Benefiting from one anothers knowledge This is my final column for this site. The ReUrbA project signed off on 16 November with a resounding closing conference. Four years of collaboration was inspiring. I am grateful for having had the opportunity to work with Rob, Neil, Andy, Andrew, Philippa, Charlotte, Daniel, Christiaan, Jana, Lisette, Bas, Natascha, Beeno, Willemien, Ellen, Simon, Bert, Gerard, Cees, Jean-Christophe, Monica, Hans, Ineke and many others. This ReUrbA project goes far beyond just the practice of the partners. Even if we put the actual results to one side, the network that has now been established is a significant achievement. Both directly and through digital channels, the activities of ReUrbA have generated reactions and responses. As a result, support for the project extended beyond the five partners. Was it all worthwhile? After all, we've been spending taxpayers' money, and the taxpayers are entitled to see a result.

I don't labour under the illusion that I can bring round the diehard critics who target the ‘European subsidy circus'. That is an ideological argument, more of a clash of almost religiously held doctrines than a sensible discussion based on arguments.
I will leave it to others to decide about the significance of the ReUrbA project, with its four strategies and digital learning environments. A true picture will emerge in time, if there is a real change in the approach to urban development.
However, I would like to take a look at some of the experiences we have had as we have worked together in recent years.

Collaboration with partners outside your own professional field, and international collaboration at that, can be an awkward business. Particularly if the aim is to produce a shared product. The thinking behind it all is that you want to learn from each other. Or to avoid walking into traps that others have already come across. These objectives may be straightforward, but that doesn't mean that collaboration is a straightforward or easy thing to achieve. We are not used to working together and we allow our own obsessions to dominate.
We are all familiar with accusations about tunnel vision and the lack of coordination between different policy areas. Collaboration outside one's own field is not commonplace. People prefer to reinvent the wheel themselves. And, if expertise has to be acquired from other fields, excursions are easy to organise. One of the striking things here, incidentally, is how often the expertise seems to be in foreign countries, and not just round the corner. Even if a trip elsewhere yields a result, considerable adaptation is still needed before it can be used in one's own field.
‘But all in all, it was an inspiring visit, and it produced good contacts.’

The collaboration in the ReUrbA project did allow the partners to benefit effectively from each other's knowledge. Not only did they exchange knowledge, they also developed and applied new knowledge together. The partners even went so far as to act as consultants for each other's projects.
What are the secrets of a partnership of this kind?
First of all, there must be understanding and respect for each other's approaches. This type of European collaboration project quite often assumes a joint approach with innovative elements. Simply trying to introduce your approach to partners has something missionary about it. At the same time, there is a subtext: "We can do it better than you do now". That's not a good start for a partnership.

The first step taken by ReUrbA was to get the partners to describe and evaluate each other's approaches. Looking back at their approaches, what would the partners have done differently given what they know now? This analysis led to ideas for innovation and change suggested by the partners themselves. This laid the foundation for the joint development of an innovative approach to urban regeneration, which is expressed in the four ReUrbA strategies.
The ReUrbA project then turned to the question of how these experiences could be passed on outside the project. This led to the development of a unique tool: the digital learning environment.
A digital learning environment is an ICT application on the www.ReUrbA.org site. It allows visitors to get acquainted with the innovative approach and to put it into practice. The essential component of the digital learning environment is not learning about a new trick, but the creation of an opportunity to understand ('why') and use ('how') the thinking and the method behind it.

Are there that many reasons for us to encourage such forms of international collaboration?
If we just take a look at the field of urban regeneration, the answer is yes.
- The various urban developments faced by the partners fully justify knowledge development in themselves. For example, the way in which some of the partners in the other countries deal with their shrinking cities is a very useful approach in the Dutch context. The way in which the Netherlands is striving after a new balance between physical and social/cultural challenges has proven to be an appealing one for the partners in other countries.
- The network that develops during international collaboration is an inspiring and fertile source of knowledge mobilisation and partnership development. During ReUrbA, for example, very effective links have been established with the Urban Land Institute (USA), a global network of real-estate developers and financial experts.
- An additional element was the expansion of the EU to include new member states. The integration of this development in the European context requires effective ways of working together. These 'bands of brothers' contain, incidentally, potential for mutual benefits. Government action in this post-communist age seems to me to be a good source of inspiration for the development of governance in the West.
- International collaboration is an excellent way of learning to deal with the secondary effects of European legislation and regulations. At present, European policy is often forced on people. But in collaboration projects, a European approach often proves to be a more natural component of the assignment, whether one is dealing with tender regulations or environmental rules.
- In conclusion: good collaboration often results in clear thinking about one's own approach. Do we tackle our own projects in the right way? What approach do we actually take and do we rely too much on routine?

I think that approaching collaboration in this way contributes much, much more to knowledge transfer and development than excursions, publications in professional journals, conferences and training.

Mark Reede, project manager ReUrbA²