The UAB to lead a project to create a distributed open innovation lab in Europe

For three years and under the framework of the "Urban Transformation Collaboratory (ULALABS)" project led by the CORE for Smart and Sustainable Cities of the UAB, four European universities that are part of the ECIU University will create a network of open innovation labs to collaboratively address specific societal challenges. The aim is to create a shared and interconnected R&D&I infrastructure to promote transformative innovation policies through the articulation of open and collaborative learning communities and shared agendas.

To do so, a pilot test will be carried out, in which the open innovation laboratories of these institutions will work together to devise and test solutions to specific social, urban and environmental challenges, which will have been previously identified. In this way, they will be able to test the creation and operation of transversal and distributed learning communities, involving students, research staff, professionals, companies, public administrations and citizens from the different participating regions.

The UAB will participate in the pilot test through the UAB Open Labs and will also involve research staff in circular economy and sustainability issues and other agents in the region, such as the Vallès Labs Network, coordinated by the B30 Hub.

In a transversal and methodological way, the pilot will test different learning modules and methodologies already developed in the context of the ECIU University. "ULALABS builds on previous projects developed in the framework of the ECIU and seeks to expand existing collaborations by investigating how to link established living labs and citizen science projects of the universities involved and their local and regional ecosystems," explains Konstantinos Kourkoutas, coordinator of the CORE for Smart and Sustainable Cities at the UAB.

The project will create a catalogue of innovative good practices on urban innovation laboratories and distributed models and on the provision of enabled learning tools to address climate change in urban environments. It will also generate a set of methodological guidelines for implementing distributed learning communities and laboratory infrastructures.

In addition, it will create an articulated and distributed learning community to complement the open innovation labs and which will be able to continue functioning outside of the project.