Empower collaboration by developing KAMK Living Labs to connect students and companies.

Abstract

Living labs (LLs) are collaborative environments where academia, industry, and public sector entities join forces to innovate and research in real-life contexts. These environments allow testing, validating, and co-creating new products and services, bridging the gap between theory and practice. By fostering collaboration among different actors, LLs address the "European paradox" by translating research into market-ready solutions more effectively, promoting regional innovation, and driving economic growth. Universities, with their diverse expertise and interdisciplinary approach, play a key role in hosting LLs, facilitating cross-disciplinary collaboration and innovation, and accessing a wide network of students, researchers, and industry partners, which are the ideal settings for LL initiatives. By developing LLs within universities like Kajaani University of Applied Sciences (KAMK), institutions leverage academic resources to drive innovation and regional development. This thesis aims to deepen the understanding of LLs, assess the alignment of KAMK RDI activities with LL principles, provide best practices from European HEIs with LLs, and ultimately optimize KAMK’s LL operations. The purpose is to identify how KAMK can strategically leverage an improved LL model to enhance its RDI initiatives, emphasizing the role of HEIs in regional innovation ecosystems and the systemic changes LLs can bring, particularly in peripheral areas. This study is part of the ENIHEI project. The commissioner of this thesis is KAMK institution, and the research employed a case study approach, in which interviews were conducted with the institution’s R&D team members to assess their current status, coupled with qualitative benchmarking with three HEIs from Italy, Bulgaria, and Sweden, all part of the ENIHEI project. Data was analyzed using abductive methods. Findings identified key areas for improvement, including interdisciplinary collaboration, harmonization within teams, student engagement, and knowledge sharing. The study led to the development of an enhanced LL model aimed at improving operational efficiency, collaboration dynamics, and student involvement within KAMK's ecosystem. This research contributes to optimizing KAMK's LL framework, and the proposed model may serve as a reference for other institutions seeking to bolster their research and development capabilities through collaborative and student-centric approaches.