Muğla Living Lab for Circular Urban and Peri-Urban Food Systems

Muğla Metropolitan Municipality (Türkiye) is interested in joining a DUT Call 2026 consortium as a municipal pilot partner and Living Lab, particularly in areas related to circular urban and peri-urban production, resilient local food systems, short value chains and circular bioeconomy.

Through its Agricultural Services Department, the Municipality has extensive practical experience in supporting local producers and cooperatives and in developing sustainable, data-driven and climate-resilient agricultural practices.

Muğla can offer a diverse real-life environment for research, demonstration and replication. Existing municipal capacities include experimental production areas and orchards, smart agriculture applications, soil and water analysis capacity, local seed conservation, medicinal and aromatic plant production, processing and drying facilities, producer support programmes, cooperative networks and initiatives addressing water efficiency and climate adaptation.

The Municipality is particularly interested in exploring how these existing capacities can contribute to innovative DUT projects addressing urban and peri-urban food production, circular use of local resources and side-streams, short supply chains, cooperative and shared production models, climate-resilient local production, digital and data-driven agriculture, and stronger connections between local producers and urban consumers.

Rather than proposing a fixed solution, Muğla is open to co-developing project concepts with research organisations, municipalities, technology providers and other partners where its existing facilities, producer networks and municipal expertise can serve as a real-life pilot and demonstration environment.

Muğla Metropolitan Municipality can contribute municipal expertise, pilot sites, producer and cooperative networks, technical staff, local stakeholder engagement, data and infrastructure for testing and demonstrating transferable solutions.

We are interested in connecting with consortia whose project concepts could benefit from these capacities and in jointly exploring how Muğla could contribute as a municipal pilot city, Living Lab and end-user.