[#LivingLab] A laboratory is a space to explore a particular subject. A Living Lab provides experience and inspiration through a real environment.

Gaining and gathering insights through practical learning builds creativity and innovative thinking from real experiences. Researchers can study specific local contexts, such as growing crops to create food security, solving water shortages, testing electrical generation from new sources. Students who learn from living labs get 15% higher exam scores. Educational institutions, industry, and local communities are collaborating in many areas to turn community spaces into living laboratories for learning.

Living laboratories are one way to teach students through real experiences to solve problems or develop innovative ideas. Learners, citizens, and policymakers are designing and evaluating ways to upgrade the education system, promote cooperation, help designing smart cities, testing policies, and promoting economic growth by focusing on the target group or students. The positive relationship between the Global Innovation Index (GII) ranking and GDP per capita shows that living laboratories have become an important tool for creating a sustainable future and quality of life.

Important implications for the future:

- Designing learning experiences in real places can effectively convey academic knowledge and know-how so future learners feel connected to the community.

- Creating living laboratories in open learning and public spaces in cities increases foot traffic and attracts social and economic activities.

Reference:

-A systematic review of living lab literature https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.12.257

-Living Labs: From Niche to Mainstream Innovation Management https://doi.org/10.3390/su13020791

-Living Labs and user engagement for innovation and sustainability https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.125721

-Framing improvements of public innovation in a living lab context: Processual learning, restrained space and democratic engagement https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2021.104390

-UNESCO tailors capacity-building opportunities to the SmartCulTour Living Labs to foster cultural tourism for a sustainable future https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/unesco-tailors-capacity-building-opportunities-smartcultour-living-labs-foster-cultural-tourism

-Global Innovation Index 2022 https://www.wipo.int/edocs/pubdocs/en/wipo-pub-2000-2022-en-main-report-global-innovation-index-2022-15th-edition.pdf