AIT at the Ideathon in Turano Valley 2025

Innovative solutions emerge as AIT experts, supported by the GREENGAGE consortium, bring together young minds and residents to co-create sustainable transformations in mobility, road infrastructure, and environmental quality

During its 4th project meeting, AIT lead Horizon Europe project GREENGAGE held an Ideathon in Turano Valley, Italy. Local Students and community members collaborated with the interdisciplinary research team of the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology and the GREENGAGE consortium to develop creative solutions for improving air quality, road infrastructure, and the attractiveness of public spaces. The event, designed as an interactive co-creation process, fostered a dynamic exchange of knowledge and perspectives, ensuring that both young innovators and local stakeholders could contribute meaningfully to shaping their environment.

A key focus was leveraging GREENGAGE’s Citizen Observations and real-world experiences to design practical, community-driven interventions. Discussions centered on smart mobility solutions, strategies to enhance air quality monitoring, and approaches to improve the usability and appeal of public spaces. The Ideathon provided a platform to bridge generational and disciplinary gaps, ensuring a holistic understanding of environmental and infrastructural challenges in the Turano Valley.

The participants showed a great interest in the technical possibilities to monitor and improve real life aspects of the inhabitants of the Turano valley’s villages to become more sustainable in the future. The Ideathon even had direct impact on some mayors being at first skeptical regarding digital solutions, who at the end of the Ideathon turned out to be convinced that the versatility of the offered apps and platforms will lead to an enhancement of the situation in the valley.

Hence, through GREENGAGE’s participatory framework, the Ideathon showed the potential of community-led governance in fostering sustainable local transformations. By integrating citizen-driven insights with data-driven methodologies, GREENGAGE continues to position itself at the forefront of participatory innovation for more livable and resilient urban and rural environments.

The results of the Ideathon, including survey results regarding the used technologies, will be analysed and fed back into the final adaptations of the offered technical services.

Background:

The AIT lead GREENGAGE project is a 3-year Horizon Europe project running until end of 2025. GREENGAGE aims to promote innovative governance processes and help public authorities in shaping their climate mitigation and adaptation policies. To achieve this aim, the GREENGAGE project leverages citizens’ participation, equipping them with innovative digital solutions that shall transform citizen’s engagement and cities’ effectiveness in delivering the European Green Deal objectives for carbon neutral cities.

Project website: https://www.ait.ac.at/themen/climate-resilient-urban-pathways/projekte/greengage