Living Lab Guide: University of Greenwich Case Study

Working with the University Internal Communications Team to maximise communication of Living Lab opportunities to students and staff

What advice would you give an institution staff member keen to get this started?

“Identify the work being done by academics and find ways of connecting them and their students with that work and developments or challenges being faced on the campus. Identify existing practice and enable new projects. Showcase these to help others realise wide benefits of working with the campus. Work with internal comms teams too…!” – Simon Goldsmith, Head of Sustainability

The Greenwich Living Lab has been in development over the past 3 – 4 years, being led by the University’s Sustainability Team who sit within the Estates and Facilities Directorate. Through focussing resources and communications on Living Lab opportunities and by using the campus as a test bed, the Sustainability Team have been reaching out to students and academics with the aim of encouraging and stimulating more engagement with applied learning and research. This supports the institution in moving forward for sustainability and gives students something experiential to put on their CV’s. We realise the importance of working closely with the University’s Internal Communications Team to increase the profile and reach of these opportunities.

With a coordinated approach coming from the Sustainability Team it has been possible to make students and academic staff aware of sustainability challenges that can be researched using Living Lab approaches by students at all levels of study.

This has also led to academics and students approaching the Sustainability Team with suggestions and requests to trial and test initiatives on campus. Through focussed efforts to stimulate partnership working between these different stakeholders, it has been possible to harness the insight and knowledge of academics at the institution to resolve some of the campus problems faced by estates.