In order to tackle pressing societal issues, we must reconsider how we design and inhabit our neighbourhoods. The necessity of consistently including end users or local communities is sometimes overlooked in the planning, designing, and construction processes used today. However, combining community knowledge and initiatives can result in more liveable neighbourhoods that empower citizens and represent local needs and surroundings. Furthermore, the way public areas are constructed can have a big influence on how people interact with one another, what kinds of activities happen there, and how much trust the public has in their local government and democracy as a whole. The project seeks to rethink how neighborhoods are designed and experienced by emphasizing the importance of involving local communities in the planning, design, and construction processes. By incorporating community knowledge, more livable spaces can be created that meet local needs and empower residents. Public spaces are vital in fostering social interaction, trust in government, and democratic engagement. Equipping people with the tools to actively participate in co-designing these environments can strengthen social trust, enhance a sense of belonging, and boost community involvement. The "Sustainable Public Spaces through Inclusive Community Engagement (SPICE)" project aims to develop a participatory co-creation model for shaping neighborhoods. It will explore and test innovative methods to engage communities in co-designing and maintaining public spaces across diverse European neighborhoods. By promoting interdisciplinary collaboration, leveraging digital tools, and using sustainable construction practices, the project aims to address societal challenges, promote social inclusion, support democratic participation, and align with the European Green Deal and New European Bauhaus principles.

The main objective of the project is to collaboratively address a common innovation support challenge, through the concept of the Twinning+ methodology. Design Impact Observatory (DesImO) aims to bring four organisations together, to jointly explore best practices and provide guidelines and tools regarding effectively measuring Design and its impact on SMEs. During the implementation of the project, the partners will peer review past and on-going initiatives focusing on measuring impact of Design interventions in the business sector (and especially in SMEs). The good practices will be identified and further researched on how they were set up, what data collection methodologies they applied, what were the advantages and limitations of those methods. Using the Twinning Advanced methodology, this initiative will lead to the elaboration of a Design Options Paper (DOP), which will include the results of the peer-review process and of the pilot testing, and will also act as a backbone of how to set up a ‘Design Impact Observatory’. This will help other innovation agencies to monitor the level of integrating Design – or any other driver of innovation – into business and its impact on SMEs.

The aim of this specific project is to set up a brand-new innovation support service –a service that will enable both the country make profit out of its investments on SMEs and the SMEs further develop their operations by enhancing the use of Design. Two closed groups will be developed; the first one will be a traditional group of 5 beneficiaries of previously implemented programmes, which will run the common procedure after finishing the implementation of their project –the Comparison Group. This group, just like all those beneficiaries till today, will have no contact/support by our organisation, after finishing their project. The second closed group will make use of the new innovation support scheme. A closed group of 5 SMEs –the “Treatment Group”– will be selected and they will be offered a Design Clinic service, a service that through which, they will fully understand their future challenges and which are their opportunities. They will be also offered some introductory workshops in order to understand the value of Design and its mindset. After the introductory workshops, they will receive a Design Customized Mentoring service –a service through which they will be provided guidance on how to strategically integrate design thinking in their products, services and operations. This is a new innovation support scheme, which seems more than needed. A call for expression of interest will be published targeting to SMEs that have already made use of a financial support programme. After selecting the Treatment Group, the project will directly call SMEs that will be monitored regarding their business indicators, and will not receive the new service, formatting the Comparison Group. This way, the project will assure that the two groups will be equivalent. The project will monitor both groups development rates and will come up with a feasibility study regarding the provision if the specific scheme, which intends to make permanent.

The aim of the project is to collaboratively address a common innovation support challenge; namely to improve eco-innovation support services in smaller manufacturing companies from traditional sectors in the peripheral regions, where innovation services offer is often weak. The most important outcome is a joint Design Option Paper, which will serve as a “guide” or a “handbook” to other agencies and business support centres to provide similar, more focused services on eco-energy efficiency.

This specific project aims to bring three organizations together, to jointly seek solutions in the service delivery system of Design support programmes. The three members of the consortium have long-standing experience in providing services to SMEs, managing nation/regional funds to reinforce entrepreneurship. Also, on the one hand, the three organizations are positioned in totally different areas, south-eastern, central and northern Europe and their economies are at different phases, while on the other hand, they themselves as organization show a different level of service provision regarding design support. All those conditions, create an added-value consortium formation, as this diversity ensures that more different points of view will be captured in every subject examined, representing the concerns of the highest percentage possible of similar agencies across Europe. During the implementation of the project, the partners will peer review the procedures of setting up a design service that satisfies its target group, raising awareness of design support opportunities, the provision of the services themselves, the post-evaluation of the provision and the improvement of the service. In the end, the partners will have peer-reviewed existing services, come up with a backbone of how to set up a “design support service”, while at the end of the peer-review process, the partners will set up a pilot in Greece, where a newly-established service will be set, using and testing the draft DOP. After the set up of the service, the final amendment will be made in response to potential unforeseen issues not covered by the DOP, and its final version will be published.