Living Labs within the Sustainable Impact Program: Living Labs as a strategic and operational method for jointly addressing complex sustainability issues in everyday university life.

Methodologically, Living Labs are characterised by a systemic approach to open innovation and co-creation. They create spaces where science, organisation, society and practice come together to jointly develop sustainable, practical solutions and test them directly in everyday life.

Living Labs do not take place in isolated laboratory settings, but are characterised by transdisciplinarity, bringing together different perspectives. They promote a constructive learning culture in which trying out new approaches, process orientation and continuous reflection are central. Co-creation on an equal footing enables research and development not only for, but together with stakeholders.

 

• Impact on sustainable development
• Project design (Real-life-Setting, diversity of stakeholders, focus on co-creation and joint learning processes)
• Interdisciplinarity
• Interface between teaching and research
• Dissemination
• Feasibility and risk management

• The project management is employed by the ZHAW. This means that in the event of a change in management, the role of project manager must be transferable to a permanent employee at the ZHAW.
• The departmental budget contribution amounts to 20 percent of the total amount requested from the Living Lab Fund. (Example: If the Living Lab Fund funding amounts to 100k, the departments must contribute an additional 20% (in this case 20k), resulting in a total project budget of 120k).
• Living Labs within the Sustainable Impact Program must involve at least two departments of the ZHAW.
• As part of your Living Lab Fund project, you are also automatically affiliated with the ZKSD, where you are expected to engage with the network and carry out 2–3 activities (meetings, events, workshops, etc.). This allows to make the project more visible and to promote exchange about Living Lab projects between the universities in the Canton of Zurich.

The following points are not mandatory, but are recognised as advantageous in the evaluation process:

• Long-term perspective: The impact of the Living Lab project is designed to continue long after the project has ended.
• Living Labs offer great potential for promoting inclusion and diversity of perspectives. The Board from Sustainable Impact Program  welcomes this potential being exploited and your Living Lab project being set up in such a way that it also offers access to people who are underrepresented in scientific circles. Consider, for example, opportunities for people without an academic background to participate in the design process or for social representation in the respective Living Lab context.

More information on the application process and criteria

• 05 October 2025 - for projects with budgets from 2026 onwards

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