TREND · Transition with Resilience for Evolutionary Development

The joint Exchange programme is based on a research proposal finalized at strengthening the regional capabilities in triggering, implementing and managing Transition Management (TM) strategies towards driving “resilience-building” processes. The main aim is to combine Transition with Resilience for Evolutionary Development (TREND) of different territorial contexts. It is expected to produce a novel concept encompassing “resilience-building” processes and Transition Management strategies based on the Evolutionary Economy’s assumptions. The TREND analysis will draft from the preceding MAPS-LED project, which pointed out the territorial dimension of the innovation. As an outcome, three levels of spatial investigation are distinguished within the EU-US broader contexts: I) Internal areas, II) Leading regions, III) Regions in transition. Moreover, the diagnosis will assess the potential drivers of TM strategies including: I) territorial milieu, as successful factor assessed in preceding MAPS-LED and CLUDS projects; ii) resilience, conceived as the ability of systems –people, communities, ecosystems, nations – to generate new ways of operating new systemic relationships; iii) crisis, which hit local defined areas, conceived as opportunities, including: migration flows and economic crisis. Relying on the strong existing CLUDs research network and its International Doctorate URED, the TREND project is expected to add value to the current knowledge about regional economic diversification. By moving forward the MAPS-LED project’s outcomes concerning the Entrepreneurial Discovery Process (EDP) and the Knowledge Based Urban Regeneration (KBUR), the TREND will provide the Open Access Toolkit: a web platform accessible by community users, policy makers, investors and financial stakeholders. The Open Access Toolkit will provide a set of indicators regarding 1) context, 2) result, 3) performance as metrics of resilience-building process within TM strategies.