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Good practice Imported

UrbanLab Gdynia — participatory city-lab pilot

Poland · Gdynia · See the Poland profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 76% 57/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Three-year Ministry-funded pilot (2019–2022) testing a participatory city-lab model in Gdynia and Rzeszów: residents co-design neighbourhood solutions validated in small-area tests. Gdynia ranked 3rd at LivCom Awards 2019 — one of the world's best 22 cities from 250,000 analysed.

3 place
LivCom Awards ranking (150,000-400,000 population category) (2019)
250000 cities (over)
Cities analysed for LivCom Awards (2019)
3 years
Pilot duration (2019-2022)
UrbanLab Gdynia — participatory city-lab pilot

Details

Maturity
Discontinued
Promoter
City of Gdynia / Institute of Urban and Regional Development (IRMiR)
Period
2019–2022
Region (NUTS)
PL63
Keywords
public

Context

UrbanLab Gdynia is a pilot urban innovation laboratory launched in March 2019 as part of a three-year experiment co-financed by Poland's Ministry of Development Funds and Regional Policy, in partnership with the Institute of Urban and Regional Development (IRMiR). Its mission was to test a participatory city-lab model adapted to Polish municipal conditions and to develop a replicable methodology for co-designing urban solutions with residents.

Objectives

To identify real neighbourhood problems through resident dialogue, then co-develop small-scale, pilot-tested interventions in limited geographic areas (a street, a park or a district sub-area) before wider adoption.

Activities

Thematic experiments in Gdynia covered mobility, public space quality, local economic vitality and youth engagement. A parallel pilot ran simultaneously in Rzeszów, providing a comparative test of the methodology across different city sizes and contexts.

Results

Gdynia was the only Polish city placed among the world's best 22 (from over 250,000 analysed) at the 2019 LivCom International Awards for Liveable Communities, winning 3rd place in the 150,000-400,000 population category. A 2025 MDPI Sustainability article reviewing Poland's urban lab ecosystem cited the Gdynia model as the most institutionally embedded Polish example.

Conclusions

The pilot concluded in 2022. A methodology guide was co-published with IRMiR to enable replication in other Polish and Central European cities, but no permanent successor institution has been announced, limiting the programme's long-term sustainability.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k) — No specific budget figure disclosed; funded as a national ministry co-financed 3-year pilot alongside a parallel Rzeszów pilot.
Time to results
Medium (1–3 years) — Launched March 2019; pilot concluded 2022; methodology guide published post-conclusion for replication.
Staffing & skills
Joint delivery by the City of Gdynia and the Institute of Urban and Regional Development (IRMiR)

Conditions for success

  • National ministry co-financing (Ministry of Development Funds and Regional Policy) combined with an academic/policy partner (IRMiR) for methodological rigour
  • Parallel piloting in two cities of different sizes (Gdynia and Rzeszów) to stress-test transferability
  • Structured focus on small, bounded geographic areas (a street, park or sub-district) before any wider rollout

Common failure modes

  • The three-year pilot ended in 2022 with no permanent successor institution announced, limiting long-term sustainability despite a published replication methodology

Where it fits

Governance type
municipal government pilot with national ministry co-financing
Scale
district/neighbourhood pilot
Income level
high-income EU member state

Commonly funded by

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.

Attachments

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