ISINNOVA’s expertise with participatory foresight and urban governance helps the Municipality of Parma imagine and deliver Parma Futuro Smart, its Smart City Vision for 2030.
Challenge
The Parma Futuro Smart project benefits the Municipality of Parma, and is funded by the European Commission through international project Ruggedised.
European cities face major environmental, social, economic and political challenges. To respond to them and set solutions, the capacity to act across different and interrelated sectors is required.
Parma Futuro Smart aims to develop a smart city strategy that can put the different skills and initiatives into action.
Its goal is to collaboratively imagine the future of Parma, unearthing aspirations, desires, fears, opportunities and constraints as voiced by the community.
Parma Futuro Smart provides a strategic smart city plan that will inspire and support cohesive decision making for both public and private organisations for years to come.
What We Did
Drawing on two decades of research and support in participatory foresight and urban governance, ISINNOVA designed an integrated co-planning process to re-energise Parma’s community participation and involve a diverse range of local players in the city’s forward-looking ambitions.
Over the course of two years, Parma Futuro Smart engaged over 30 stakeholders from Parma’s civil society, including public authorities, industries, research institutes, start-ups, students, concerned citizens and grassroot movements.
With the leadership of Parma’s administration and the support of local changemakers, ISINNOVA helped Parma Futuro Smart establish a platform that turns innovative ideas into transformative actions for a more liveable, sustainable and efficient Parma.
Our Added Value
ISINNOVA’s approach can allow cities to:
- Visualise possible futures, as well as interrelations and consequences of strategic decisions, in the medium- to long-term (15-30 years from today).
- Include entire communities in the conversation, especially vulnerable groups that are usually left at the socio-economic fringe.
- Improve community cooperation and mutual awareness.
- Identify and own the fundamental values and aspirations of communities, aligning them with strategic global goals such as the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
ISINNOVA consistently strengthens its approach to supporting policies through continued participation in leading research and innovation projects that advance international knowledge in the fields of system thinking, foresight, public engagement, governance, co-design, and peer-to-peer inspiration. We strive to tailor our scientific and practical expertise to benefit the broader cultural and socio-economic contexts we work in, and Parma Futuro Smart is one example.
“Parma Futuro Smart establishes a cohesive territorial network in which resourceful and creative stakeholders are reunited to build a future intending to humanise Parma and afford coherent synergy to projects that today often do not speak to each other” – Tiziana Benassi, Councillor for Environmental Sustainability, Municipality of Parma.
We Collaborated With:
Comune di Parma, Barilla Group, Lepida Spa, Davines, Docomo Digital, Difly, Vislab, Chiesi Farmaceutici, Dallara, Shike, Fiab Parma, Focus Lab.
