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Good practice Imported

Urban Lab – City for the Young — Poland's Youth Civic-Participation Pilot

Poland · Bydgoszcz · See the Poland profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 63% 62/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

A 2024–2029 pilot coordinated by Poland's IRMiR and Ministry of Funds and Regional Policy is testing youth-run 'Urban Lab' civic spaces — worth over PLN 6.58 million, EU-cofinanced — in eight cities including Bydgoszcz, Lublin and Rzeszów, targeting residents aged 13–35.

PLN 6,582,045.10
Total pilot funding (2024-2029)
79.71%
ERDF co-financing share
20.29%
Polish state-budget share
8
Participating cities
~PLN 4 million
Bydgoszcz EU funding over four years
~PLN 300,000
Per-lab youth mini-grant budget
Urban Lab – City for the Young — Poland's Youth Civic-Participation Pilot

Details

Maturity
Pilot
Promoter
Institute of Urban and Regional Development (IRMiR), with Poland's Ministry of Funds and Regional Policy
Period
2024–2029 (pilot)
Keywords
youth engagement, civic participation, urban governance, municipal innovation

Context

Poland's Ministry of Funds and Regional Policy and the Institute of Urban and Regional Development (IRMiR) launched the 'Urban Lab - City for the Young' pilot for 2024-2029, testing a non-hierarchical civic-space model for residents aged 13-35 across eight cities: Bydgoszcz, Toruń, Kielce, Lublin, Zielona Góra, Szczecin, Rzeszów and Opole.

Objectives

The pilot aims to engage a demographic Poland's own diagnosis identified as under-engaged in civic life and prone to out-migration, and to generate free, published lessons other Polish municipalities can replicate.

Activities

Each Urban Lab runs a city-specific mix of Urban Cafés, prototyping schools, repair initiatives, STEAM activities, leadership academies and a flexible 'Factor X' innovation fund; Bydgoszcz alone reports roughly PLN 4 million in EU funding over four years, with each local lab holding about PLN 300,000 for youth-proposed mini-grants.

Results

As of mid-2026 the pilot remains in its early implementation phase, with only inputs and activities documented and no independently verified outcome results yet published.

Conclusions

IRMiR plans to evaluate each city's real-world effectiveness and publish free lessons for other Polish municipalities to replicate, but outcome evidence is not yet available.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k) — PLN 6,582,045.10 across 8 cities through 2029, financed 79.71% by the European Regional Development Fund (2021-2027 Technical Assistance for Effective Policy programme) and 20.29% from the Polish state budget; each local lab holds roughly PLN 300,000 for youth-proposed mini-grants.
Time to results
Medium (1–3 years) — Five-year pilot (2024-2029); as of mid-2026 still in early implementation with evaluation results not yet published.
Staffing & skills
IRMiR coordination team, Ministry of Funds and Regional Policy, Local delivery staff/facilitators in each of the 8 cities running Urban Cafés, prototyping schools and leadership academies

Conditions for success

  • Secured multi-year EU (ERDF) plus state co-financing for a defined budget through 2029
  • A flexible per-city 'Factor X' fund allowing local adaptation
  • An explicit plan for cross-city evaluation and published lessons to support replication

Common failure modes

  • As of the source date, no outcome results have been published, so it is too early to know whether youth engagement or civic outcomes materialise
  • Relies on continued 2024-2029 EU and state funding commitment through to completion

Commonly funded by

ERDF — European Regional Development Fund National / regional programmes

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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