Living Labs – Better Student Outcomes through Sustainability - Living Lab Guide

Introduction

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Foreword

While opportunities to apply learning and research on and off campus are not unique to sustainability, those of us leading next generation sustainability for next generation learning unashamedly embrace their promise. Often, but not exclusively referred to as a Living Lab, the opportunities comprise of collaborative working that has the potential to penetrate all aspects of operational, academic, student, staff and community development for social, environmental and economic benefit. This challenges traditional ways of working and aims to promote positive partnerships across disciplines and sectors. 

It is our responsibility to the students, institutions and communities we serve to support the development of pedagogies and research opportunities that enhance employability skills, contribute towards graduate attainment and make societal progress for sustainability in an ever-changing world.

EAUC is delighted to partner with NUS and lead the creation of more opportunities for sustainability focussed applied research and learning. Universities and colleges in the UK and Ireland must be resources for an unknown future, and for us, co-created, cross-institution and cross-sector applied thinking can be at the heart of solutions to campus and societal problems.

Background

It is important to acknowledge that there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all approach in tertiary education. For this reason, rather than offer a prescriptive framework of ‘best’ practice, this document has been developed to highlight a wide range of approaches to developing and implementing opportunities for applied learning and research through partnership working – sometimes referred to as a Living Lab.

For ease, throughout this document, we will refer to this approach as a ‘Living Lab’ but we recognise that opportunities for applying student and staff learning and research are wide and varied. We are less concerned with the labelling of such approaches and practices, than we are with sharing implementation and development.

Based on sector demand[1], this guidance documents a brief overview of the Living Lab concept, building on the detailed work produced by EAUC led by Hassan Waheed (2017), to provide a baseline understanding, as well as sharing case studies and learnings from a wide range of UK and Irish institutions who are at different stages of the journey for offering sustainability focussed applied learning and research or specifically Living Labs. With the aim of supporting institutional staff working in a variety of roles, this guidance also shares challenges and pitfalls encountered along the way whilst exploring possible solutions for overcoming them.

EAUC commissioned NUS and have collaborated to identify impactful and transformative Living Lab learning and research opportunities happening in UK and Irish tertiary education institutions. There are many examples of such approaches being developed, trialled and embedded. Whilst some refer to those specifically as Living Labs, there are a multitude of cases where applied learning and research pedagogies and methodologies are imprinted in the culture of an institution and we acknowledge that not all package this under a Living Lab label. 

[1] In 2018 EAUC and NUS ran a Sustainability in Education survey to better understand levels of engagement with and aspirations for development of applied teaching, learning and research in tertiary education. 41 institution staff responded from institutions across the UK.

Who is this guide for and how should it be used?

This guidance is aimed at both supporting and sharing knowledge through case study examples with tertiary education staff across all areas of an institution. It provides guidance for those looking to understand, initiate or embed impactful applied real-world learning and research opportunities through transformative pedagogies and partnership working. It also offers a point of reference for those looking to draw on examples from others when developing their existing applied learning and research opportunities within their institution.

The practices shared in this document reflect the great breadth of approaches taken in tertiary education to offer Living Labs style teaching, learning and research opportunities. This guidance aims to share experiences and implementation methods used by others rather than provide a prescriptive framework to be replicated. Learnings and case studies shared have been informed by desk-based research and interviews with key individuals working to drive forward impactful applied learning and research opportunities. We are often told by colleagues in the sector that better understanding of challenges and the journey to try and overcome these would be useful learning. In this guidance document, we attempt to achieve this.

Supporting the Sector

“The issues of social, environmental and economic sustainability are interlinked, so our approach to solving them must be too. Furthermore, education and research have a fundamental and unique role in creating a world with sustainability at its core. For this reason, we are focused on using our considerable convening power to drive innovative developments in the sustainability sector through post-16 education institutions. In order to facilitate, accelerate and help lead this movement, we will work at both an operational, academic and a strategic leadership level with these organisations and wider society. In recognition of this approach for EAUC as a catalyst for change.”

This work aligns with EAUC priorities:

“The issues of social, environmental and economic sustainability are interlinked, so our approach to solving them must be too. Furthermore, education and research have a fundamental and unique role in creating a world with sustainability at its core. For this reason, we are focused on using our considerable convening power to drive innovative developments in the sustainability sector through post-16 education institutions. In order to facilitate, accelerate and help lead this movement, we will work at both an operational, academic and a strategic leadership level with these organisations and wider society. In recognition of this approach for EAUC as a catalyst for change.”

And NUS’ vision for sustainability that:

“Students are routinely provided with learning opportunities that are interdisciplinary and enquiry-based, exploring grand challenges and global citizenship perspectives, developing critical thinking skills and political agency.”

“We need to be preparing students for the work of the world, not just the world of work”.

To quote Jonathon Porritt, “we need to be preparing students for the work of the world, not just the world of work”. Through Living Labs we can see potential for driving forward enquiry-based learning and research that questions and critiques current practices to test, monitor and develop innovative new ones for the betterment of society and our planet.

It is our responsibility to the students, institutions and communities we serve to support the development of pedagogies and research opportunities that enhance employability skills, contribute towards graduate attainment and make societal progress for sustainability in an ever-changing world.

This guidance provides a response to a Sustainability in Education survey led by NUS and EAUC, in 2018. A top response to how the sector could be best supported to implement Living Labs was through directed guidance and case studies, knowledge exchange opportunities and networking events to share practices.