On the way to a Science Quarter Land, TU and city sign Letter of Intent on CoLiving Campus

Joint press release by the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture, the City of Braunschweig and Technische Universität Braunschweig

Mayor Dr Thorsten Kornblum, TU President Prof. Angela Ittel and Lower Saxony’s Minister for Science and Culture, Falko Mohrs, today signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) on the CoLiving Campus. The LoI states that all partners are generally willing to be involved in the design of the North Campus. At the same time, the signing of the LoI is a joint commitment to the project goals and clears the way for the next steps in the participation and planning process.

With the CoLiving Campus project, the city and the university want to trigger an innovation boost for Braunschweig as a City of Science and for the research region of Lower Saxony. With the CoLiving Campus, a science district is to be created on the North Campus that brings together science and urban society in an urban space and invites active participation. The aim of this framework project, which is laid down in the Urban Development Support (ISEK) programme, is to combine education and research, living and working, nature, culture and supply in a mixed urban district in the northern part of the city. To this end, in cooperation between the city of Braunschweig and Technische Universität Braunschweig, TU’s North Campus on Bienroder Weg and the city’s neighbouring sports grounds to the east of Beethovenstraße are to be developed into a model district.

Falko Mohrs, Lower Saxony’s Minister for Science and Culture, is pleased about the start of the project: “For Lower Saxony as a centre of research, the model project offers extraordinary potential through the comprehensive approach to knowledge exchange and as a platform for practical implementation of current transformation topics.”

“As one of Germany’s leading Technische Universitäten, TU Braunschweig is shaping social transformations in close exchange with society. We see the CoLiving Campus as a great opportunity to open up even more to the city and society and to jointly drive forward innovations. With the CoLiving Campus, we are creating a unique place in Braunschweig where academia and society come together,” says Prof. Angela Ittel, President of Technische Universität Braunschweig, highlighting the project’s goals.

Dr Thorsten Kornblum, Mayor of the City of Braunschweig, thanked the minister for his support. “The Letter of Intent is a first step so that we can transform the area. With the model project, we want to cooperatively design not only the science district itself, but also the way to get there. Together with TU, we are offering new, experimental participation and planning formats and inviting the broad urban society to think with us and join in. This project offers a great opportunity to participate in a concrete way in the future issues of the city and of research.”

The participation and planning process will take place in several stages in 2023 and 2024, starting in June with the “CO_NFERENZ”. Citizens, TU members, initiatives, local organisations and other interested parties are invited to find out about the cooperative project and start a conversation from 15 to 30 June: At the beginning, the project group of the city and TU will present the CoLiving Campus project and the planned participation and planning process. With the subsequent expert inputs, inspiration from all over Germany will come to Braunschweig. The Ideas Week offers opportunities for exchange and invites people to join in the thinking as part of an open participatory workshop. The suggestions from the expert inputs and the Ideas Week will be summarised, discussed and incorporated into the next steps of the project.

Further information, contact and registration for the “CO_NFERENZ”: www.coliving-campus.de