The aim of this innovation project is to build transformation capacity for urban transitions that connect both inner and outer transformation, Existential Sustainability, through an experimental Innovation Portfolio Approach. This will be done in three European cities: Lund (SE), Timișoara (RO) and Amsterdam (NL) by three different types of intermediaries: an innovation platform, a cultural NGO, and a university Master programme. These are supported by a unique constellation of universities, businesses, social and cultural organisations and city authorities.

Each intermediary works with a local urban challenge where the cultural and creative sector has ample opportunities to catalyse innovation and co-creation. By shifting focus from supporting single innovation projects to facilitating urban transition portfolios, the project paves way for a more impactful and sustainable approach that suits the complexity of urban challenges.

The objectives of the project are to 1) develop the skills of intermediaries and their toolbox, 2) facilitate 7-15 mission driven innovation projects through the Innovation Portfolio Approach and 3) to increase participation in open innovation for urban transition through culture and creativity by developing concepts for demo forums.

Results

Cultural and creative industries (CCIs) are an underutilized force in the green transition. The Innovation Portfolio Approach (IPA) project – carried out from 2024 to 2025 in Lund (Sweden), Timișoara (Romania) and Amsterdam (the Netherlands) – has demonstrated how CCIs can become drivers of urban transformation when equipped with the right methods, structures and mandate.

Central to the project is the argument that green transition is not solely a technical or economic challenge – it is existential. IPA has integrated the concept of existential sustainability into its innovation processes: our relationships with ourselves, with each other and with nature. By the end of 2025, “existential sustainability” had been recognized as a new word in the Swedish language – evidence that the project’s perspective has resonated beyond its own boundaries.

The results are tangible: 6 innovation portfolios comprising 24 cross-sector projects have been developed and documented. The methods – including the Innovation Portfolio Canvas, the Boundary Spanning Game, and the LIEPT portfolio-tracking tool – have been tested in real urban contexts and compiled in the guide The Hidden Hands of Change. The next step is to scale and disseminate these methods – to more intermediaries, cities and funding programmes that want to make CCIs a natural part of the urban transition agenda.

The IPA project was delivered by the innovationsplattformen Future by Lund (SE), Lund University (SE), Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (NL) och PLAI (RO).