Edited on 29/06/2025

About the URBACT Programme

 

URBACT aims to foster integrated urban development in Europe by supporting networks of cities and towns to exchange good practices and ideas. This webpage aims to share information, news and articles about URBACT, especially to its Irish audience.

Following the URBACT call for Good Practices in quarter 2, 2024, three Irish local authorities were awarded the Good Practice Label: Cork City Council, Dublin City Council and Limerick City and County Council. Each of these will participate in the upcoming URBACT City Festival in Wroclaw, Poland between the 8th and 10th of April 2025. See the gif to the right! You can read more about what a City Festival entails. 

The first URBACT IV call for Action Planning Networks (APNs) closed on the 31st of March 2023 with 30 new APNs confirmed by the Programme Monitoring Committee (PMC) at the end of May. Irish local authorities were announced as being party to seven of these 30, officially beginning their URBACT Action Planning journey on June 1st 2023. On the 28th of June, the PMC announced 10 new Innovation Transfer Networks. Irish partners are party to two of these, meaning nine active URBACT projects are in operation in Ireland. The partners include Clare County Council, Dublin City Council, Fingal County Council, Limerick City and County Council, Longford County Council, Meath County Council, Sligo County Council, Sandyford Business Improvement District, and Sligo Business Improvement District.

There are other calls envisaged during 2025 and 2026, including one on URBACT Transfer Networks in 2025, and a further URBACT APN call is envisaged in 2026. See the Operational Programme for information on the URBACT IV programming period!

The URBACT website more generally offers a plethora of interesting supports to help you explore the potential for integrated and participatory actions in your town or city, none more so than the URBACT Toolbox. Lots of valuable gadgets and tricks are also available there to assist you in tackling urban challenges in your locality, including guidance, tools, templates, prompts, explainers and much much more! 

 

Festival Teaser
  • NUP and Meath CoCo staff

    Perspective of a NUP: joining the In4Green network in Dąbrowa Górnicza!

    The URBACT In4Green project got underway in semester two, 2023 and is set to last until the end of 2025. The network is a collaborative of diverse industrial cities which share a commitment to be transformative in steering their local industry towards a future that is greener and more sustainable. The project seeks to improve local governance and policymaking in helping to reshape and modernise industrial areas while remaining competitive and inclusive locations. The network contains partners from Spain (2), Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Montenegro, Poland and Portugal. The Irish partner to the network is Meath County Council with the project focusing most locally on the town of Navan. The city of Avilés – Spain is the Lead Partner with Lead Expertise provided by José Costero.

     

    The URBACT In4Green project met in Dąbrowa Górnicza, Poland, at the end of May for the 5th transnational meeting of the Action Planning Network. On the invitation of the Irish partner, Meath County Council, the Contact Point for Ireland, Karl Murphy, joined the group. The meeting on 28th and 29th of May provided great learning and insight into the brilliant work being done by the network. 

    Karl Murphy

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  • Irish city at URBACT City Festival

    Irish Cities participate in the URBACT City Festival in Wroclaw

    Several local authority staff and other stakeholders from Ireland participated in the URBACT City Festival which occurred in Wroclaw, Poland between the 8th and 10th of April. A jam-packed agenda involved a ceremony for the 116 Good Practices, several plenary sessions, a Good Practice marketplace across the two main days, as well as a more in-depth thematic discovery of these URBACT Good Practices. Attendees were also treated to a selection of study visits within Wroclaw, and the Secretariat launched in earnest the associated call for Transfer Networks (TNs) with some testimonials from those involved in TNs in the past, before giving attendees an overview of what is to come in the remainder of the URBACT IV programme.

    Karl Murphy

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  • Partners meeting in Sligo

    All current URBACT Ireland project partners meet in Sligo Town for a networking event!

    Representatives from Ireland’s nine project partners currently party to nine URBACT transnational networks met in Sligo on March 5th to engage in a day of networking and peer support. 

     

    This meet-up followed on from a similar event in Limerick last spring. On the initiative of the Eastern and Midland Regional Assembly (EMRA) as Contact Point entity, staff from Sligo County Council and Sligo Business Improvement District (BID) hosted colleagues from Clare County Council, Dublin City Council, Fingal County Council, Limerick City and County Council, Longford County Council, Meath County Council and Sandyford Business District. Seven of the partners are party to Action Planning Networks which began in 2023, and the group collectively welcomed their new colleagues from Dublin City Council and Sandyford Business District who began their Innovation Transfer Network journey late last year.

    Karl Murphy

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  • News
    City Festival

    The URBACT City Festival 2025-a showcase of 116 Good Practices from around Europe!

    Between the 8th and 10th of April 2025, the URBACT Secretariat will host an exciting City Festival in the beautiful city of Wroclaw in Poland. The

    Karl Murphy

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  • News
    Campus preview

    The URBACT National Campus comes to Balbriggan!

    Recently our seven URBACT Action Planning Network (APN) partners in Ireland visited Balbriggan (November 5 and 6) to participate in the URBACT

    Karl Murphy

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  • News

    EU City Lab #3 on food-your chance to register!

     

    Knowledge capitalization is an important objective of the URBACT Programme. EU City Labs are key to this, seeing the sharing of knowledge on an

    Karl Murphy

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Good Practices and Networks

  • REinventing Culture in Urban Places

    Funded by URBACT, REinventing Culture in Urban Places (RECUP) harnesses culture and creativity to strengthen urban and peri-urban communities. Inspired by

  • WISH CITIES

    WISH CITIES network aims to create a strategic framework for the well-being of adolescents, structured around three key pillars: the development of youth

  • Minority language renewal through innovation

    Setting new standards for urban language revitalisation 

  • Sustainable community (sub)urban greenspaces

    Boosting urban residents' well-being through nature connection 

  • PlaysMaking

    A placemaking approach to developing the city as a playground 

  • In4Green

    In4Green is a collaborative network of industrial cities from across Europe with a shared commitment: to lead transformative change within European industry and

  • ECONNECTING

    ECONNECTING focuses on sustainable urban-rural mobility solutions within the 30-minute territory. Our mission is to advocate inclusive, digital, and ecological

  • U.R. Impact

    U.R. Impact focuses on addressing a key policy challenge: to develop effective strategies for empowering local communities during processes of urban

  • BiodiverCity

    In ten European cities URBACT Local Groups will work out community-based approaches to valorise, measure and account biodiversity and related ecosystem services

  • EcoCore

    EcoCore focuses on accelerating the green transition in the industrial areas of partner cities. It aims to build the capacity of small cities in addressing

  • Cities@Heart

    Cities@Heart brings together ten European urban areas with diverse profiles but with one common goal: achieving a balanced and inclusive city centre for all

  • CREATIVE SPIRITS

    The partner cities from this Implementation network have a common need to improve the implementation of their existing integrated urban strategies and action

  • INT-HERIT

    The INT-HERIT implementation network brings together 9 European cities facing challenges related to the revitalisation of their cultural heritage. These cities

  • MAPS – Military Assets as Public Spaces

    The Action Planning network MAPS (Military Assets as Public Spaces) was focused on enhancing former military heritage as key elements for sustainable urban

  • TechTown

    By exploring how small and medium sized cities can maximise the job creation potential of the digital economy, this Action Planning network examined whether

  • CityCentreDoctor

    The cities of this Action Planning network were challenged to identify the urban issues relate to their city centre, analyse perceptions and reality of those

  • CHANGE!

    In times when personal sacrifices are much needed to tackle burning societal issues, fostering and enabling collaboration at local level of public

  • Playful Paradigm

    Cities offer unique opportunities for addressing the challenges of urbanization, ageing, climate change, social exclusion, only if enabling, enjoyable places

  • UrbSecurity

    This Action Planning Network analyses strategies and projective concepts of cities’ design that could contribute to prevent segregation and anti-social behavior

  • Tourism Friendly Cities

    TOURISM-FRIENDLY CITIES is an Action Planning Network aimed at exploring how tourism can be made sustainable in medium-sized cities, reducing the negative

  • RU:RBAN Second Wave

    RU:RBAN's Good Practice is the Management model of Urban gardens in Rome to be transferred to newcomer cities that are geographically, historically and socio

  • Let’s Play Cork

    Experimenting, improvising and evolving playful strategies to improve the lives of our citizens

  • Global Goals for Cities

    The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015 as a universal call of

  • Health&Greenspace

    How can we improve urban green spaces in order to promote mental and physical health for our communities? Health&Greenspace Action Planning Network links green

  • iPlace

    iPlace is a journey where the partner cities are fellow travellers who are always seeking to find niches appropriate for their cities, while deepening their

  • ACCESS

    The ACCESS Action Planning Network believes that a more inclusive culture has the ability to facilitate greater understanding of individuals and their lives

  • McAuley Place for older people

    The game changer in city centre revitalisation

  • From exorcising ghost estates to creating spirited communities

    Resolving unfinished housing developments in a collaborative manner creating sustainable communities delivered by a targeted team

  • The town team

    A partnership approach for reinvigorating town centres

  • CTUR

    Cruise activity and the recovery of urban and harbour building heritage: Strong elements of the common interest of sea towns to develop and strengthen the urban

  • SURE

    Implementation of integrated socio-economic regeneration strategies which build on local strengths and opportunities. This will be achieved by developing an