Last week, a Centre for BOLD Cities project team, headed by Jason Pridmore (Erasmus University), completed and submitted a Horizon 2020 proposal for the Co-creation: policy development in the age of big data programme. The proposed project revolves around empowering civil servants to use (existing) big data tools to develop urban policy, with a particular focus on vulnerable urban youth. Apart from the LDE universities, universities in Glasgow, Krakow, Barcelona, Bucharest, Tallinn and Naples have committed to this proposal. In addition, all university partners collaborate with a local government body, thereby creating ‘city-university duos’ that can take on the various aspects of the project.
The Centre for BOLD Cities project team furthermore consisted of Jay Lee, Liesbet van Zoonen (Erasmus University), Sarah Giest, Ulrich Mans, Gideon Shimshon (Leiden University), Alessandro Bozzon, Achilleas Psyllidis and Ivo Wenzler (TU Delft).
While it will take at least a few months before the European Commission decides on the division of grants for this call, and while chances are always slim, the Centre for BOLD Cities already takes pride and joy in the collective effort of the LDE researchers. The collaboration and resulting proposal bear witness to the usefulness and innovative potential of trans-university collaboration.