An academic living lab is a (knowledge) infrastructure in which practice, research and policy cooperate. In concrete terms, this means that the university cooperates with one or more non-academic institutions. The aim is to translate issues from practice, education and policy into research questions and to translate the results of research into practice in order to apply them. The programme is meant to bring together scientists from different disciplines; therefore the labs combine methods and themes from at least two disciplines.
Connected World
Today’s world is a Connected World, with 24/7 online communication, millions of citizens closely packed in metropolitan cities, and people, goods and ideas travelling around the globe as never before. VU wishes to actively stimulate research on those connections and in particular to contribute to the solution of disconnection: better connecting social groups in metropolitan melting pots, better connecting citizens to the environment they inhabit and better connecting global citizens to improve mutual understanding.