We are pleased to announce the UNIC Thematic Lines CityLabs Award to be presented at the UNIC 2nd Thematic Conference, “Institutions in Transition: Justice, Security, and Well-Being in Post-Industrial Cities,” hosted by Koç University from 17–19 June 2026 in Istanbul. 

This award recognizes good practice initiatives for embedding UNIC CityLabs in curriculum and research, apply innovative and impactful transdisciplinary practice and co-creation methodologies to address societal challenges in Europe’s post-industrial cities. This award is open exclusively to researchers, teaching staff and graduate students affiliated with ten UNIC partner universities. Applicants should be supported by their Local Centre for City Futures Director, who should be named in the submission. Staff of UNIC Centre for City Futures are eligible to submit once the beneficiary of the award can be demonstrably received as part of a research, faculty, or teaching role.  

About UNIC Centre for City Futures and CityLabs 

The UNIC Centre for City Futures is a transnational urban living laboratory for societal impact to support transformations with our cities and communities. A one stop shop for UNIC universities to engage with cities and communities, we orchestrate collaboration and co-creation between various urban actors to tackle our most pressing urban challenges. The Centre for City Futures Directors broker and manage sustainable structured partnerships with our cities, matchmaking collaborations that can leverage resources, realise strategically focussed efforts and connect societal actors for transformative impact. 

Our professional team of Co-creation Specialists bring co-creation and participatory practice design expertise to collaborative initiatives on a case-by-case basis: providing expert inputs to devise, design and deliver evidence informed, best practice and fit for purpose models, tools and methods for engagement. They work to support an enabling environment, integrating and building capacity for mainstreaming and harnessing best practice for societally engaged higher education.   

A CityLabs case is a specific instance of an applied co-creation initiative, connected with UNIC Centre for City Futures transnational living lab and so contributing to real-world challenges being tackled through partnership with our cities and citizens. UNIC CityLabs use real-life challenges as starting points and integrate participatory, co-creation and transdisciplinary approaches into both education and research. They bring students, researchers, academia, citizens, and city stakeholders such as municipalities, the private sector and NGOs together to address societal challenges faced by our post-industrial superdiverse cities.   

Collectively UNIC CityLabs are enabling higher education and academic expertise to be working for and with City actors in ways that can become more than a sum of their parts, harnessing the power of the many to realise a more sustainable, just and equitable future for all.    

Examples of UNIC CityLabs: 

• • Course Integration: CityLabs in the Curriculum – RePIC CityLabs week 

• • Engaged Research: CityLabs in UNIC4ER Seed Fund 

• • City-Led Challenge: Idea Competition  

• • Innovating and Piloting replicable Methods and Models: Blended Intensive Programme   
  
  

Selection Criteria 

Best Practice Collaboration 

Best Practice Participatory Co-Design 

Impact: Evidence, Integration and Legacy   

Award Benefits  

• • Each co-lead applicant in the selected CityLabs initiative will receive 500 euros in support (or equivalent in support or goods), through the UNIC fund at the applicant’s home institution.  

• • The prize money may be spent on courses, workshops, books, congresses or trainings (nationally and internationally), or international travel (related to work). 

• • For details on allocation rules, please refer to the rules specified by your institution.:
  
  

  • University of Deusto (PDF link)  

  • Malmö University (PDF link)

  • Erasmus University Rotterdam

  • Ruhr University Bochum (PDF link)

  • University of Liège (PDF link)

  • Koc University (PDF link)

  • University of Zagreb (PDF link)

  • University College Cork

  • University of Lodz (PDF link)

Timeline and Selection Process 

• • 16 March 2026: Deadline for CityLab Award applications 

• • April - May 2026: Applications reviewed and final selections made by an appointed jury. 

• • June 2026: Awardees announced at the Istanbul conference, with invited poster presentations to showcase their CityLab. 

Peer Judging Process 

A peer judging panel will be formed with representatives from WP3 CityLabs experts and WP5 TL representatives.  Each application will be evaluated by two peer judges from universities not associated with the application, using a standardized scoring system based on the selection criteria. Recommendations for awards will be submitted for WP5 TL lead peer review and approval.  

Submission Instructions 

• • Submit applications to unic[at]ku.edu.tr with a PDF summary of the CityLab (filename format: CityLab_Name_Project_Title) and a brief statement on its innovative or impactful methodology. 

• • Please specify the names and institutions of the representatives from the co-lead institutions implementing the CityLabs case and the name of the Local Centre for City Futures Director supporting the application.

• • Applications close on 16 March 2026 (23:59 CEST). 

For questions or further details, please contact unic[at]ku.edu.tr

We look forward to your applications and to celebrating the best CityLabs practices at the UNIC Thematic Conference!