Open Call: Vital Cities and villages #1

The Creative Industries Fund NL wants to connect and strengthen spatial policy at all levels of scale and is launching the new Spatial Design Voucher scheme for this purpose. The scheme has a term of one year and is substantively in line with the major tasks from the National Environmental Vision (NOVI). Submit your application no later than 30 June, 2021!

The call gives space for approximately 200 innovation vouchers, with which local authorities and semi-public organisations can use extra design power to explore and strengthen their policy. With the vouchers they can commission spatial designers and researchers for a design study into the local consequences of these major tasks. The call 'Vital cities and villages #1' is the first in a series of 8 calls.

The call Vital cities and villages #1 focuses on trends and developments in cities and villages, the urgency of which has increased even more as a result of covid-19.

The call
• Budget € 500,000
• Continuous submission from 1 April to 30 June 2021
• Contract term is 1 to 3 months
• €10,000 to €30,000 incl. VAT per innovation voucher
• About 25 proposals are selected

Our cities are economic and cultural centres, the places where meetings take place that are necessary for the exchange of ideas and thus for innovations. They are the places where everything comes together: having the talent, the employment opportunities, the quality of having everything within reach. Together with surrounding towns and villages, they form ever larger and stronger urban regions with enormous appeal. In the Netherlands, where we have agreed that we want to conserve the landscapes between our cities and villages, growth means densification: the stacking of functions, multiple uses of space, or more activity on the same surface. This is good for cross-pollination and interaction, but it does require smart choices in spatial planning, because not only the housing construction task, but also tasks such as accessibility, distribution of goods and tasks in the field of climate and energy will have to be addressed.

However, the subsequent challenges facing cities and villages are not only spatial, but also social and economic in nature. Because how, for example, do we ensure that all groups in our society can find and pay for a home and stay connected to social networks? What does this mean for access to work and income? In the future, how do we make our inner cities and village centres, which are now dominated by catering, shops and entertainment, into mixed areas where different functions can reinforce and relieve each other? Which interests play a role in this and how do they come together? The relationship between different challenges will sometimes be difficult, but often also an opportunity.

For whom?
The call is aimed at local authorities and semi-public organisations that want to use extra design power in exploring opportunities and solutions to strengthen the vitality of cities and villages in the future. Together with spatial designers/researchers, they can submit a proposal for a design study of 1-3 months in which they work on a concrete case or design question together with local and regional partners.

Application submittal
You can submit your proposal from 1 April to 30 June 2021. For more information, visit the website of the Creative Industries Fund NL!

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