iCity Urban Transformation

The project “iCity Urban Transformation: Stabilization Phase of the FH Impulse Partnership” continues the FH Impulse Partnership funded by the BMFTR from 2017 to 2025 and focuses on the scientific consolidation and strategic development of the interdisciplinary research topic of urban transformation. The focus is on the scientific further development of the existing transdisciplinary research group in cooperation with the doctoral program "Sustainable, energy-efficient, and resource-saving design of resilient living spaces," which is currently funded by the BMFTR. At the same time, strategic partnerships will be continued and expanded, and the existing network will be consolidated through targeted exchange and networking formats. 

1. How can the additional knowledge gained through transdisciplinary research in the field of urban transformation be quantified? Which indicators and evaluation logics are suitable for this purpose?
2. What added value do AI methods bring to evaluating existing research results and identifying research gaps that should ideally be solved transdisciplinarily?
3. What coordinating structures and processes are necessary to stabilize interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaboration in research with practice partners in the long term? 

A set of indicators will be defined based on the evaluation methods recommended in the literature for assessing transdisciplinary research. These indicators will be applied to the iCity project by evaluating the final reports and scientific publications from the iCity Impulse Partnership projects and the new research projects initiated by the Impulse Partnership, and supplemented by qualitative interviews with the network partners. The aim is to identify in particular what new insights have been gained as a result of transdisciplinary collaboration in the projects and what insights could also have been expected from disciplinary research. On this basis, specific research questions will be developed that require a transdisciplinary research approach. In parallel, the same analysis will be carried out with the help of language models (LLMs) in order to develop a methodology that can also be applied to other large transdisciplinary research projects. 

• Establishment of indicators for measuring the effectiveness of transdisciplinary research in the field of urban transformation.
• Evaluation of the use of LLMs to determine these indicators.
• Consolidated partner network through regular, thematically focused networking events and in-depth strategic partnerships (cooperation logic, joint development needs).
• A robust project pipeline with detailed project outlines, initiated joint projects, and submitted funding applications in the context of “urban transformation.”