Innovations in the regional management of services of general interest through optimal support for urban-rural cooperation

In Germany, regional planning aims at a balanced development with respect to social, infrastructural, economic, environmental and cultural conditions. For this reason the municipalities have to provide their citizens with services of general interest. However, in many regions it is getting more and more difficult to fulfil this task due to the ongoing demographic change. Particularly the rural areas are strongly affected because the local population is declining and the share of senior inhabitants is increasing. This development is affecting the provision of services of general interest in different areas of the everyday life due to decreasingly limited financial resources within many local and regional budgets.

Simultaneously, urbanising processes lead to an increasing population in several city regions. This development can also cause problems, as bigger cities are not able to provide infrastructure and services for the whole region. For solving such negative aspects of parallel occurring processes of growth and shrinkage, it is necessary to come up with innovative cooperative solutions for different municipal and regional administrative departments. Hence, fields like transportation, education or culture need to collaborate for developing innovative strategies. Another important element is the inclusion of the main stakeholders on different local and regional levels.

The Innovation Group aims to develop and implement innovations in the regional management of services of general interest (e.g. health care, public transport, education, sanitation) by supporting cooperation between rural areas and city regions.

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