On September 26, Guangzhou Award held a workshop in Kocaeli, Türkiye, as part of the pilot test of the Civitas Novus: Urban Innovation Assessment. The workshop was co-hosted by Nicholas You, Executive Director of the Guangzhou Institute for Urban Innovation (GIUI) and International Consultant of the Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation (Guangzhou Award), and Amanda Lloyd, Program Director of the Global Research Initiatives of the Institute for Urban Research at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn IUR). More than 20 heads and deputy heads of government departments in Kocaeli discussed topics such as the city's current innovation ecology, solutions and innovation concepts, and their localized applications.

This is the first time that Kocaeli has organized a meeting of city leaders of such a scale. This workshop verified the effectiveness of the assessment methodology and provided valuable feedback for optimising it in the future.

The Civitas Novus: Urban Innovation Assessment is an urban innovation assessment methodology jointly developed by the GIUI and the Penn IUR. This innovative workshop methodology, based on the analysis of over 1,000 good and best practices in urban innovation, is designed to assist cities in exploring their local urban innovation ecosystems holistically and collaboratively. It can be clustered into five main topics: Rethinking urban, Valuing innovation, Flow of ideas, Shifting paradigms, and Implementing innovation.

This Civitas Novus is the world's first innovation capability assessment tool for local governments. It is also the crystallization of the research results of the outstanding cases of the Guangzhou Award. It has been supported by the United Cities and Local Governments, the World Association of the Major Metropolises, the World Resources Institute and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.

Kocaeli is not only the first pilot city of the Guangzhou Award Urban Innovation Assessment but also the winner of the first Guangzhou Award. Its "Earthquake Monitoring and Earthquake Education Center Project" won the award in 2012, and after winning the award, a Guangzhou Award-shaped monument was established in the local area. Today, Kocaeli’s participation in the Civitas Novus is also a continuation of the city's innovative spirit.

In November this year, the Civitas Novus: Urban Innovation Assessment will be officially announced at the UN-HABITAT World Urban Forum (WUF12) side event in Cairo, Egypt, and the innovative evaluation system will be fully introduced. At the same time, the Guangzhou Award will also share the pilot results and research progress, and look forward to face-to-face exchanges with global city representatives to jointly explore the future of urban innovation.