The IABR policy is based on the conviction that the cultural space represents a huge potential for innovation that can be used to target genuine change.
In its own Ateliers, the IABR conducts research by design together with governments at home and abroad and works on innovative development models and concrete project proposals, on applicable solutions to existing problems.
IABR director George Brugmans, who is responsible for the Ateliers, describes them as a ‘safe place for dangerous ideas,’ a place for out-of-the-box thinking in an open setting, in new alliances, about innovative solutions, and where to test these and ready them for implementation.

The three Dutch IABR–2016–Ateliers that have been operational since 2014 focus on three important issues in spatial anticipation of the future urban economy of the Netherlands. Atelier Groningen explores the opportunities provided by the energy transition; Utrecht examines the relationship between health and urban development; and Rotterdam reconnoiters the spatial conditions that can (once again) make the city productive in the future.

The latter also happens in Atelier Brussels: the Productive Metropolis. And commissioned by the new Albanian government, Atelier Albania has developed ideas and proposals for an entirely new approach to national planning that focuses on sustainable development.
A short-term IABR–Atelier, 2050 – An Energetic Odyssey, commissioned by the Dutch government, has together with public and private parties conducted research by design into the possibilities, opportunities, and spatial implications of the realization of large-scale production, transport, and storage of renewable energy in and around the North Sea.

The results of the IABR–Ateliers are anchor points of the exhibition and program of IABR–2016 and will subsequently be implemented.

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IABR–2016 owes its fortunes to active and generous contributions from many participants and partners. Once again, the result of collaboration is much more than the sum of its parts.
In particular, we would like to thank our main partners, the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment, the City of Rotterdam, and the Creative Industries Fund, without whom there would be no IABR.
We also thank our other partners, the Ministries of Economic Affairs, Foreign Affairs and Infrastructure and the Environment; the municipalities of Rotterdam, Utrecht and Groningen; the province of Groningen; the Brussels Capital Region, the province of Vlaams Brabant, Ruimte Vlaanderen and OVAM; the Strategic Office of the Prime-Minister, the Ministry of Urban Development and the National Planning Office of Albania; the companies Van Oord, Shell, TenneT, Zeeland Seaports, RWE, Port of Rotterdam, Port of Amsterdam, and Heijmans; the European Climate Foundation, Natuur & Milieu, the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, the Dutch Board of Government Advisors, the São Paolo Secretariat of Urban Development, MVO CSR Netherlands, BankGiro Lottery, and Rotterdam Festivals.

Along with all of the other participants in IABR–2016, these partners have unconditionally contributed their knowledge, information, time, brainpower, networks, ideas, projects, and/or financial resources.