Design enabled ecosystem for prototyping sustainable futures

Aim and goal
The Pink is a design-driven ecosystem where applied research for society is carried out. It is a platform for spearhead innovation and sustainable social transformation, located in the centre of Northern Scandinavia, Umeå. The Pink is an experiential window towards the future, where prototyping risk and navigating complexity are everyday practices. Making, creating and exploring are key to the activities here in The Pink: skills, knowledge and facilities for these practices are provided.
This ecosystem is part of RISE (Research Institutes of Sweden) and, as such, has relationships to both public and private sectors, with connections to cultural institutions, academia, NGOs, industry and SME’s in the region, nationally and internationally.
The ecosystem provides a platform where partners are able to use facilities, methodologies, tools and services provided within the building, and where everybody is expected to bring his or her own expertise and interests alive for others, within the community.

Being part of the ecosystem means:

• Having access to a network and innovation landscape
• Belonging to a life-long learning environment
• Being able to actively participate in workshops, events and seminars
• Being in a design driven environment, where futures are prototyped

Challenge
In nowadays societies, complex challenges need to be tackled in ecosystems where different kind of stakeholders work together and propose different futures. These are new configurations of partnership, formed by private, public and no profit entities. New methods, tools and practices are necessary for them to collaborate constructively. 

Solution
The Pink is an ecosystem where these practices are developed, tapping into the competences and skills of a national poly-technical research institute. 

Effect
With The Pink, we will achieve an inclusive platform and glocal community of sustainable futures builders that carry a backpack with new tools, methods and a well-balanced skill-sets. The members of this ecosystem will be equipped to tackle societal challenges and produce transformative practices.