The project “Rollout Wirtschaftsförderung 4.0” was carried out from January 2020 to June 2022 under the auspices of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). It was coordinated by the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy and involved the economic development agencies of the cities of Wuppertal, Witten and Witzenhausen. The aim was to transfer and embed the concept of Wirtschaftsförderung 4.0 (Wf 4.0) – a regional economic development framework that expands beyond traditional business support – into three new municipal contexts and to demonstrate its contribution to sustainable urban development.
Wf 4.0 seeks to strengthen regional economic structures by promoting urban and regional production, anchoring goods transport and services within the region, encouraging the sharing of resources, products and spaces, and fostering cooperation, self‑initiative and mutual aid. The concept therefore addresses the entire regional economy and supports a variety of local initiatives with innovative business models that contribute to economic, ecological and social stability. A central research question was how such models can be strengthened, scaled, networked and made visible to achieve positive ecological, economic and social impact.
To operationalise the concept, the project hired three managers in the partner agencies who, over the project period, developed a broad portfolio of offerings for the target group. These included consulting services, network building, facilitation of shared spaces and resources, event organisation and public visibility campaigns. Peer‑to‑peer learning among the three cities was facilitated, and the experience from the earlier Osnabrück pilot was leveraged. The Wuppertal Institute coordinated and advised the partners, and systematically documented the work through interviews with the target group and with a wide network of supporting organisations. A macro‑economic study on the effects of sustainability‑oriented economic development was also conducted.
The scientific output of the project consists of a target‑group report, a practitioner brochure, activity reports from the cities, and contributions to the emerging literature on sustainable economic development. The results demonstrate that the rollout increased regional resilience and strengthened local economic cycles. New networks and tools were created to embed sustainability into municipal economic development practice. Although no patents or inventions were produced, the project laid the groundwork for further research and application. The findings were used to secure a subsequent project under the BMBF’s REGION.innovativ programme, titled “Processes of Societal Regional Innovation Systems and Their Hidden Sustainability Champions (HIDDEN)”, in collaboration with the WIGOS economic development society of the Osnabrück district. This continuation will build on the networks and insights generated by the Wf 4.0 rollout.
In terms of scientific progress, the project did not introduce fundamentally new economic concepts, but it did raise the relevance of sustainability in practical economic development. It contributed to the reorganisation of community tasks within the DVWE working group and to the broader discourse on alternative economic models such as the well‑being economy and donut economics. The project’s outcomes are therefore primarily economic – enhancing resilience and regional economic cycles – and they provide a replicable model for other municipalities seeking to embed sustainability into their economic development strategies.