Hanseatic teams present ways of combating COVID-19 and climate woes
Eleven Hamburg-based participants in the UpdateDeutschland future lab presented in May their ideas for a crisis-proof, climate-neutral and democratic Germany in the digital age. The teams also provided insight into how to emerge stronger from the pandemic, focusing on technological progress as well as social and cultural aspects in line with Hamburg's Regional Innovation Strategy (RIS) for a liveable city. A panel of experts had selected the eleven teams which will receive up to EUR 50,000 each from the City of Hamburg for six months.
Diverse approaches
Michael Westhagemann, Senator for Economics, remarked: "By participating in the 'UpdateDeutschland' process last year, Hamburg embarked on an entirely new collaboration between business, society and administration," and hailed the results "a successful example of how concrete and long-term solutions could grow out of an open-social-innovation process".
Ideas for more sustainability included carbon sequestration presented by VIVO Carbon, recycling donated clothing by Hanseatic Help e. V., sustainable redevelopment in the city centre by the Reallabor Altstadtküst, the development of organic food in the city through the Future Food Campus Hamburg and a social-ecological supermarket. Other projects included an online learning platform (Chancen CAMPUS Hamburg), a lab for online inclusion education (Dialogue Online Inclusion Learning Lab) as well as an alarm app (Safer.Spaces) and a novel Sports & Mental Health Lab. Yet other initiatives focused on introducing young people to innovation and start-up topics through the "Young Waterkant Festival Hamburg" and the "Hacker School @yourschool" to get youths excited about IT topics.
Initiatives secure over EUR 500,000 euros
Around 75 initiatives had submitted their ideas in response to an initial call for funding in June 2021. The projects had to be closely linked to Hamburg's RIS strategy focusing on health, climate and energy, mobility, data science and digitalisation as well as material sciences and new materials.
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