URA Consortium Workshop Berlin #4

On the 20th of February 2020, the URA German consortium members met again in Berlin. This workshop focused on the interdisciplinary research methods of different teams, discussing overlaps and shared issues encountered while preparing the application for the "Research and Development" phase of the project. The workshop was initially intended to take place in Taizhou with Chinese consortium members and local political and entrepreneurial actors. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 outbreak hindered the ability of the team to travel to China and the work of actors within our research area in Taizhou. Despite these difficulties, our Chinese partners engaged in discussions through virtual mediums before the workshop to share their ideas with their partners.

This workshop represented the third round of grounding and in-depth exploration of URA research topics since the start of the project. Morning sessions focused on collaboratively mapping our research focuses and findings from the "Definition Phase", carried out through the Raumbild methodological approach. This allowed the interdisciplinary teams to visualise and share their research themes and future visions of selected research areas or "Living Laboratories". In the afternoon session, the URA working package groups shared their detailed work plans and vision for the next four years of the project from their respective disciplinary perspective. Issues regarding collaboration between working packages were explicitly addressed, as well as the wider context of cooperation with local, international, professional and civil society stakeholders. This was subsequently integrated into the shared project milestone plan.