Entrepreneurial Cities – URBACT Transfer Network
What if entrepreneurship were taught not as a subject, but as a way of thinking, learning and acting? That is the question at the heart of Entrepreneurial Cities, an URBACT Transfer Network led by the Municipality of Albergaria-a-Velha (Portugal) and co-funded by the European Union through the URBACT IV Programme (Interreg).
The network builds on the Entrepreneurship+ Academy, a locally developed Good Practice that has proven highly effective in equipping young people with the skills, confidence and real-world experience needed to shape their own futures. Through practical learning, mentorship and direct engagement with the local business community, the model created an enabling environment where entrepreneurial thinking is embedded in everyday education and community life - not simply as a path to business creation, but as a civic competence and a driver of inclusive local development.
What makes the approach distinctive is its systemic, multi-actor character. Entrepreneurial Cities engages the entire local ecosystem - students, teachers, educational institutions, local businesses, associations and the municipality - and pays particular attention to cross-cutting themes central to the URBACT programme: gender equality, green transition and digital skills. The goal is not only effective knowledge transfer, but lasting policy change.
Seven partner cities are working alongside Albergaria-a-Velha to learn and implement the model: Iisalmi (Finland), Ferrara (Italy), Lublin (Poland), Žďár nad Sázavou (Czech Republic), Skåne (Sweden), Zhytomyr (Ukraine) and Bijeljina (Bosnia and Herzegovina).
Section for Local Economic Development and European Integration is implementing this Project on behalf of the City of Bijeljina.
The transfer unfolds across three structured phases - Understand, Adapt and Reuse - from 2025 to 2028, with each city co-designing local entrepreneurial education actions through its URBACT Local Group and embedding results into durable local policies.