Starting in 2017, the City of Bologna, with the coordination of the Fondazione per l’Innovazione Urbana and in close collaboration with the neighbourhoods, has promoted District Labs, spaces for democratic interaction open to everyone.

Through neighbourhood public assemblies and thematic encounters via Internet, the objective is to activate stable processes of listening, dialogue, and collaboration in each neighbourhood to reveal priorities, needs, indications, and proposals to imagine shared solutions.

With constant dialogue and moments of citizen action in all neighbourhoods, about 7,000 citizens participated in the District Labs in 2017 and 2018, leading to 60 projects for participatory budgeting. Neighbourhood by neighbourhood, 30,932 citizens voted and selected 12 projects that are being realized today.

In 2019, the City began a new path to discuss and define the future of the city and its neighbourhoods regarding urban planning, the environment, mobility, education, new economies, home, public spaces, and culture, as well as the third round of participatory budgeting, which ended in 2020.

Thanks to the (number) of votes obtained from citizens, another 6 projects to regenerate the neighbourhoods were selected, along with priorities in which the neighbourhoods will invest new resources.

The Fondazione per l'Innovazione Urbana is also committed to coordinating processes of listening, involvement, and co-design regarding some specific places in the city.