COMUNE DI BERGAMO

Their core work

The Municipality of Bergamo is a local public authority that brings the city government perspective into EU food and environment research. Their core contribution is governance: they translate research outputs into actual urban policy, pilot new food system approaches at the city level, and test interventions through living labs with real communities and markets. In FOOD TRAILS, they participated as a city partner shaping pathways toward FOOD 2030-aligned urban food policies. They also bring civic legitimacy — the ability to convene local actors, test ideas in real urban settings, and embed results into official city planning.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Bergamo entered H2020 through public science communication — BigPicnic (2016–2019) was about engaging citizens with responsible research on food security, a soft-policy, awareness-raising role. By 2020, the shift was sharp and deliberate: FOOD TRAILS placed them inside the harder policy-making process, working on city-region food system design, urban food governance frameworks, and impact investment mechanisms. The trajectory is from passive engagement facilitator to active urban food policy architect — a meaningful step up in institutional ambition.

Bergamo is positioning itself as a reference city for urban food system governance, moving toward policy co-design and impact-oriented food infrastructure — making it a natural partner for Horizon Europe missions on food systems or smart cities.

How they like to work

Bergamo operates exclusively as a consortium participant — never as coordinator — which is typical for municipalities that contribute place-based infrastructure and governance capacity rather than research leadership. Their 44 partners across 17 countries across only 2 projects indicates they join large, multi-city consortia. This is the profile of a city that joins well-organized networks to benchmark and co-develop local policy, not to lead research agendas.

Bergamo has built a surprisingly wide network for just two projects — 44 unique partners spanning 17 countries, which points to large multi-stakeholder consortia rather than focused bilateral partnerships. Their collaboration footprint is European in scope, consistent with city-network projects like FOOD TRAILS that deliberately connect municipalities across the EU.

What sets them apart

Bergamo is one of the few Italian municipalities with documented EU-funded experience in urban food system governance at both the engagement and policy-design level. Unlike universities or research institutes, they offer something no lab can: a real city administration willing to pilot, validate, and institutionalize food system changes through actual municipal authority. For consortium builders needing an Italian city reference site with food policy credibility, Bergamo is a low-competition, high-legitimacy option.

Highlights from their portfolio

• FOOD TRAILS
  The largest project by budget (€509,250) and the most substantive in scope — directly shaping EU FOOD 2030 urban policy pathways with living lab and impact investment components.
• BigPicnic
  An early public engagement project on food security RRI that established Bergamo's credentials in citizen-facing food system work before moving into harder policy roles.