In recent decades, higher education institutions have undergone a profound transformation, expanding their missions from teaching and research toward a stronger societal engagement and impact. Within this context, Dutch Universities of Applied Sciences (UASs) offer a distinctive case: since the formal …

The transition to a sustainable and climate-neutral society requires professionals with integrated technical, economic, legal, ethical and societal competencies. The University of Applied Sciences Utrecht (HU) introduces the full-time bachelor’s program Energy and Sustainable Development (“Energie en …

Innovations often get stranded between concept and implementation, Living Labs serve as vital testing grounds where ideas are translated into real-world impact. At the Celcius House in Amersfoort, students, researchers, companies, and municipalities collaborate to shape the sustainable and healthy neighborhoods …

Critical approaches to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in higher education are crucial for fostering inclusive learning environments. This paper examines student perceptions of diversity in a communication science department at a large Western European research university. Building on literature …

Collaboration in experimental learning, innovation, and transition environments such as Living Labs can be complicated to carry out in practice. Designers and design researchers are often involved in these processes based on their intrinsic emphasis on transformation of the status quo towards new ways …

Emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and augmented/virtual reality come with many ethical and societal questions. In order to develop applications based on these technologies responsibly, businesses, governments and knowledge institutions are increasingly working together, and sometimes …

Living Labs are ‘open innovation ecosystems’, offering unique opportunities for conducting scientific experiments ‘in the wild’. Yet, Living Labs also support the generation of other, informal, types of knowledge: often tacit and difficult to capture and share, acquired outside of rigorous academic research …

Due to their unique mindset and skills, designers are particularly apt to facilitate transformation processes in Living Labs, especially those that have social innovation as a goal. However, existing literature geared to the practice field runs short when designers interested in taking on such facilitation …

Today’s applied design researchers are where the action is. They have always operated as a catalyst of change: propelling and steering design and society into brighter futures. But now, more than ever, design researchers teamup with a broad range of stakeholders to get things done. They surround themselves …

Municipalities collaborate with citizens to find locally adapted ways to deal with the energy transition. Industry clusters work together with regional governments and knowledge institutions to develop and test new sustainable materials. Universities co-create with students and industry to find a more …