The InnovationCommunity Urban Health (ICUH) addresses the creation of healthy and equitable living conditions in cities, based on the guiding principle of environmental justice. A central concern is overcoming so-called implementation gaps, i.e., the discrepancy between scientific findings, recognised guiding principles such as sustainability or health-promoting urban development, and their practical implementation. Through real-world experiments and implementation-oriented projects, the project team, in cooperation with academia, practitioners, and local stakeholders, develops and tests innovative solutions that contribute to socio-ecological transformation. They work under practical conditions in inner-city neighborhoods, closely collaborating with administration, citizens, and healthcare providers. The activities initially focus on the old industrial regions of the Ruhr area and Bremen/Bremerhaven, with the perspective of transferring tested approaches to other regions.
ICUH consists of three sub-projects, of which the Wuppertal Institute is actively involved in two: the management project aimed at developing a cross-project innovation strategy and an experimental implementation project, known as the ExperimentationSpaces.
The goal of the management sub-project is to develop a comprehensive innovation strategy that serves as the basis for providing funding for experimental and co-creative community projects. A management team consisting of representatives from all participating institutions – with the exception of ILS Research, which is part of the ExperimentationSpaces – supports these projects from application submission to implementation. The generated knowledge is also incorporated into a training programme. The Wuppertal Institute identifies and connects key actors of socio-ecological transformation, facilitates the development of ICUH’s knowledge base and competencies, especially regarding methods related to real-world laboratory and living lab research, and develops a formative evaluation concept.
In the ExperimentationSpaces sub-project, current implementation gaps are experimentally addressed, and innovative solutions are tested. Through the application of multiple exposure analyses (SUHEI model), small-scale modeling in the field of active mobility, and comprehensive process analyses, disadvantaged neighborhoods are initially identified. Within these neighborhoods, the research team, together with local stakeholders and practitioners, designs and experimentally assesses technical and social innovations focused on the domains of "active mobility" and "adaptation to climate change impacts." The objective is to generate evidence-based recommendations for action, particularly with regard to funding mechanisms, regulatory frameworks, and municipal governance structures. The Wuppertal Institute contributes its expertise in socio-ecological problem analysis as well as transdisciplinary research and implementation methods, supporting the establishment, implementation, and evaluation of transformative research and implementation settings.