The innovative and experimental city

Innovation and experimentation is also at the heart of how a managed transition to a sustainable future can be influenced and shaped with a series of planned and strategic projects which can, for example, also underpin a vision of the city as ‘smart and sustainable’. The role of a university in the city and its engagement in a ‘civic role’ has also been highlighted as fundamentally important not only in economic growth theory and innovation theory, but also in city visioning literature. In this chapter, the importance of cities as centres for urban innovation and urban experiments is examined, before looking at some of the most important spaces which have developed in cities for those activities, including innovation districts, living labs, urban rooms and science shops. The concept of place-based leadership and the role of the university in visioning, experimentation and innovation, are analysed before examining a detailed case study of urban innovation and civic engagement at Newcastle University.