In the past years, we all witnessed a progressive blurring of the boundaries between universities and their environment. Once depicted through metaphors such as the “ivory tower”, universities are now expected to be “entrepreneurial” and accomplish multiple missions by opening up to many stakeholders (Etzkowitz, 2014). On the one hand, from a teaching perspective, co-creation with learners is now a dominant idea in higher education (Cook-Sather et al. 2014; Mercer-Mapstone et al. 2017). On the other, academic research is more and more expected to be impactful and applied, calling for closer collaboration with industry and civil society. A deeper connection with industrial players is expected to attract additional resources, in a context where HE institutions face increasing constraints. Despite efforts to bring together activities related to research, teaching and income, it is not uncommon that these strategic priorities are treated as distinct and separate undertakings with sometimes limited synergies in practice.
Living Labs offer an opportunity to join-up activities leveraging the campus as an innovation arena. They provide spaces to share ideas and develop products, services and processes under real-life conditions. Despite varying definitions of the concept, the three essential elements that characterise Living Labs include (i) the integration of research and innovation processes in real-life settings, (ii) the inclusion of multiple stakeholders in the process, as well as (iii) the open and systematic approach to user co-creation.
Demonstrating the value of Living Labs in Higher Education
The European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL) describe these collaborative spaces as “a strong, effective and motivational learning environment”, yet there are still “relatively few examples of […] real Living Labs in education, especially in sectors such as business studies” (European Network of Living Labs, 2021). We introduce three Living Lab examples from different UK higher education institutions and exemplify how such a co-creative approach can contribute to enhancing the university’s teaching, learning, income and research activities.
- University of Cambridge: Living Lab for Sustainability
The Living Lab for Sustainability is based at the University of Cambridge. It brings together students, academics and staff to test new ideas, apply research to practice, and develop new solutions for enhancing sustainability within the University through projects, internships and research.
The University serves as a case study or ‘testing ground’ for a research project or dissertation. Access to data, contacts and other information can be provided so that researchers and students are able to conduct studies while achieving tangible impacts and outcomes. The Living Lab also offers paid internships and an award is offered each academic year to develop solutions to issues relating to the University of Cambridge estate. Dr Ruchi Choudhary states that “the Living Lab helps create sustainability projects from the bottom up that students really believe in” (University of Cambridge, 2020).
With regards to the themes and topics, the website states that “the options are almost limitless” and “might focus on transport, biodiversity, energy, waste, food, behaviour change, wellbeing, the built environment, consumption patterns, culture” (University of Cambridge, 2021). For example, a project reviewed the marketing approach by the University Catering Service leading to a new marketing plan to strengthen the marketing of sustainable food options across the University Catering Service.
The most recent annual review of the Living Lab reveals that 127 students were involved during the 2018/19 academic year. During that time, 12 academic projects, 45 voluntary projects and 6 internships were completed. The Living Lab hosted 10 events with 416 participants, demonstrating its relevance, popularity and ability to connect different stakeholders to address sustainability challenges (University of Cambridge, 2020).
- University of Salford: Ignition Living Lab
The Living Lab is part of the £4 million EU funded IGNITION project that brings together 12 partners across the Greater Manchester region. Working collectively, the aim is to establish innovative ways to build resilience to climate change. The University of Salford is the only academic partner in the project and the campus is home to the Living Lab (University of Salford, 2021).
Part of the project is to establish an experimental rain garden with comparative solutions to showcase and investigate green infrastructure data. Prof Hisham Elkadi explains that “the goal of IGNITION is to demonstrate that green infrastructure is financially feasible for any business to implement and can help build a better and more sustainable future for everyone” (University of Salford, 2021). It is an initiative to increase financial investment in nature based solutions including but not limited to green walls, green roofs and sustainable drainage systems across Greater Manchester (University of Salford, 2021).
The university campus has monitoring sensors to measure heat, water flow, and soil moisture. These sensors and technologies provide real-time data for researchers that can then measure the effect of the installed solutions with regards to building heat performance, biodiversity and human interaction (University of Salford, 2021).
- University of Greenwich: Living Lab
The Greenwich Living Lab is promoted and facilitated by the University’s Sustainability Team which is part of the Estates and Facilities Directorate. However, often activities can happen independently by faculties in collaboration with Estates and other professional services teams. By using the campus as a testing ground, the Sustainability and Estates Teams involve students and academics with the aim of encouraging and stimulating engagement with applied learning and research. This helps advancing the institution’s sustainability agenda and offers students learning through experience whilst boosting their employability. The living lab is a platform to establish partnerships with different stakeholders so that insights and knowledge of academics, students and professional services staff at the institution can be leveraged to address some of the challenges on campus. To embrace the Living Lab approach, Simon Goldsmith (Head of Sustainability) recommends that “professional services staff identify the work being done by academics and that our academics should reach out to our Directorates and find ways of identifying research and teaching opportunities that can lead to improvements in how we sustainably run our campuses and also how this can lead to wider improvements, for example in areas of finance, HR, communications and so on. By exploring existing practice we can enable new projects that deliver sustainability and wider benefits to the University. We can then showcase these to help others realise wide benefits of working with the campus”.
The campus generates a variety of information and data. By analysing such data, direct impact can be achieved on the campus and its environmental performance. For example, the reduction of energy usage can be achieved through technical improvements or enhancing recycling rates based on behavioural research. The campus is also available as a non-traditional classroom. For example, the Avery Hill Community Edible Garden is open for academic staff and students as a teaching and learning environment. The Living Lab website suggests that “there is an unlimited set of possibilities” regarding potential projects (University of Greenwich, 2021). For example, the campus can serve as a Living Lab to develop a marketing plan for tap water to reduce consumption of single-use water bottles. Also, GIS mapping to understand staff and student commuting trends can be studied using a Living Lab approach (University of Greenwich, 2021).
Benefitting from a win-win situation
While a large number of Living Labs focus on sustainability, their applicability is growing in other fields, including tourism, marketing and new product development. Several stakeholders can exploit benefits from establishing and using Living Labs on campus (University of Cambridge, 2020; The Alliance for Sustainability Leadership in Education, 2021).
- By working on real projects and in authentic situations students will acquire an opportunity to apply their knowledge and gain job-market relevant skills.
- Academics have an opportunity to acquire data for their own applied research and engage directly with students to enhance their modules.
- Living Labs can offer campus managers an opportunity to maximise the value of estates, as well as to experiment directly on campus to address pressing issues or real problems.
- Businesses, especially SMEs, can find a novel way to engage with universities at low cost and to address immediate and local needs to advance otherwise costly innovation projects.
- As a result, universities will have a platform to integrate their communities and achieve their multi-faceted missions: enhancing the student experience and nurturing job-ready graduates, promoting relevant and impactful research and attracting resources to enhance their reputation and services.
Bringing Living Labs to life
During the last decade, Living Labs are gaining popularity among practitioners, policy makers and scholars. We have been contributing to the debate (see Greve et al., 2020a; Greve et al. 2020b; Greve et al., 2021) and recognise the potential of these spaces. In the Living Lab spirit, we would like to engage with multiple stakeholders to continue this discussion. If any of the following questions have crossed your mind, please contact us!
Academics
- How can I utilise existing campus facilities and data to support my research?
- How can I use a Living Lab approach to review my modules and programmes?
Students
- How can I gain hands-on experience to acquire new skills?
- How can I use data produced by the university to carry out my dissertation or independent research?
Businesses
- How can I involve users in practical activities to support the co-creation, testing and validation of our prototypes?
- How do I obtain access to experts and facilities without paying high consultancy fees?
Campus managers
- How can I optimise the operations and utilisation of our facilities?
- How can I leverage the research expertise of our academics to address our campus needs?
University management
- How can we distinguish our offering and prepare students for employment while supporting our staff with access to applied research opportunities?
- How can we build new partnerships with local businesses?
Let’s continue the discussion!
Blog Authors
Dr Katharina De Vita
Lecturer in Creativity and Innovation
Department of Systems Management and Strategy
Greenwich Business School
k.greve@greenwich.ac.uk
Dr Riccardo De Vita
Associate Professor of Management
Department of Human Resources and Organisational Behaviour; Department of Economics and International Business
r.devita@greenwich.ac.uk
Acknowledgment
We are thankful to Simon Goldsmith (Head of Sustainability, University of Greenwich) for his input in the writing up of this blog and for sharing some valuable insights about the potential applications and use of the living lab approach within universities.
References
Cook-Sather, A., Bovill, C. and Felten, P. (2014) Engaging students as partners in learning and teaching: A guide for faculty. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons.
Etzkowitz, H. (2014) ‘The entrepreneurial university wave: from ivory tower to global economic engine’, Industry and Higher education, 28(4), pp. 223-232.
Greve, K., De Vita, R., Leminen, S. and Westerlund, M. (2021) ‘Living Labs: From niche to mainstream innovation management’, Sustainability, 13(2), pp. 791-816.
Greve, K., Jonas, J., Moeslein, K. and Neely, A. (2020a) ‘Unlocking unique value through co-creation in open laboratories’ in Fritzsche, A., Jonas, J. M., Roth, A. and Moeslein, K. (eds.) Innovating in the Open Lab: The new potential for interactive value creation across organizational boundaries. Berlin: De Gruyter, pp. 81-91.
Greve, K., Leminen, S., De Vita, R. and Westerlund, M. (2020b) ‘Unveiling the diversity of scholarly debate on living labs: A bibliometric approach’, International Journal of Innovation Management, 24(8).
Mercer-Mapstone, L., Dvorakova, S.L., Matthews, K.E., Abbot, S., Cheng, B., Felten, P., Knorr, K., Marquis, E., Shammas, R. and Swaim, K. (2017) ‘A systematic literature review of students as partners in higher education’, International Journal for Students as Partners, 1(1).
The Alliance for Sustainability Leadership in Education (2021) Living Labs – Opportunities, Benefits and Challenges of Different Models Globally. Available at: https://www.eauc.org.uk/living_labs_opportunities_benefits_and_challeng (Accessed 23 June 2021).
University of Cambridge (2020) The Living Laboratory for Sustainability: Annual Report 2018–19. Yearly Review. Available at: https://www.environment.admin.cam.ac.uk/living-lab/yearly-review (Accessed: 17 June 2021).
University of Cambridge (2021) The Living Laboratory for Sustainability. Available at: https://www.environment.admin.cam.ac.uk/living-lab (Accessed 17 June 2021).
University of Greenwich (2021) Living Lab and Student Highlights. Available at: https://blogs.gre.ac.uk/greengreenwich/living-lab-5/ (Accessed 17 June 2021).
University of Salford (2021) University of Salford’s IGNITION Living Lab is officially open. Available at: https://www.salford.ac.uk/news/university-salfords-ignition-living-lab-officially-open (Accessed 11 May 2021).