Living Labs – From Global Challenges to Local
Solutions
An educational concept where 2nd year Bachelor students work on current societal questions
Background
The Living Lab addresses at least one of the Sustainable Development
Goals per project, depending on the project. The Living Lab teaches
students to apply theoretical knowledge into a practical situation and thus
specifically contribute to students’ mastery of integrative and applied
learning.
As a result of each individual Living Lab, the research findings are
translated into practical implications, solutions and advice that are
relevant for the stakeholder. This is in the form of concrete output such
as policy-recommendations, campaign design, an end product or a
new business-model. Furthermore, implications and output are
communicated to non-academic partners and the public in the form of a
public conference.
To scale up and maintain sustainable development among the collaboration
partners, projects are developed further by the new generation of
students. This way one project can be connected to the previous one and
be developed continuously. Another way might be, that students are
continuing with a project for their thesis or as a student assistant in
the host organization.
Objective
Together with private and public stakeholders from the region (the host
organisations), students identify a question relevant to their research
interests and capacities. Together with their academic supervisor, students
then translate this into a question suited for academic research and define
the connecting disciplines, use scientific theory, collect data, run
experiments and answer hypotheses.
Results
Examples
The Living Lab (LL) concept of University College Fryslân (UCF) is a
research concept which involves a co-creation process
between students, researchers, public and/or private
organizations. LLs are opportunities to develop new ideas, products,
services and business models to serve as a solution to a societal challenge.
As such, the aim of the Living Lab is to integrate academic and experiential
(non-academic) knowledge, thus stimulating transdisciplinary
collaboration.
University of Groningen Campus Fryslân
P.O. Box 123, 8900 AB Leeuwarden
Contact: name.surname@rug.nl
T + 31 (0)58 12 34 56
M +31 (0)6 12 34 56 78
www.rug.nl/cf
Societal Partner: Municipality Leeuwarden
Students: Anna Stofa, Janna de Vries,
Nick Baumgart
Supervisor: Berfu Ünal
Incentivising Waste Separation Behaviour among
Students in Leeuwarden
Experiences of LGBTQI+ refugees in The
Netherlands
Societal Partner: Amnesty International
Students: Daria Elizarrarras Veenstra, Mirjam Kingma, Esthy Meijer
Supervisor: Josefine Geiger
Aim: The study researched
the experiences of
LGBTQI+ refugees and how
these experiences affect
their integration process
taking into account that
they face intersectional
discrimination
Concrete outcome: The
students developed a board
game ‘crossroads’ aiming to
create more awareness
about the intersectional
position of LGBTQI+
refugees living in the
Netherlands.
Aim: The study aimed at
understanding whether economic
or environmental incentives on
waste separation would be effective
to change the behavior of citizens
of Leeuwarden in order to achieve
the municipalities’ goal to be waste
free by 2050.
Concrete outcome: Proposed an
app design which is now
implemented in the Omrin (local
waste processing company) Afval
app. The Omrin app now includes a
waste label, which gives residents
insight into their waste separation
behavior