Affiliated center: Research Center Law and Investment on Future and Earth

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LabGov was founded in 2011 at Luiss Guido Carli as a soft skills laboratory and evolved into an applied research laboratory. In 2015, it became a legal entity managed by alumni. After years of activity within the ICEDD research center, it has been operating within the CISS since 2022 and within LIFE since 2024. It has also been active at Georgetown University since 2017 and at Universidad Latina de Costa Rica since 2018.

Each year, LabGov runs an Interdisciplinary Urban Clinic, serving as an interdisciplinary and interdepartmental laboratory within the Soft Skills program at Luiss Guido Carli. The ultimate goal of the program is to co-design public policies and/or prototype civic entrepreneurship projects that foster sustainable community development. These initiatives aim to combine social, technological, and digital innovation, transforming it into a driving force for social equality and socio-economic development. Each year, LabGov initiates a new civic regeneration project for urban common goods and/or incubates and accelerates civic enterprises and community cooperatives. It also develops public policies aimed at creating new jobs, reducing social and economic inequalities, establishing collective and local institutions, and applying innovation to the law. The approach is based on a partnership between five types of stakeholders: public, private, social, cognitive, and civic (the so-called “quintuple helix”).

LabGov has developed the “CO-città” and “CO-territori” methodological protocols to synthesize the processes, principles, and economic, legal, and institutional tools needed to unite the stakeholders of the quintuple helix of urban innovation. These stakeholders aim to innovate traditional urban planning schemes, urban welfare models, and forms of local economic development.

The laboratory also produces open-access publications, both scientific and non-scientific, that summarize and analyze the results of its research and design activities.