Validated Expert info
Expert can perform the Lead expert role and Ad hoc expertise missions at network and programme level in relation to:
1. The design and delivery of (transnational) exchange and learning activities
2. Thematic expertise:
[Participative governance, Social Innovation, Strategic Urban Planning]
3. Methods and tools for integrated and participatory approaches:
> Integrated and participatory design of strategies
> Sustaining stakeholder engagement and translating strategies into actions
Summary
Laura Sobral is an urbanist and researcher working at the intersection of participatory governance, spatial justice, and collaborative urban systems. With experience spanning international organisations, EU-funded projects, academia, and civic initiatives, she bridges research, policy design, and practice to foster more inclusive and democratic urban transformation.
Recognised for her expertise in co-governance arrangements, bridging diverse stakeholders towards a shared vision, Laura develops civic frameworks and democratic tools that strengthen collaboration between public institutions and communities. Her work focuses on how local governments and civil society can co-produce and co-manage public spaces and neighbourhood-scale policies that foster social justice and collective stewardship.
She is the author of Doing it Together – Cooperative Tools for City Co-Governance (ZKU Press, 2019), also published in Portuguese and Spanish (A Cidade Press, 2021), and of several peer-reviewed papers on related topics. She co-founded A GRUPA, a feminist collective of urban professionals in Portugal, and The City Needs You Institute in Brazil, both promoting care-based, citizen-driven, and collaborative urban practices.
Laura is currently completing a PhD in Urban Studies in cotutelle between ISCTE-IUL (Lisbon) and TU Wien (Vienna), where she developed the Power Distribution Assessment Framework, an analytical tool to evaluate how co-produced policies redistribute power at the local level. Her research investigates the mobility and adaptation of cooperative policies through European transnational networks and their impact on local governance structures.
Over the past fifteen years, having lived in Portugal, Germany, Spain, and Brazil and collaborating internationally, Laura has combined academic research with hands-on practice in public participation, civic innovation, and community-led urban improvement. She has lectured and mentored on participatory urbanism, co-governance, and policy transfer in universities and organisations across Europe, Latin America, and Africa, including postgraduate programmes at the University of Porto (Portugal) and Fontys University of Applied Sciences (Netherlands).
She has contributed to Horizon 2020, Erasmus+, and URBACT Transfer Networks, among other mutual learning platforms, and collaborated with institutions such as UN-Habitat, Goethe-Institut, MitOst, and the Creative Bureaucracy Festival. Her approach integrates research, design, and facilitation, fostering learning processes that strengthen public-civic partnerships and create feedback loops for continuous improvement.