This article discusses the concept of Urban Sustainable Development and Innovation Partnerships (USDIPs) as a tool for designing and managing policy experiments in cities to accelerate technological and ecological transitions while ensuring accountability and equality among stakeholders. The article examines inclusive and innovative forms of public-private partnerships, urban co-governance, and citizen science in the context of global and European policy initiatives. The EU Urban Innovative Actions Initiative and the “UIA Co-City Turin” project are used as a case study to demonstrate the effectiveness of USDIPs in promoting sustainable development.
The article identifies four key tools that are instrumental in creating USDIPs:
- innovation procurement;
- social and sustainable finance planning;
- digital tools for multistakeholder cooperation;
- investment in capacity building
The article calls for concrete policy action at the EU level to use USDIPs to bridge the gap between different policy agendas related to sustainable development in cities.
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