PS-U-GO Awarded at the INU “Civic University 2025” Prize

The PS-U-GO research team has been awarded within the first edition of the INU “Civic University 2025” Prize, promoted by the Italian National Institute of Urban Planning (INU) to recognise and enhance research-action and public engagement activities carried out by Italian universities in the field of urban and territorial planning.

The prize was conferred to selected contributions presented in Session 3, “The Civic University for Urban and Territorial Planning: Good Practices of Engagement in the Territories”, which focused on the role of civic engagement within universities and its contribution to the training, development and implementation of urban and territorial planning practices in the cities and territories in which universities operate.

The awarded paper, titled Mapping the Right to the Sea: Educational and Participatory Tools for Exploring the Liminal Areas of the Neapolitan Coast, presents the experience of the PS-U-GO Urban Living Lab in Naples.

The contribution describes how the Naples Urban Living Lab addressed access to the sea as a collective right and urban common, activating a transdisciplinary research-action process that integrates Community-Engaged Learning (CEL), Participatory GIS (PGIS) methodologies, collaborative digital mapping tools, and multi-actor engagement within a quadruple helix framework. Through a structured workflow—including theme definition, participatory exploration, collaborative data collection, and the development of a Territorial Information System—the Urban Living Lab co-produced spatial knowledge on accessibility, usability and environmental quality along the Neapolitan coastline.

The resulting collaborative map and data system represent not only a technical output, but also a pedagogical and political device capable of making visible spatial inequalities and supporting more inclusive and adaptive governance models for coastal areas understood as hybrid urban-environmental commons. The INU Civic University 2025 Prize recognises contributions across three categories—research-action, teaching innovation, and institutional collaboration—and the recognition of the PS-U-GO Naples experience highlights the role of universities and research institutions as catalysts of civic innovation, capable of mediating between communities, public administrations and civil society actors, particularly in complex urban contexts.