SLU news

Granted projects in the seed funding calls for critical living labs

Published: 16 February 2024

SLU Urban Futures has granted funding to three interdisciplinary projects for 50,000 SEK each. The projects explore living labs or take a critical living lab approach to research.

Living labs refer to real-world, real-time, society-science interfaces that represent arenas for learning and knowledge co-creation. A critical living lab approach mobilizes these science-society collaborations as means to experiment with novel processes, actor-constellations and practices otherwise often impossible to set up in typical urban settings.  
    Living Laboratories are diverse in scope and operations but share certain key characteristics: they contribute to urban transformation; experiments are a core research method; transdisciplinarity is a fundamental research mode; long-term orientation, scalability, and transferability of results are core aims; and learning through real-time reflexivity is a key objective. As such, living laboratories are a way that universities can contribute to a wider societal transition to sustainability.

Alnarp campus as an example for the 21st century – inspiring a regenerative landscape

The project seeks to connect practice and academia on research related to food production, water management, infrastructure and blue- green systems for climate adaptation through Campus Alnarp as a Living Lab. Through two workshops, the project will build a consortium of relevant stakeholders and exchange research ideas and develop collaboration around designing productive regenerative landscapes. By doing the project on site at campus, the team hopes to make campus Alnarp a visible flagship for regenerative landscapes.

Scott Wahl, Department of Landscape Architecture, Planning and Management


Nature Interpretation Lab for Sustainable Urban Futures

The project will develop the Nature Interpretation Lab (NiLab) that will foster the co-creation of knowledge in the area of nature and heritage interpretation in relation to urban transformation. The funding will be used to host a symposium on interpreting, learning and being with nature-culture, which will bring together research and practitioners to co-develop tools, methods and collaboration for addressing sustainability challenges through the concept of nature interpretation.

Jasmine Zhang, Stad och land, SLU Centrum för naturvägledning


Botildenborg Social Innovation Living Lab – creating sustainable living environments for the city and people

The project will establish Botildenborg Social Innovation Living Lab together with actors from SLU, Botildenborg, Malmö University, Region Skåne, Malmö Stad, Lund Univeristy and others. The project aims to develop new learning processes and platforms for co-production of knowledge relating to the development of sustainable urban living environments around urban agriculture. The funding will support research visits to partners in Czech Republic and Italy, where partners will work towards the development of a Horizon application.

Anna María Pálsdóttir, Department of People and Society

Facts:

SLU Urban Futures

SLU Urban Futures is a strategic platform that develops and strengthens transdisciplinary research, education and collaboration in sustainable urban development.

Read more about the platform

SLU Urban Futures' regional hubs

SLU Urban Futures has three regional hubs based in Ultuna, Alnarp and Umeå. These hubs physically anchor the platform at each of SLU’s main campuses, creating opportunities for collaboration across faculties and with societal actors in each of the regions. 

Read more about the three hubs


Contact

Andrew Gallagher, Project Coordinator for SLU Urban Futures
Hub coordinator, Ultuna
The Unit for Collaboration and Development
andrew.gallagher@slu.se
+46(0)730 55 80 27