To what extent is the REGIONALE in North Rhine-Westphalia a real-world laboratory? A regional development format put to the test

ILS Researcher Peter Stroms, Eyaiu Hassen, and Thomas Weith as well as Luise Porst from ZALF have published an article in the journal disP – The Planning Review. The article deals with real-world laboratories which can make an important contribution to initiating, researching and implementing transformative processes within society. In this context, the REGIONALE in North Rhine-Westphalia represents a highly interesting format, having frequently provided innovative and experimental regional development projects and new types of cooperation between stakeholders. Developing a set of criteria for real-world laboratories, this article examines similarities between the REGIONALE and the real-world laboratory approach and discusses both the possible opportunities and challenges that the real-world laboratory perspective could have for the REGIONALE and thus for format-oriented regional development. https://doi.org/10.1080/02513625.2025.2561515.Further current selected papers can be found here.