On 2 May 2016, the InnovationCity roll out was officially started with a public event in Oberhausen. The InnovationCity roll out is a joint project of Innovation City Management GmbH, Wirtschaftsförderung metropoleruhr GmbH, WiN Emscher-Lippe Gesellschaft zur Strukturverbesserung GmbH and Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy. Its aim is to transfer the experiences and knowledge on climate-conscious urban restructuring made in Bottrop into Ruhr metropolitan area and to contribute to substantial reductions of CO2-emissions through analysis, concept development and a consequent implementation. The project is funded by the project call "Regio.NRW - Starke Regionen, starkes Land" (Regio.NRW - strong regions, strong country) within the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). In 20 urban quarters in the Ruhr region, integrated quarter-concepts will be initiated, following the Bottrop model. The urban quarters, which were chosen by an independent jury, are located in the cities of Castrop-Rauxel, Dorsten, Dortmund, Gelsenkirchen, Gladbeck (two quarters), Hamm (two quarters), Herne, Herten, Lünen, Moers, Mülheim an der Ruhr (two quarters), Oberhausen, Oer-Erkenschwick, Recklinghausen, Waltrop, Wesel und Witten.

The role of the Wuppertal Institute is the scientific support of the roll out process. Major effort is put in the evaluation of the applied strategies and measures as well as their unification into a transferable strategy tool kit.