The EmbedterLabs project will develop capacity for more synergistic urban planning for transformations towards sustainable and resilient urban areas. It deals with a key deficiency of current urban planning: the rather context-specific lessons of Urban Living Labs (ULLs) are poorly translated into citywide, integrated, transformative policy implications, leaving them having limited impact. To do so, it answers two questions: 1) how to orient labs and experiments to inform broader learning processes, and 2) how to align laboratory insights with established policy mixes to enable transformation? To achieve this, a novel approach will be developed, tested and refined through retrospective analysis of experiments in Gdansk, Stockholm and Maastricht followed by action research through ULL experiments in each city. The experiments will focus on mobility infrastructure and public space, one key dimension of urban sustainability. These activities will improve the learning processes of experiments and accordingly support the creation of transformative capacity for urban policy makers.

The consortium is well-positioned by including universities with complementary knowledge, cities committed to experiment and learn to transform, companies developing innovations, and organizations representing stakeholder interests. All research and city partners have experience with multi-actor Living Lab and participatory approaches, and concrete experiments are already identified.