This ‘ClimaLabs Framework Definition’ describes the common methodological approach to setting up and scaling up ClimaLabs, including Living Labs, with a focus on climate-resilient regeneration and renaturing in the ClimaGen project. These Living Labs are implemented across the nine ClimaGen participating cities: Belgrade (Serbia), Gdańsk (Poland), Tartu (Estonia), Torino (Italy), Trondheim (Norway), Cluj-Napoca (Romania), Eindhoven (Netherlands), Gernika (Spain) and Thessaloniki (Greece). Within ClimaGen, Living Labs serve as structured yet flexible platforms for local and regional collaborative governance. They bring together stakeholders across arts, culture and youth, entrepreneurship and financing, and organisational resilience to support long-term planning strategies. By placing co-creation at their core, they empower stakeholders to take an active part in regeneration and renaturing processes, and act as the engagement platform for the development of ClimaGreens in each city. These interventions integrate renaturing measures that address climate change adaptation and mitigation, biodiversity, circularity, health and well-being, social, cultural, and artistic perspectives, and financial and governance structures. ClimaGen Living Labs are built towards the city greening areas and integrate youth entrepreneurship, finance and partnership models, and city dialogues. Building on this role, this report introduces the general Living Lab approach, outlines its relevance and specific adaptation to the ClimaGen concept, and provides guidance on co-creation processes, governance models and the use of tools and methods based on the Design Thinking process and including their key characteristics. It also offers a framework for setting up Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and monitoring Living Lab activities, financial considerations, and youth engagement, alongside an overview of the ClimaGen cities' current status in establishing their Living Labs. This deliverable offers key outcomes that form the foundation for the implementation of Living Labs across ClimaGen:
A shared conceptual and operational framework outlining how ClimaGen Living Labs can be designed, governed, and integrated into local innovation ecosystems.
Initial guidelines on methods and tools that ClimaGen Living Lab teams can use for Capacity Building, co-creation, stakeholder engagement, and cross-city collaboration.
A set of common objectives and KPIs to support alignment across cities and strengthen the connection with WP3’s monitoring and impact-assessment work.
A baseline understanding of cities’ co-creation activities and current Living Lab maturity across the participating cities.
Together, these elements support a harmonised yet flexible approach that allows each city to adapt its ClimaGen Living Lab to local governance structures, socioeconomic conditions, and climate-mitigation and climate-resilience priorities, while facilitating structured cross-city learning, co-creation, and monitoring. This framework builds on existing principles and best practices of the Living Lab approach to define a common operational model to be used with the ClimaGreen renaturing measures in each ClimaGen city (WP5-WP13). Positioned within WP2, it also establishes connections with WP3 (ClimaImpact) by defining preliminary KPIs and monitoring considerations, and with WP4 (ClimaValue) by providing initial guidance for co-creation and Capacity Building activities. The deliverable is intended for and developed with all project partners involved in the development and operation of the ClimaGen Living Labs, including public administrations, universities, research centres, NGOs, and other local actors directly contributing to the co-creation, experimentation, monitoring, and upscaling processes within the nine cities. It will support the next phases of the project, including the development of the ClimaGen Impact model Definition (D3.3), ClimaGen Guidance Package (D4.3), ClimaGen Games and methods (D1.9), the operationalisation of Capacity-Building and mentoring activities under WP4, and the application of the ClimaLabs concept and the Living Labs method in all cities (WP5-WP13). More broadly, the framework is relevant for professionals planning, managing, or facilitating local open innovation ecosystems that support climate adaptation and resilience. It is also intended for others who wish to understand and learn from the ClimaGen approaches and methods.
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