Civic Labs

Civic labs is a method for bottom-up, local innovation that creates platforms wherein citizens together with other citizen, private and government stakeholders to define common challenges and co-create solutions together. The application of civic labs is versatile and be initiated by governments, universities, non-profits, private companies, citizens or partnerships between stakeholders.

Specific climate related challenges

By creating dedicated civic labs addressing the impact of climate change, citizens can share ideas, get informed and co-creates solutions together with other stakeholders implementing climate-related initiatives and projects in the city,

Inadequate public participation

Since Civic Labs are essentially platforms that provide the tools and frameworks for discussion and co-creation of solutions, long term public participation is achieved.

Inadequate representation of affected communities

Civic labs seek to give all affected stakeholders, a seat at the table. In every step, the group reflects on which stakeholder are missing and invite them to participate in the process.

Ensuring that citizens and civic groups are involved throughout the process. Evolving the process with time to include any voices that have been left out. Building trust and continuity in engagement.

The initiator of the civic lab first invites several stakeholders to the platform to discuss shared problems, goals and solutions. The process is iterative in nature and periodically reflects on the stakeholders who have been engaged and those that need to be invited in the next round. As the discussion evolves, so does the group size and diversity.

Continuous engagement over a long period of time. Each engagement/ discussion can range from half day to a full day.

1. The Civic Lab engages the community and creates a synergy between citizens, businesses, private & government stakeholders
2. The process, framework, space and tools to facilitate the co-creation discussions are defined
3. The group defines the problem at the outset and develops a shared goal and vision
4. Establishing a long term engagement process. Discussions take place at regular intervals and in a curated manner
5. Reflection on the process and including new participants if necessary.
6. The local governments regularly check in with the progress and provide further support that may be required.

• Number of people engaged
• Number of co-creation activities
• Number of services/ projects co-designed
• Number of diverse demographic groups represented

The group size and type of stakeholders is adaptable. However, citizens remain the primary stakeholders in this method. Civic labs can be flexible to the objective of the discussions. They are applicable for problem identification, problem definition, vision development, solution making as well as implementation strategy making.