Project: Social uplifting and modernization of suburban areas with Urban Living Lab approach

Acronym	SubUrbanLab (Reference Number: 438-12-447)
Project Topic	The overall aim of the project is to examine how suburbs in less valued areas can be modernised and socially uplifted together with the residents and other stakeholders in order to turn these suburbs into more attractive, sustainable and economically viable urban areas. The project sets up Urban Living Labs in two less valued suburbs in Sweden and Finland as a mean to develop new forms of involving the residents and stakeholders in an urban context. The aim is to examine how the residents can participate in developing the innovations that are needed, how they respond to new technologies and what is the effect of resident and stakeholder involvement on increasing the social, economic and environmental sustainability. The expected outcomes of the project are: - New knowledge about how to utilize different Living Labs methods and approaches in modernization and social upgrading projects - Urban Living Lab approaches consisting of Living Lab methods and approaches, which have been proven to efficiently involve the residents as active co-creators in modernization and social upgrading projects of challenging suburban areas. The potential of the approach for up-scaling across Europe has been assessed. - Solutions for modernisation and social uplifting of a specific problem in six case studies, through Urban Living Labs The impacts of the research project are: - Higher efficiency rate of modernization and social upgrading actions leading to, for example, higher energy savings and increased social cohesion in less valued suburbs - Increased interdisciplinary co-operation and information exchange between different fields of expertise, contributing to the development of Urban Living Labs - Improved participation and engagement of users and stakeholders in Alby and Peltosaari - New knowledge about how participatory processes in suburban areas can be carried out in a rewarding manner - Knowledge transfer between the City of Riihimäki and the Municipality of Botkyrka
Network	JPI Urban Europe
Call	JPI Urban Europe first Pilot Call

Project partner

Number	Name	Role	Country
1	City of Riihimäki	Partner	Finland
2	VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd.	Coordinator	Finland
3	IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute	Partner	Sweden
4	Botkyrka Municipality	Partner	Sweden