Work Package 2: Building Knowledge Ecosystems

Fieldlabs are different from traditional forms of open innovation: they uniquely involve diverse stakeholders, collaborative experimentation, regional integration, and dual focus on economic and social objectives. These complexities present challenges across the entire lifecycle of a fieldlab: from the initial task of attracting committed participants to the later stages of developing shared infrastructure for collaborative knowledge creation

The goal of Work Package 2 (WP2) is to enhance our understanding of how fieldlabs form, develop, and sustain as knowledge ecosystems and how regional, national, and European institutions influence innovation activities in fieldlabs, with funding being a core challenge.

The team selects multiple fieldlab cases from agriculture, healthcare, infrastructure, and smart industry domains to focus on participant involvement, resources, funding, and barriers. Workshops with network organizations and fieldlabs help visually map causal mechanisms, which are then translated into system dynamics models. These models guide the development of business models and a serious game for effective knowledge transfer.

Simultaneously, the team is focused on establishing an institutional framework to integrate a fieldlab into the regional context. The researchers also analyse data to comprehend how different institutional structures impact the development of fieldlabs across various regions and domains.

WP2 is led by Marcel Bogers and is executed by Tilburg University and Eindhoven University of Technology, together with consortium partners. They co-create policy recommendations to improve public support for fieldlabs. Workshops and symposiums are organized to discuss and disseminate these recommendations among relevant stakeholders and the scholarly community.