This document details the initial toolbox and methodologies of GreenInCities for establishing and managing “Living Labs” focused on collaborative climate mitigation and adaptation in deprived urban areas.

The aim of this toolbox is to develop a comprehensive approach and methodology to guide the co-creation processes between Leader and Follower cities throughout various project phases. It provides:

• A Co-Creation Methodology to facilitate collaboration through different project phases (Co-Analysis, Co-Design, Implementation, Twinning, and Co-Monitoring).

• Protocols for Co-Design to ensure an inclusive and transparent participatory process.

• Localised Participatory Methods tailored to each city to optimise stakeholder engagement.

The document further explores the concept of “twinning,” which is where leader cities share knowledge and collaborate with follower cities for mutual growth and sustainable urbanism.

This deliverable is designed for stakeholders involved in urban planning, policy development, and sustainability initiatives.

Primary Audience:

• Consortium Members & Project Teams

• Leader and Follower Cities

• Local Stakeholders and Community Engagement Teams

• Technical Experts and Researchers Developing Co-Creation Tools

Secondary Audience:

• EU institutions and public authorities

• Policymakers involved in urban planning

• City officials and representatives

• Urban Planning and Environmental Organizations

• Private Sector and Technology Providers

This deliverable provides a structured co-creation methodology to help cities design, implement, and monitor Nature-based Solutions (NbS) for urban regeneration. It emphasises inclusive, participatory processes, ensuring climate adaptation strategies are tailored to local needs, particularly in deprived areas. By building on previous EU projects, it strengthens stakeholder engagement, collaborative decision-making, and societal readiness in urban planning.

The methodology follows five key phases—Setup, Co-Analysis, Co-Design, Implementation, and Co-Monitoring—with Twinning as a cross-cutting process. It outlines nine co-creation steps, integrating participatory tools, digital twins, and citizen science, ensuring interventions are data-driven, adaptable, and inclusive. Core guiding principles—inclusion, transparency, ownership, and sustainability—foster long-term community engagement.

A key feature is the Twinning Process, enabling Leader and Follower cities to exchange knowledge, scale solutions, and refine best practices through peer mentoring, cross-city visits, and capacity-building. The Communities of Practice (CoP) further support ongoing collaboration, ensuring cities continuously co-develop and share urban greening strategies.

The deployment of this integrated co-creation framework and twinning protocol is designed to transform the participatory planning landscape and scale sustainable solutions across European cities through several key strategic outcomes:

• A structured, iterative "test and learn" feedback loop is established at the heart of municipal planning, enabling technical teams and communities to co-design, prototype on-site, and refine interventions to their maximum potential.

• The historically slow process of urban replication and knowledge transfer is transformed into an active, bilateral learning loop that pairs Leader and Follower cities based on shared biophysical and social challenges.

• Municipalities gain a validated protocol to actively involve diverse stakeholders (from public, private, academic, and civic backgrounds) alongside non-human interests, fostering long-term community trust and local social acceptance.

• Open-access, citizen-led monitoring frameworks are successfully integrated into local planning, empowering residents to co-analyze local environmental quality and play a direct role in neighborhood governance.

By centering local needs, inclusive representation, and city-to-city learning, the Living Labs and twinning methodologies deliver concrete benefits for both municipal teams and historically underserved residents:

• Vulnerable and deprived communities gain a direct seat in the co-design process, ensuring their lived experience, needs, and safety concerns shape spatial interventions from the outset.

• Residents and civic groups develop lasting ownership over new green-blue public spaces, strengthening long-term co-maintenance and social resilience.

• Municipal officers de-risk NbS deployment by surfacing operational challenges, conflicting land uses, and design issues early, before they become costly to fix.

• City authorities build institutional capacity and technical skill, gaining tested, low-cost tools and co-creation methods from experienced European peers.

• Figure 3: Complete Co-Creation Methodology diagram

• Figure 11: Diagram of the Twinning Process

• Figure 10: Stakeholder relationship canvas created for Prato Living Lab

• Table 11: Tools applicability by Project Phase

• Table 12: First tool comparison matrix

• Table 14: Considerations for the Inclusion & Equality Principle