This report illustrates the outcomes of an Exploratory Research Activity led by the Territorial Development Unit of the Joint Research Centre between 2021 and 2022, with the aim of developing an up-to-date, modular, and flexible methodology that could be applied to future CityLabs on a variety of topics. A CityLab is meant as a participatory research format where the JRC works in close contact with a specific European municipality to collectively gather quantitative and qualitative data on a specific trend or spatialise the impacts of a certain policy, with the final goal to reach a more informed and inclusive urban dimension of European policies.

The report formulation and the preparatory workshops were a joint effort of experts from the European Commission (Joint Research Centre and Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy) as well as external experts from European and global backgrounds, including academia, planning and research institutes, and policy networks. The state-of-the-art, good practices and successful examples of urban labs were described and presented from different angles, according to the variety of the authors' expertise.

The methodology formulated on the basis of the authors' contributions, highlighting the importance to use more granular data at the urban scale, can make the science for the (European urban) policy interface more aware, inclusive, interactive, and evidence-based, helping also cities to assess their policy coherence with European frameworks and priorities, as well as to facilitate the identification of possible funding opportunities. 

If you want to know more details, feel free to download the report here.

The editors are available to answer any questions or curiosity via email:

Silvia Iodice, Patrizia Sulis, Giulia Testori