Living Labs
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We understand Living Labs as innovative efforts, focused on integrating research, teaching and administration, test and further develop sustainability-related ideas, products, services or processes to realize the goals of our Climate Emergency Declaration of December 2019 and the Sustainability Mission Statement of Freie Universität Berlin (2016).
Living Labs are meant to encourage and enable everyone at Freie Universität to help develop sustainability-oriented innovations, as climate protection and sustainable development are best achieved when university members from as many different fields as possible play an active role in the innovation and implementation processes required for this purpose. For this, Freie Universität and its campuses can be used more intensively as a place for research and practice of sustainable development.
To support interested individuals, we offer funding for the establishment of such communities of research and practice (living labs) at Freie Universität. The funding volume for 2025/26 amounts to €30,000. We are able to support either one Living Lab with €30,000 or two Living Labs with €15,000 each (as of 18.08.2025).
We accept applications and provide advice on how to apply. Interested parties can still contact Sabine Heckmann for more information.
- In our video post "Living Labs - what they are and what opportunities they bring" we give a brief overview of existing concepts on Living Labs, explain our definition in the context of promoting Living Labs at Freie Universität, and give an example for orientation. **Please check out the subtitle in the video - click on the little "bubble"- symbol in the video. *Access is only available via Panopto and is restricted to FU members.
- In our video post "Ways to promote research and practice communities (Living Labs) at Freie Universität Berlin" we explain who and what is funded as well as what has to be considered for the application. *Access is only available via Panopto and is restricted to FU members.
- Multispecies Campus - a Living Lab for Biodiversity, Creativity and Health (2024-25)
- Climate FUture Weeks: Together for a sustainable future (2024-25)
The network Reallabore der Nachhaltigkeit and an overview of approaches by others can also serve as inspiration.
