Sustainable urban food living labs

The UrbanFood project addresses the urgent need for food system-wide transformation by reimagining cities, not just as sites of consumption, but as active agents in producing, governing, and sustaining healthy, inclusive, and climate-friendly food systems and lifestyles. At its core lies the belief that true transformation must be co-created with citizens, not just for them. UrbanFood will establish a network of 5 Urban Food Living Labs across Europe, each tailored to a distinct geographic and socio-economic context. These Living Labs will serve as experimental spaces where municipal authorities, citizens, researchers, SMEs, and community actors collaboratively design, implement, and evaluate new models for sustainable urban food systems. Combining traditional food practices with cutting-edge and traditional agri-tech, digital tools, wellness education, and participatory governance, UrbanFood will demonstrate how integrated interventions can shift behaviours, empower communities, and build lasting urban resilience. To achieve this, the following steps will be performed:•Creation of innovative hands-on living labs and co-creation spaces for food system transformation•Implementation and testing of innovative, sustainable small-scale urban food production systems tailored to local contexts•Empowerment of citizens and vulnerable groups through inclusive co-creation, social innovation, and community-led food system engagement•Stakeholder connection through a network of urban food living labs for local and EU-wide knowledge exchange and replication of best practices•Design and deployment of an integrated digital ecosystem to enable data-driven participation, knowledge exchange, and sustainable food behaviour•Promotion of wellness, nutrition literacy, and behaviour change through integrated education and physical activity programmes•Co-development and validation of participatory governance, business, and policy models for resilient urban food systems