On the 28^th and 29^th of June 2022, the CREST project partners got the chance to get together in person at installations of Augmentcity AS, in Alesund, Norway.

The workshop and project meeting created several opportunities for partners to learn more about the Augmentcity digital twin augmented reality technology that will serve as the foundation for the CREST project. The technology was showcased in the Augmentcity Simulator (shown in the corresponding image), providing a fully immersive virtual but an extremely realistic experience. The images and scenarios shown in the simulator sparked the imagination of all participants who discussed how the technology can be best used for CREST and how digital twins could revolutionize other research fields and be beneficial for research projects in related areas. 

Participants also had insights into the research initiatives between Ålesund Municipality, AugmentCity and other regional actors and there was time to understand more about the sustainability and development work done in the More og Romsdal region, namely their work with the United for Smart Sustainable Cities (U4SSC indicators), the county’s cooperation with the EU, the participation of youngsters in the work of the region and the specific project of the Sørsida development project in Ålesund City Centre. We learnt that despite Norway being a highly developed country, all the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) apply in the Norwegian context (even the no poverty goal!). The UN SDGs are important, therefore, to be interpreted in the targeted specific territorial environment.

Project partners also conducted a short co-creation exercise, facilitated by Augmentcity, to generate thoughts on approaches and directions to opt for within the CREST project. The methodology used is rooted in the design thinking methodology and it is frequently employed for building and giving shape to new initiatives. It was also discussed what to focus on to achieve the highest impact in the project. Amongst the numerous suggestions, some were for instance:

• Creation of an understanding on why currently citizens do not engage in urban planning;
• Applying a place-based approach to be able to take into account the territorial specificities and allow a higher stakeholder and citizen engagement;
• Choosing use cases and topics to work on that can result in a policy change;

The event then zoomed in on the status of the project progress. The work advanced on all ends, such as the identification of available databases in France with data relevant for creating the digital twin of the City of Bordeaux, the preparation of the CREST data management with high importance in data-driven initiatives, such as CREST, and the preparation of key CREST communication and dissemination materials and a strategy for related activities.

After this short but hardworking event, we shall wait for further developments. Please stay tuned!

See more about the workshop on the following link:  https://www.linkedin.com/posts/augmentcity_crest-workshop-activity-6948585048304435200-jVwl utm_source=linkedin_share&utm_medium=member_desktop_web