The core of the Research Forum Global Health is formed by the thematic workshops. In several exchange formats, campaign boosters from art and culture, organized civil society, politics, and administration, as well as economy and science identify current areas of tension in the implementation of urban health in Berlin and derive concrete questions from this, which can be addressed particularly well in the integrated research environment of Berlin. The thematic workshops started in May 2022. The goal of the thematic workshops is to form transdisciplinary partnerships that will continue to work on these future topics in the field of urban health – in the form of scientific research projects or concrete pilot projects that are jointly advanced by scientific and non-scientific stakeholders.

Phase 1 – completed

Phase 1 comprises the kick-off meeting of the Sounding Boards of the Research Forum Global Health on April 26, 2022, and the kick-off meeting of the core group on May 16, 2022. The core group consists of representatives from the fields of art and culture, organized civil society, politics, and administration, as well as economy and science, who continuously accompany the thematic workshops. During the kick-off meeting, the 17 participants used the space to formulate their expectations for the process and outline initial challenges in the implementation of urban health in Berlin.

Phase 2 – completed

Phase 2 included five thematic sprints that took place from June 10 to June 29, 2022. Representatives from the fields of art and culture, organized civil society, politics, and administration, as well as economy and science were asked to name the urgent challenges of urban health in Berlin from their point of view. For each area, a one-day thematic sprint took place in the Private Roof Club at the Oberbaumbrücke. These were professionally moderated. All thematic sprints were structured according to the same pattern. However, for methodological reasons, the results of the previous thematic sprint were not incorporated into the respective subsequent thematic sprint. A total of 66 people participated in the thematic sprints.

Phase 3 – completed

After representatives from the fields of art and culture, organized civil society, politics and administration, business, and science had already defined the pressing challenges of urban health in Berlin from their respective sector-specific perspectives in five theme sprints in June, all representatives from the five sectors got to know each other at the market of topics on September 28, 2022. Not only did the participants get to know each other, but they also learned about the results of the respective theme sprints. A total of 18 challenges and initial solutions for urban health in Berlin were formulated in the theme sprints, which culminated in the Urban Health card set. The Urban Health card set formed the methodological basis for the intensive exchange of knowledge at the market of topics. The 52 participants were invited to card tables to create, discuss, and negotiate new topic combinations. Playing, as a creative approach to gaining new perspectives and ideas, was received extremely positively by the participants. In a second step, the developed topic combinations were refined using project profiles. At least five project ideas will be explored in greater depth at the upcoming market of partnerships on November 23, 2022, with the aim of initiating concrete transdisciplinary implementation projects on urban health in Berlin.

Phase 4 – completed

Phase 4 covered the market of partnerships (on November 23, 2022). The market of partnerships brought together people interested in specific issues that were identified in phase 3 to work together on initial implementation plans for urban health measures in Berlin. Five draft ideas were developed, which were further developed intensively by each thematic partnership in phase 5.

Phase 5 – completed

In phase 5, the partnerships formed in phase 4 continued to work individually on their project ideas and implement them. In order to receive support from the Research Forum Global Health project team, the partnerships had to be transdisciplinary, meaning that scientific and non-scientific actors developed their ideas and implemented them jointly.

If you have any questions about the thematic workshops, please do not hesitate to contact us!

Nadin Gaasch – Program Manager TD-Lab
Email: td-lab@berlin-university-alliance.de