Bicycles, bicycles, bicycles.

The EU project Greengage is carried out as a consortium involving the interplay of multiple institutions and companies from various countries. Each participating partner contributes knowledge or technologies from earlier projects to help build a shared technological foundation that supports Citizen Science projects in capturing the data they need.

This information plays an essential role in involving further stakeholders such as municipalities, federal or state authorities, who can make concrete decisions based on these foundations.

Cooperation

An important keyword in this endeavor is the active collaboration of everyone involved, which not least requires intensive communication. For this reason, online meetings also take place continuously between in-person meetings - it's the only way to work toward a shared vision.

What we find especially great in this regard is the willingness of all project participants to contribute across many areas in order to achieve a good, holistic result, as well as the mutual respect with which everyone acts across borders and without bias.

Netherlands

In the beautiful region of North Brabant, we got to contribute our technology to a test. In preparation, we not only developed the backend for the Greengage app - an app that serves as an interface between various technologies. Our team also built a sleek input tool for map-based missions and various other entries (questionnaires, POIs, etc.) to make management easier for those responsible for the participating pilot projects.

Several missions were tested in the app. Not unusually for the region, testing was interrupted by a rain shower, but with the insights gathered, we could move straight into the next iteration.

Classic: a bike tour

After our stay in s'Hertogenbosch, the last day took us on to Breda, a city in the south of the Netherlands where cycling is embraced and promoted not just within the city but also in connection with the surrounding area. Besides outdoor bike garages, one of our highlights was seeing the ground floors of office and residential buildings set up as large-scale indoor bike parking - very, very cool.

All in all, these were once again very refreshing days full of input and pleasant exchange, with ideas that, with a bit of luck, will soon be seen in our home cities too.