FFrom May 28 to 29, 2024, the Universitéy deof Lorraine hosted a delegation of 16 20 people from all the partner universities of the EURECA-PRO alliance at the Lorraine Fab Living Lab (LF2L), the ERPI (Research team on innovation process) laboratory’s research platform dedicated to the prospective evaluation of innovative uses.
“Fab Lab”, “Living Lab”, “Fab Living Lab”, “Makerspaces”…
Participants were welcomed at the Ateliers du bras vert for an exchange and reflection around the concepts of “Fab Lab”, “Living Lab”, and “Makerspaces”.
On the agenda: a presentation of the philosophy, projects, and e conomic model of the LF2L by Laurent Dupont (ERPI), enriched by case studies from the research works of Osorio Ferney (ERPI) on the multifaceted role of strategic intention and Anaëlle Hily (ERPI) on the design and evaluation of virtual reality systems. This was complemented by a presentation of the federation of Innovation Spaces from the “SIRIUS” project (Innovation Strategy for Strengthening Interactions between University and Society) gathering the partners of Lorraine Université d’Excellence, by Kevin Degiorgio (UL) . This prompted many questions and interactions among the participants!
After a visit to the LF2L platform and the Green Living Fab Lab, it was then the turn of the partners to present some of the initiatives flourishing in their universities. Hasselt University highlithed the PXL Makerspace, the XR Living Lab on Extended Reality, the Living lab -De andere markt (The Other Market) on spatial transformation processes and action research projects, and the Open Thor Living lab. The Technical University of Crete presented the Municipality of Athens Maker Space, and the Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg presented SAMSax, a living lab for the circular economy . It was a beautiful sharing of experiences that highlighted each other’s areas and themes of expertise. The programme was moderated by Volkmar Kircher from the Montanuniversität Leoben, who chaired the brainstorming session and presented the inventory of all labs in the vicinity of the partner universities.
… A Real Brainstorming Session!
The second day was dedicated to co-construction. The morning was punctuated by several brainstorming sessions on the creation of a living lab in innovation at the alliance level, which is one of the commitments of the European University EURECA-PRO. The discussions particularly focused on the objective and guiding principles of such a living lab and how to integrate it into the educational process.
The meeting concluded with a summary of the ideas contributed by each participant and the identification of the next steps. To do this, the participants used a model developed by Osorio Ferney, a lecturer-researcher at ERPI.
The visit helped to establish connections and laid the foundations to successfully carry out the foundation of a EURECA-PRO living lab.
