues deeply involved in education and European cooperation, is also taking part in the initiaiton of the network providing valuable experience through her work with civic society organisations, informal groups of citizens and in general associations working on urban issues.

To sum up, the partnership formed to develop the InPlaLabs project contains members that cover all required areas of proficiency to accomplish the aims and actions of the project. Each member of the team has pertinent knowledge in each of the relevant sectors. Special attention was paid to the creation of a solid alliance that its parties can collaborate in a valuable manner, hence assuring the achievement of all project’s functions and goals. That is the principal reason why the team considers members of distinct nature with supplementary roles, competencies, and profiles, namely: universities, consulting companies, and associations, which underline a fascinating mixture of knowledge, resources, and expertise.

Why to join InPlaLabs Network

We envision an urban realm where all competent actors (academia, policymakers, practitioners and citizens) communicate seamlessly and cooperate to transform their cities into liveable, equitable and sustainable entities. Our network lays the groundwork for this integrated and collaborative future; a future adopting integrated planning principles, both addressing urban, transport and environmental issues, promoting equity and justice and embracing active participation. InPlaLabs rethink planning and define that as a comprehensive procedure, entailing different fields and interests and not a mere sum of individual scientific and practical fields.

So why would someone join the InPlaLabs Network for Integrated Planning? Here is our pitch:

• Access to a comprehensive set of materials and resources through InPlaLabs VIrtual Knowledge Hub that includes a wiki repository and an open learning platform. For example: lectures, tutorials, references, a compendium of data sources
• Influence knowledge creation for integrated planning in a tangible way. By participating in the co-creation workshops organised by InPlaLabs, you can effectively shape the micro-courses and other learning activities to be developed by InPlaLabs
• Upskilling on green digital skills and novel transdisciplinary approaches on integrated planning by two esteemed universities in city planning (NTUA and UCY), as well as by interdisciplinary teams developing advanced methodologies and tools in participatory planning (commonspace) and urban analytics (Urban Calculator)
• Networking, Synergies and Interaction with various city planning actors from different sectors (education, research, practice, and policy) providing the opportunity to participate in open calls and events.

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