In Reggio Emilia, LabGov ETS and the Municipality of Reggio Emilia, Communication, Participation and Social Innovation Service, are launching a programme as part of the NOI – Nuovi Orientamenti d’Impresa (New Business Approaches) start-up incubation programme. Between September and December 2025, four meetings will be held with the aim of co-designing and incubating Partnerships for Sustainable Development and Innovation, in accordance with the Regulation on Urban and Climate Democracy and Justice in Reggio Emilia, lastly updated in 2024.
The four stages of the XYZ programme and the methodology adopted
The programme will consist of four meetings, led by experts from academia and public administration, following an iterative method that combines theoretical training and group work in each meeting.
The first module – R&I LAB, scheduled for 29 September – will focus on building a collaborative city, with the aim of immersing participants in the strategic vision of the Municipality of Reggio Emilia. Startups will be able to begin imagining opportunities for interaction, reflecting on their role in the urban collaboration system and the potential for generating shared value. The meeting will be led by Nicoletta Levi, Director of Communication, Participation and Social Innovation Service at the Municipality of Reggio Emilia, and Christian Iaione, Full Professor and Director of MSc Strategic Management, Innovation & Sustainability at LUISS Guido Carli.
The second module – X-Lab, scheduled for 13 October – delves into the regulatory and contractual aspects that enable collaboration. In particular, it will explore the tools that enable the transition from the bipartite logic of public-private partnerships to community integration, leading to the creation of multi-stakeholder partnerships with impact: Sustainable Development and Innovation Partnerships. The meeting will be led by Antonio Persico and Davide Testa, Research Fellows at LUISS Guido Carli.
The third module – Z-Lab, scheduled for 27 October – will focus on measuring the multiple dimensions of impact that each partnership should be able to produce. Innovators will therefore learn how to define effective indicators and establish participatory reporting models, starting with the Community Budget provided for by the Reggio Emilia Regulation. The meeting will be led by Costanza Consolandi, Full Professor at the University of Siena and LUISS Guido Carli, and Rubina Michela Galeotti, Research Fellow at LUISS Guido Carli.
The fourth and final meeting – GRINN-Lab – will consist of an in-person mentoring session led by Azzurra Spirito, Advisor and Transformative Innovation Designer, which will allow innovators to refine their respective projects, integrate the elements learned in previous training sessions and ensure the consistency and governability of the partnership.
This will be followed by a final event organised by the Municipality: the bootcamp, dedicated to the presentation of the projects developed, which will give start-ups the opportunity to discuss and receive feedback from representatives of the Municipality and mentors, offering them the chance to give voice to their projects and fine-tune the partnership proposals developed.
The start-ups involved
Five start-ups have joined the incubation programme: Djinne, Girotondo, Loop, Supervisor, and Welfin. All the start-ups involved have joined XYZ Camp because they are convinced not only that they want to be on the market, but also that they want to seek collaboration with the public administration, citizens and other local stakeholders, as they are convinced that they can produce a significant impact on their community.
The programme promises to be interesting thanks to the variety of proposals and areas of interest covered by the start-ups. These range from developing an app to promote sustainable and widespread tourism in the city, to creating a hub that brings together regeneration and innovation; from recycling stage materials for artistic and social purposes, to setting up AI for mental health services or employee loans that enable the creation of alternative welfare in the neighborhoods.
All these organisations have joined the XYZ Camp with the aim of challenging themselves to build a strategy for fruitful interaction with the public administration, in the belief that their business objectives can coincide with public policies that directly impact citizens.
The ambitions
The ambition of this mentoring programme, which is part of a broader start-up incubation programme with a strong social focus, organised by a number of public, academic and professional entities mostly based in Reggio Emilia or in the Emilia-Romagna Region, is therefore to explore the vision and tools needed to develop a Business-to-City or, even better, Business-to-Neighbourhood entrepreneurial strategy.
Below, the poster with the complete programme can be viewed.