It is theorised that achieving climate neutrality in urban contexts requires municipalities to adopt a systemic innovation which integrates technological solutions, economic and financial constraints, and social innovations. The interconnectivity of these elements implies that municipalities’ actions must constantly adapt across silos to remain relevant and targeted in a constantly changing local context. From the observation that to achieve the systemic innovation required for reaching climate neutrality in cities, organisational change in the municipality is required. Municipalities, thus, need to build the relevant capabilities needed to address climate issues by becoming learning organisations which can continuously learn how to learn together. In this context, structured knowledge translation is essential for bridging research and practice, ensuring that evidence-based insights inform policy and decision-making processes

The NetZeroCities EU funded project that aims to support 100 European cities to become Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities by 2030, deploys a Learning by Doing design approach to create stakeholder buy-in to shift the public sector mindset when proposing comprehensive innovative solutions co-created with citizens, private companies, civic organisations and research institutions, which disrupt the current siloed approaches to manage cities. The NetZeroCities project provides cities information, tools, and expertise to support urban climate transitions to achieve climate neutrality in a socially inclusive way.

This study explores how research outcomes from cities receiving direct support from consortium experts—can be effectively translated into a unique learning offering for all municipalities to implement in their local contexts across Europe. This research synthesises research outputs from the last three years of the project using the Sweet Spot framework, typically utilised in corporate strategy making, through a a co-design methodology. It identifies key organisational capabilities, alternative pathways, and stakeholder needs to support climate action at the municipal level. The results have informed the design of the NetZero Cities LearningHub, an EU-specific educational digital portal designed to empower and legitimise ​ public administrators, researchers, civic organisations, policymakers, consultants, and change-makers ​ to reach climate neutrality in urban areas through learning from other cities. This paper highlights the critical role of structured knowledge translation in bridging research and policy implementation, strengthening the links between academic inquiry and real-world climate action, and giving EU municipalities the skills required to implement climate transition technologies in the public sector.

Keywords: Systemic innovation, education, capability building, technology, learning organisation, digital learning, development, learning by doing, co-design.