Learning with Living Labs - A Conversation with Heleen Geerts, Anja Overdiek, Sam Rye, Dinda Ciptaviana & Lotte Troost

There is a lot of discussions happening these days about the future of university and higher education in general. How does it keep pace with rapidly changing and disruptive technologies? How does it meet the needs of young people and become responsive and flexible enough to generate much needed transformations in research and development, knowledge creation, and capability building? And how does it adapt to the increasing volatility in all aspects of social, political, economic and ecological life that we are seeing everywhere?

In October last year Monash University published a report called 'Advancing University Living Labs' (https://www.monash.edu/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/4137481/Monash-University-Advancing-University-Living-Labs-Report-October-2025.pdf) on a fascinating new approach that universities and other communities and multi-stakeholder environments are taking in response to some of these fundamental questions. As I learned more about Living Labs I was introduced to more of the inspiring community of practitioners around the world who are using it.

So this week it's my great pleasure to bring together a number of these Living Labs experts. If you're new to this approach, hopefully this episode will give you an overview, as well as some examples and use cases. And if you want to go deeper there are loads of links below. A big thank you to Lars Fuhrmann (https://www.linkedin.com/in/larsthimof/) for coordinating and bringing everyone together!

Anja Overdiek: https://www.linkedin.com/in/overdiek12345/www.lulu.com/search?sortBy=RELEVANCE&page=1&q=Anja+overdiek&pageSize=10&adult_audience_rating=00

Sam Rye: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samrye/

Advancing University Living Labs (Report)

ENoLL Origins, Developments & Future Perspectives

Landscape Typology of Living Labs (fieldnote article)

Dinda Ciptaviana: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anastasia-dinda-ciptaviana/

Kampung Kollektief: https://www.instagram.com/kampung_kollektief/

Linktree of projects from Kampung Kollektief including the 'What if Lab' and Living Lab: https://linktr.ee/kampung_kollektief

Lotte Troost: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lottetroost/

NL Knowledge House Living Lab with Kampung Kollektief

NL Knowledge House Living Labs

Heleen Geerts: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heleen-geerts-911b354/

www.lulu.com/search?sortBy=RELEVANCE&page=1&q=Anja+overdiek&pageSize=10&adult_audience_rating=00

European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL): https://enoll.org/

OpenLivingLab Days 2026 coming up in September: https://enoll.org/events/openlivinglab-days-2026/