Toolkit

The HUB-IN toolkit provides historic urban areas and HUB-IN city teams, with varied experiences on co-creation and innovation approaches, with a range of practical tools and guides to become a HUB-IN place.

NOTE: This version of the toolkit has been developed over the project period – Sept 2020 till Feb 2025. To share feedback about these activities and resources, please contact the Connected Places Catapult team.

The toolkit is structured along the stages of the HUB-IN journey and contains downloadable 'tool worksheets' and links to HUB-IN resources and external content. We invite you to see the offered guidance and practical steps below not as a linear ‘step by step’ journey and rather as building blocks of activities that can be revisited, iterated and improved for shaping and re-shaping your HUB’s path – with your local community and for achieving heritage-led regeneration. Learn more about the HUB-IN approach and its different components here.

Stage 1 – Understand the state of play

In this discovery stage cities aim to understand the context, history, and narrative of their historic urban area and ecosystem in order to identify effectively the unique local challenges that their HUB-IN place will address. This time provides an opportunity to review engagement with collaborators and local stakeholders, utilising co-creation and open innovation methodologies.

Understand HUB-IN mission, principles, and key concepts

Start your journey by discovering the shared values, goals and ways of working of the HUB-IN community.
HUB-IN framework Communication materials

Understand who needs to be involved

Get to know who to work with, structure and curate stakeholders.
Stakeholder Mapping

Get a good sense of your area and its uniqueness

Research and engage with your local community and stakeholders to understand and capture the spirit of your Historic Urban Area.
City Moodboard Survey design

Uncover what is hopeful and what is concerning

Map and discuss expectations and potential challenges for the HUB-IN journey ahead.
Hopes & Fears

Uncover what your opportunities and gaps are

Identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of your Historic Urban Area.
Current landscape report SWOT Matrix

Discover what is happening elsewhere

Take inspiration and learn from case studies of European (and global) best practice around topics such as innovation, co-creation and business models.
HUB-IN Atlas

Stage 2 – Prepare to set-up the HUB

In this stage strategy building and ecosystem engagement accelerates. City teams will co-define a vision for their HUB of Innovation & Entrepreneurship, while starting to consider options for its physical and digital form and location.

Co-create a strategic, actionable way forward

Define the goals and mission-oriented activities with the major steps for getting there in a strategic plan.
Roadmap co-creation

Prioritise who needs to be involved and when

Review your stakeholder map and database from Stage 1 and decide who to engage with in Stage 2.
Stakeholder Mapping

Define how you engage with key people and partners

Make a plan how you reach out and enable support for your HUB integrating with on-going local projects, for the public and stakeholders to fulfil their expected role.
Outreach and engagement - Communicate the hub Outreach & engagement plan

Georeference your local ecosystem and resources

Navigate and get to know the Historical Urban Areas of the HUB-IN cities, with their Social & Economic Profile and Environmental Assets. Discover how to create the GeoTool for your place.
GeoTool GeoTool guide

Explore business, finance and governance models

See state-of-the-art models used throughout Europe that provide actionable insights and enable heritage-led regeneration
Business, financing & governance models

Explore and strengthen your heritage-led entrepreneurial ecosystem

Learn about different approaches to heritage-led regeneration and the contribution they can make to your local heritage-led entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Entrepreneurial Ecosystems in Historic Urban Areas

Stage 3 – Set-up and launch the HUB

City teams will launch, activate, implement and pilot their HUB of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, introducing the community to their HUB and its offer through their place’s brand, further communication efforts and innovation activities, events and more.

Get clarity on what will be measured and why

Test the logic and assumptions behind how your defined HUB-IN city intervention will drive its intended impacts, and thus identify appropriate indicators to measure.
Logic Model

Consider the approach for impact assessment

Understand the value of monitoring and evaluating, recap on good practice, explore the role (and limitations) of quantitative and qualitative monitoring and consider where you need additional expertise or support.
Impact assessment framework

Define actions, resources and responsibilities

Establish the digital and physical HUB’s planning actions and resources required and assigning responsibilities.
Action planning

Attract and onboard innovators and investors in relation to your HUB’s opportunities

Connect entrepreneurs and innovators with your cities historic urban area’s needs, potential opportunities, investment, tools and resources.
Match & Ignite

Communicate your HUB and increase its visibility

Work with your local place brand and integrate the HUB-IN brand with your pilot. Engage citizens and stakeholders to create, showcase and inform about project enhancements.
Place branding in action

Review and iterate on your local ecosystem map

Review the GeoTool for your location.
GeoTool GeoTool guide

Tailored monitoring – Capture ongoing data as appropriate

Maintain data collection with appropriate depth, breadth and frequency. Tailor your impact assessment to your action(s). Prioritise your top 3-5 outcomes to assess, and the plans and materials to do so.
Tailored Monitoring Methodology (examples)

Stage 4 – Test and grow

A loop of testing ideas, cross-fertilisation, measuring the success, iterating based on learnings and growing and regenerating. Continuing to collaborate and share learnings across the network, this stage will see the hubs go from strength to strength.

Develop and test ideas

Develop, test, and improve ideas at an early stage through simple mock-ups or test more functional prototypes.
Prototyping

Understand what is going well and what is not going well

Take a step back to evaluate the results of your intervention. (Evaluation and Monitoring)
Tailored Monitoring Methodology (examples)

Review and iterate on your local ecosystem map

Review the GeoTool for your location.
GeoTool GeoTool guide

Connect and grow, strengthen the movement

Bring together HUB-IN places (in pilot cities) and potential cities by developing formal arrangements.
HUB-IN Alliance

Develop business, finance and governance models

Co-create and develop your local models based on best-practices applied in the context of historic urban areas.
Business, financing & governance models

​Throughout the journey – Collaborate, share and grow the network

The promotion of collaboration and sharing is at the heart of HUB-IN, to upscale and evolve beyond the pilot stage with follower cities across Europe and beyond.

Get a good sense of your area and its uniqueness

Research and engage with your local community and stakeholders to understand and capture the spirit of your Historic Urban Area.
City Moodboard Survey design

Learn and discover the state of play through European (and global) case studies

Engage with and explore historic urban areas best practices in heritage-led regeneration in this online map.
HUB-IN Atlas

Bring everyone onto the same page and create visibility for your HUB-IN place to be

Unite project partners, guide and support cities’ teams in communicating with local actors on the vision, values and goals behind their plans and actions to regenerate their historic urban areas (HUA) areas together.
HUB-IN framework Communication materials

Connect and grow, strengthen the movement, guide studies and activities

Bring together HUB-IN places (in pilot cities) and potential cities by developing formal arrangements and education programmes and co-learning modules.
HUB-IN Alliance HUB-IN Academy

Explore and strengthen your heritage-led entrepreneurial ecosystem

Learn about different approaches to heritage-led regeneration and the contribution they can make to your local heritage-led entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Entrepreneurial Ecosystems in Historic Urban Areas

Examine urban conditions through ethics

Understand the dynamics of the ethical component of HUB-IN and be inspired by ethical considerations
HUB-IN & Ethics

Define how you engage with people and partner (throughout)

Make a plan how you reach out and enable support for your HUB integrating with on-going local projects, for the public and stakeholders to fulfil their expected role.
Outreach & engagement plan