Project ideas for cities of the future to be created in Otwock

Participants of innovative IdeaLab workshops started working on solutions for cities to be implemented in 2040. This is an undertaking organized for the first time by the National Center for Research and Development (NCBR) in consultation with the Research Council of Norway. Its essence is an innovative way of creating ideas for research and development projects combined with immediate expert judgment.

“Cities are like lenses focusing on the biggest challenges that we have to overcome and even overtake for the next decades. That is why we invited representatives of various disciplines who would not have met otherwise, to work out modern, practical and socially responsible proposals for cities of the future. I believe that in 20 years they will be proud to say that it is thanks to their ideas that living in large agglomerations is better and safer,”  Wojciech Kamieniecki, EngD, director of the National Center for Research and Development, said.

Half of the world's population, i.e. 3.5 billion, lives in cities, and this number is expected to increase to 5 billion soon. According to demographers, cities will attract up to 80 percent by 2050 inhabitants of wealthy countries and over 60 percent of developing country populations.

The entire initiative is part of the "Applied Research" Program implemented under the Norwegian and European Economic Area (EEA) Funds. The project's budget, whose operator is the National Center for Research and Development, is over €6.5 million.

(WBJ)