The city of Oslo made international headlines with its forward-thinking “Car-Free Livability” programme, started in 2018. The idea was to turn an inner-city area of 1.3 square kilometres – later extended to 3.4 square kilometres – into an environment that prioritises people and recreational activities over convenience for motorised traffic. What started with the removal of 760 parking spaces has since turned into a collaborative effort to create, for example, temporary playgrounds, outdoor art spaces, pocket parks and much more. In this process, the city is involving locals – and, as of late, Circle U. students!
300 applicants for six challenges
In 2022, the Norwegian capital and its Car-Free Livability programme became part of the Circle U. Challenge – an initiative allowing students to get first-hand experience of solving real-life problems in the public sector. Other challengers included hospitals in Paris and Belgrade as well as the city of Aarhus and a London municipality – all hoping for innovative solutions developed by inventive young minds. By mid-October, more than 300 students had applied for the six challenges on offer and were matched to form interdisciplinary and, ideally, international teams. With the help of mentors appointed by the Circle U. universities, about 200 of these students got to work. Forty-three of them made it over the finish line and were invited to present their solutions on 16 May 2023, during the Circle U. Days at the University of Belgrade.
Fleet of cargo bikes
One of the teams present to pitch their proposal at the grand finale had been developing a new element for Oslo’s car-free programme. Their suggestion: connecting local farmers and restaurants through a network of warehouses just outside the city centre and a fleet of cargo bikes for the delivery of goods that would be offered in an online shop. Katarina from Belgrade, Maxime from UCLouvain and Muskan from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin had been working together for months, when, finally, they met in person for the first time in the lobby of the University of Belgrade’s main building. They were smiling at each other, excited and nervous about the presentation they had yet to prepare for the following day.
Challenge accepted: From first ideas to final hurdles
Maxime, who studies Business Engineering in Louvain, remembers the start to the half year-long development process:
“We were given a presentation and documents on the ‘Car-Free Livability’ programme and – where do you start? Our first task, together with our mentor, was to identify a specific, smaller problem to work on within the context of the project.”
They were initially discussing tourists as their target group, but soon turned their attention to restaurants as stakeholders that would depend on a flexible alternative to motorised delivery.
The team received bi-weekly coaching from a mentor who the University of Oslo had recruited from its peer-to-peer incubator INSJ. The mentor guided them through the process step by step – and the next one was problem validation:
“We had to check whether the issue we were thinking of tackling is in fact a real-life problem,” Maxime explains. “During the validation process, we spoke to restaurants in Serbia, Germany, Belgium and India,” Muskan, a graduate student in Business Administration, elaborates. “We found that they would all face the same hurdles in a car-free city. So, we started building our solution on the information we got from actual restaurant owners.”
The hardest part: prototyping
“We had to make a model of our website to show what it would look like. That was difficult, because none of us had experience with UX design,” Muskan says.
Their mentor introduced them to an online tool for building website mock-ups and they watched YouTube videos to learn how to use it.
“It’s pretty fun, once you understand how it works,” Katarina, who studies Road and Urban Transport in her Bachelor of Science, adds.
For Maxime, on the other hand, the biggest hurdle was having to speak English with his international team mates: “It is so frustrating when you want to make a point, but are limited in your language skills. It’s the kind of experience that really forces you to do the work – and I’m glad I did. I definitely improved my English!”
Lessons learnt - and why the Challenge matters
The students have handed their ideas to the challenger, the City of Oslo. They are confident that, even if it doesn’t get implemented there, it could be further developed and put to use in other cities as well. “It is a good idea,” says their mentor, start-up entrepreneur and INSJ-consultant Diærv Svermer.
“Universities need to be at the forefront of early research and development to solve societal problems. Because, on the market, it can take decades for investors to get involved. Potential costs and uncertainty about regulations can deter them.”
"One of the best experiences I've had as a student"
Looking back at their collaboration, the students find they were given a unique hands-on learning opportunity: “This is one of the best experiences I’ve had as a student,” Maxime says, “and while a lot of my undergraduate classes are quite theoretical, the challenge has shown me that Business Engineering is actually the right major for me.”
Katarina agrees, adding that for Bachelors’ students without prior practical experience to be given an opportunity like this is a rare privilege. “It was nice to be taken seriously and listened to; to see that as a student of Transport Engineering, you might have something to contribute,” she says. Muskan, in turn, found the Challenge to be a helpful exercise in pitching ideas and addressing a ‘client’s’ problem – skills she expects to be helpful in her future career.
Having pitched their project, faced the jury’s questions and been awarded their certificates by Circle U.’s Secretary General, Katarina, Maxime and Muskan are relieved and proud of their achievement. They are celebrating over dinner and drinks with their Norwegian mentor and a team from Aarhus, Denmark, vowing to stay in touch and visit each other in the future. Would they do it all again if given the opportunity? “Absolutely,” Maxime beams, “I have already told some of my friends that we should participate in the next Circle U. Challenge!”
Find out more about the Circle U. Challenge and watch the finalists’ presentations!
This event officially ended the six-month open innovation programme intended for student teams who wanted to try their hand at entrepreneurial activities. Student teams from Denmark, Norway, Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Serbia presented their solutions and ideas for solving real problems formulated by associated partners of Circle U., such as hospitals, cities and municipalities.
- For the challenge "Aarhus Eats Greener", students worked on ways to influence and change eating habits.
- For the University of Belgrade, two challenges were formulated by the University Clinical Center of Serbia. One student team "HR Doctor" designed new software for employee records and digitally updating data on their professional development, while team "TEDPIC solution" worked on developing a photogrammetry application to facilitate the diagnosis, monitoring, treatment and research of the Grave’s orbitopathy disease.
- Student team "YOURS" worked on a new element for the City of Oslo's "Car-free Livability" programme.
- Solutions developed for the challenge contributed by the Youth Advisory Council and the Learning Planet Institute - "Creating an Eco-responsible Hospital" - have been presented by three different teams: "The Planeteers", "EcoOR" and "eTrack".
- Five teams developed solutions for the Lambeth London Borough Council and the South London and Maudsley Hospital London's challenge "Improving Mental Health for Lambeth Residents": "Wandering Emotions", "We Overcome", "Take-It-Out", "Soul Society", and "Smartiplay".
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