The project — GreenIncities

The GreenInCities Community of Practice

In GreenInCities, learning happens through action, co-creation and implementation. The Community of Practice (CoP) is embedded within the project structure, creating a continuous flow of knowledge sharing that supports collaboration, capacity-building, and collective learning across cities. The main structures of exchange are rooted in the research and development of greening solutions, the Living Labs in cities, and twinning between cities. The CoP strengthens cities’ capacities to design, implement, and monitor inclusive urban greening actions.

Contributing to the EU Missions

By developing transferable knowledge assets, the project supports cities in advancing climate resilience and sustainability in line with the European Green Deal.

Within this context, GreenInCities contributes to two EU Missions:

Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities
Adaptation to Climate Change

The project, through its CoP, advances these missions by strengthening cities’ ability to implement inclusive, climate-resilient, and data-informed Nature-based Solutions. The project also connects GreenInCities to sister projects and related EU initiatives working toward shared mission objectives.

An Embedded and Coordinated Learning Structure

The CoP is structured to promote the flow of knowledge across the project. The CoP’s role is not to centrally manage all activities, but to monitor where learning is progressing well and where additional support is needed. Rather than functioning as a separate network, it is integrated into GreenInCities’ governance, methods, and implementation processes. In this way, the CoP remains dynamic and responsive to the evolving needs of the consortium and cities.
Knowledge exchange happens through the project’s activities themselves, in the Living Labs, through tool development, during co-creation workshops, twinning exchanges, and cross-work package collaboration. The CoP helps align these activities to strengthen collective learning and build long-term capacity in cities.
It supports continuous learning throughout all phases of the project and each city’s co-creation cycle:
- Co-Analysis
- Co-Design
- Co-Implementation
- Co-Monitoring
The CoP builds on the GreenInCities frameworks and tools. These shared knowledge assets are what facilitate replication, learning, and twinning. The project's knowledge assets include:
- The Sustainable Renaturing Toolbox
- The Living Lab and Co-Creation Methodologies
- The Catalogue of Solutions, Practices, and Support Systems
Together, these knowledge assets provide a common foundation for collaboration, supporting knowledge transfer and the adaptation of solutions across cities.

How Knowledge Exchange Is Structured

Project partners develop frameworks, toolboxes, and solution catalogues that provide cities with structured methods for urban greening actions. These resources are continuously refined through feedback from implementation in pilot sites.

Each pilot city runs a Living Lab where local stakeholders co-create and implement Nature-based Solutions. Activities in local pilots include workshops with citizens and external practitioners, as well as demonstration days that showcase solutions and share practical insights.
These processes generate real-world knowledge that feeds back into the consortium and strengthens cross-city learning. Support in this layer is particularly important to facilitate inclusive citizen engagement and capacity-building.

Cities exchange experiences, challenges, and adaptations of solutions. This prevents learning from remaining isolated and allows practices to be transferred and contextualised across different urban settings, directly contributing to EU Mission objectives.

Citizens and External Exchange

An important feature of the GreenInCities CoP is the inclusion of local citizens and stakeholders in the implementation sites. They primarily participate through Living Labs and co-creation, contributing essential knowledge from experience to shape solutions that are locally relevant and representative.

Exchange of information beyond the GreenInCities project is supported through the outscaling and dissemination activities. GreenInCities collaborates with EU sister projects and other EU Communities of Practice, strengthening knowledge flows aligned with the EU Missions.

At the same time, knowledge exchange between the project partners and cities remains central. Feedback from local pilots and co-creation activities supports consortium partners in validating and refining methods, developing knowledge assets, and advancing urban greening solutions aligned with local needs, decisions, and realities. Strengthening this flow of knowledge, both internally and externally, is an ongoing priority of the Community of Practice.