The Municipality of Reggio Emilia is deeply engaged in experimenting and developing collaborative urban initiatives. The City functions as a living lab with the aim of strengthening the ways in which science, technology and research can help address urban challenges and develop territories with new tools of deliberative democracy.
The City joined The City Science Initiative, (City Science Initiative | JRC Science Hub Communities (europa.eu)) launched in 2019 by the European Commission. This process led to the establishment of the Reggio Emilia City Science Office (CSO), where three PhD students will work.
Reggio Emilia has been experimenting, since 2015, its own model of collaborative city, the “QUA_quartiere bene comune” project (Il quartiere bene comune), to generate the ability of communities to self-organize.
The Adaptation strategy to climate change has been developed with the Urban Proof European Life project in 2020 (Il progetto LIFE “UrbanProof” a Reggio Emilia e la Strategia di adattamento locale (comune.re.it)).
The General Urban Plan (PUG) (Piano Urbanistico Generale (comune.re.it)) is a tool to define aims and challenges for a sustainable future which includes communities.
Reggio Emilia also applied a program promoted by the European Commission for Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission.
EUARENAS is a funded Horizon 2020 project that consortium consists out of a composition of universities, municipalities, think-tanks, NGOs and active civil society actors, who have a common interest to explore the mechanism of participatory local democracy and the interconnection to deliberate.
E35 Foundation was born in July 2015 from a shared project of the local Entities and their several members: Municipality of Reggio Emilia, Province of Reggio Emilia, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio Manodori Pietro, Chamber of Commerce of Reggio Emilia and C.R.P.A.This union arises from the need to support the European and international promotion of the territory in order to attract economic resources, entrepreneurial realities, partnerships and conditions to support local development policies and support local authorities and their aggregations
Luiss – Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli – is an independent university. Luiss offers an innovative educational approach at its four Departments: Economics and Finance, Business and Management, Law, and Political Science. Its goal is not simply to convey knowledge but to instill flexibility in young people, giving them a sense of mastery over their future.
LabGov – the LABoratory for the GOVernance of the City as a Commons – is an international network of theoretical, empirical and applied research platforms engaged in exploring and developing methods, policies, and projects focused on the shared and collaborative management of urban spaces and resources.
The “Chiostri di San Pietro” are a urban space dedicated to cultural events and home to the Open Laboratory where the Municipality of Reggio Emilia, citizens, schools, SMEs come together to work on issues relating to social innovation, welfare and digital transformation. One of 10 Open Labs financed by Axis 6 ERDF-ROP Emilia-Romagna “Attractive and Participative Cities” which can foster the cohesion of communities, encourage active participation and multi-governance models, enhance the promotion of cultural heritage.
The Easy Care Foundation was founded in 2008 with the aim of constantly dealing with the progress of social change, in order to promote innovation in welfare policies and systems. Since then, it has developed collaborations with a plurality of public and private organizations and studies models of assistance for the well-being of citizens. Easy Care carries out research and studies on issues of social interest and promotes information and dialogue with civil society.