Networks and cities' news

Examples from across Europe - Case studies of municipal teams implementing remote and hybrid work

This entry is part of the Remote-IT Playbook series, developed within the URBACT Remote-IT Action Planning Network (Entry 4 of 16).

Across Europe, public administrations have learned that shifting “from office to anywhere” is less about technology and more about how people, teams and institutions organise their work. The previous entry in this playbook explored the building blocks of hybrid and remote work in public administration: legal frameworks, organisational culture, leadership, and digital tools. This entry moves from principles to practice. It looks at specific country and city examples of municipal and regional teams that have already made the transition, and extracts lessons that cities in the Remote-IT URBACT network, and beyond, can adapt to their own context.

Beyond the Ballot Box: Why the Best Mobility Plan is a Great Place

By Maciej Zacher, URBACT Ad-Hoc Expert

Democracy often feels like a series of checkboxes. We vote every few years, fill out the occasional survey, and attend the odd town hall meeting. But building a city - especially one focused on sustainable mobility - requires something deeper than counting votes. It requires understanding lives.

This was the core challenge the URBACT PUMA network tackled during our recent workshop in Nova Gorica, Slovenia. When we talk about Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMP), the conversation often drifts toward technicalities: bus frequencies, bike lane widths, and modal split percentages. These are crucial, of course. But we gathered to strip mobility back to its most fundamental truth: the spatial aspect.

From office to anywhere - How public administrations are adopting hybrid and remote work models

This entry is part of the Remote-IT Playbook series, developed within the URBACT Remote-IT Action Planning Network (Entry 3 of 16).

Public administrations across Europe are among the largest employers and service providers in their territories. When they change how their own staff work, they do not only adjust HR policies; they reshape how services are delivered, how public spaces are used, and how local labour markets evolve. The rise of remote and hybrid work since the COVID-19 pandemic has therefore become a strategic issue for city governments, not just a technical one.

Here we are exploings how municipalities are adopting hybrid and remote work models, what drives these changes, which risks and opportunities they create, and how cities can design workable frameworks. It draws on European and international evidence, together with lessons learned from the Remote-IT URBACT network, which brings together eight cities - Dubrovnik, Brindisi, Bucharest District 6, Câmara de Lobos, Heraklion, Murcia, Tartu and Tirana - to experiment with the future of work, including within their own administrations.

Destination branding for the future of work

This entry is part of the Remote-IT Playbook series, developed within the URBACT Remote-IT Action Planning Network (Entry 2 of 16).

Remote work is reshaping how people choose where to live, not just where to work. For European cities, this shift is opening a new field of competition and collaboration: becoming attractive places for people whose jobs are no longer tied to a local employer. Destination branding is no longer just a tourism tool; it is becoming a strategic instrument for talent attraction, demographic renewal and economic resilience.

Here we examine how can cities position themselves as destinations for remote workers and digital nomads, drawing on European data and international research, as well as lessons from the eight cities of the Remote-IT URBACT network: Dubrovnik, Brindisi, Bucharest District 6, Câmara de Lobos, Heraklion, Murcia, Tartu and Tirana.

Who is the remote worker?

This Playbook entry is part of the Remote-IT Playbook series, developed within the URBACT Remote-IT Action Planning Network (Entry 1 of 16).

Remote work is no longer a niche privilege for a small group of professionals. It has become a structural feature of European labour markets and of how people choose where to live, work, and raise families. For cities, this shift is not only about broadband and coworking spaces; it is fundamentally about people, a growing and increasingly diverse population of residents, commuters, visitors and temporary locals who work remotely.

We drew on European data and research, but as well on the experience of the eight cities in the Remote-IT network - Dubrovnik, Brindisi, Bucharest District 6, Câmara de Lobos, Heraklion, Murcia, Tartu and Tirana - which have spent the last 2.5 years experimenting with policies and pilot actions around remote and hybrid work.

From planning to action: Beyond the Urban partners publish their Integrated Action Plans for sustainable urban–rural mobility

Beyond the Urban is an URBACT network of ten territories across Europe. Cities, regions and rural areas work together to rethink how people move —between villages and cities, to work, to school, to services— with sustainability, inclusion and digital tools at the core. Led by Osona, Beyond the Urban has been a shared journey of learning, testing and planning a new kind of urban–rural mobility.