At the last City Team meeting five fields of actions were defined: urban food system, urban planning, education, empowerment and environmental justice & climate. Those actions fields were further discussed and specified. These fields of action might still be altered and will be further developed and discussed in working groups. The BOKU Wien gave an input to define system elements for the different fields of action.

Furthermore, there was an update by the process of the different Living Labs in Berlin. A status of the analysis and interviews of the different edible cities solutions in Berlin was given.

The webinar series “Innovation for SDGs: inspirational tools towards sustainability challenges” focuses on opportunities and new trends in the fields of research and innovation. The goal was to debate and advance towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The session was moderated by Joaquim Comas, researcher at the Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA) and WP2 leader of EdiCitNet project. Corinne Trommsdorff (CEO & Founder at Water Cities.org), delivered an inspiring presentation about Water-Wise Cities. Regina Gnirss (Head of Research & Development, Berliner Wasserbetriebe) presentation was focused on sustainable management of Water Cycle, with especial attention to the city of Berlin.

Joana Castellar as a representative of WP2 lead (ICRA) delivered a presentation entitled “(Circular) nature-based Solutions”. The presentation delivered a critical discussion about what is and what is not a Nature-Based Solution (NBS), with special focus on the role of biodiversity for the conceptualization of NBS. Moreover, insights were given about the design of NBS for promoting circular management of resources in cities, especially water and food.

Finally, The EdiCitNet toolbox was presented, as an interactive space for knowledge sharing. Special attention was given to the diverse functionalities provided such as:

• An interactive Catalogue in which any person can create profiles for their (edible)NBS. Such profiles showcase technical information and offers a set of interactive functions that make it a true social network for users (civil society, urban planners, researchers).
• A Design and planning tool which enables users to create their own initiative(s) by giving insights about resources needed and food potential.
• A Performance assessment tool which enables user to compare the performance of these initiatives in terms of sustainability, urban challenges, and ecosystem services.

Josep Pueyo-Ros, the main designer of the Edible City Game, in WP2, is invited to do a conference in the forthcoming Tygron Edu Event 2021, on 8th April. Tygron is the software used to develop the Edible City Game (the Edicitnet’s serious game). The conference’s title is “Work independently with the Tygron Platform”. Josep will explain how he got started with the software himself. And, of course he also will show his use case, a serious game to foster Edible City Solutions.

Likewise, Josep will also introduce the Edible City Game in Ecosystem Services Partnership European Conference, will will take place on the second week of June, in Tartu, Estonia (but also virtually). The title of the accepted communication is “The Edible Game: A participatory approach to foster edible nature-based solutions” and will be presented in the session “S8b – Planning nature-based solutions while keeping people’ s preferences in mind”.

Both are great opportunities to share Edicitnet beyond the project.

In this episode of the podcast series “Sprout to Be Alive!” they discuss how cities like Berlin can use urban agriculture initiatives to ensure a sustainable and local food supply, while also improving urban climate and Berliners’ quality of life.
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The interview is available in German and you can find it here: https://www.urania.de/sprout-be-alive-3”

Defining fields of action for the master plan process was the aim of this City Team meeting in February. ⁠

The master plans are a key part of the EdiCitNet project, and will guide the City Teams in developing a tailor-made strategy to integrate Edible City Solutions (ECS) into disadvantaged inner city and suburban neighborhoods, to promote social cohesion and to improve quality of life for the inhabitants.⁠

After a short input by the Working Package 4 lead BOKU Vienna, the City Team collected ideas in a lively online brainstorming session. ⁠

They ended up defining five key fields of action: ⁠

• consumer and producer relationship⁠
• urban planning⁠
• education⁠
• empowerment and ⁠
• environmental justice. ⁠

These fields of action might still be altered and will be further developed and discussed in working groups.

The Front Runner City Berlin has two Living Labs: one in Hellersdorf and one in Neukölln.

Hellersdorf

In Hellersdorf, the Prinzessinnengarten team created a list of plants for the ECS “edible landscaping”, which fulfills the criteria of edible landscaping and focuses on indigenous, robust wild perennials that promote insects. Subsequent efforts have been made to formulate next steps and identify financial means to cover the potentially higher costs of edible plantings.

In winter 2020/21, more concrete work was done on the planning of possible products within the framework of the ECS “product development”. They concentrate on the cultivation of mint and savory and cooperate closely with the St. Jacobi / Neukölln real-life laboratory for the production of mint tea and savory syrup.

In February and March 2021, the program is planned for the 2021 season: activities, festivals and gardening days. Of course, it is important to wait and see the course of the corona pandemic.

Neukölln

The community garden of the Prinzessinnengärten at the New St. Jacobi Cemetery started in 2018. The City Team Neukölln was founded in a “kick-off event” on October 26th, 2020. First, focus topics are developed, from which edible solutions are then concretized:

• The Living Lab “as a place of active participation of the neighborhood for a lively, participatory quarter and cemetery development.”
• The Living Lab “as an environmentally friendly and low-threshold place of learning for sustainable and climate-friendly urban nature and urban agriculture.”
• The Living Lab “as a designer in a cautious change of the cemetery while promoting biological diversity and maintaining a green memorial and recreation area.” The Prinzessinnengarten is currently working on textual elaborations on the ECS
• “Product development” (together with Living Lab Hellersdorf),
• “Kiez Action Days”
• “Edible city all year round” and
• “Cemetery Conversion and Mourning Culture”.

The ECS drafts are to be coordinated with the City Team Neukölln from March 2021 and then included in the overall implementation plan for Berlin.

In addition to the two Living Labs in Hellersdorf and Neukölln, work is also being carried out in Berlin on a strategy to promote the “Edible City” for all of Berlin, the so-called “Master Plan”. The central question in Berlin is how community gardens should be designed in order to strengthen socially disadvantaged neighborhoods (neighborhood management areas).

At the last meeting, fields of action were jointly defined in which goals should / must be achieved, e.g. “Participation & Participation” and “Planning Instruments”.