Living Labs Sport and Exercise

A living lab is a creative and innovative way for professionals to work together with citizens to devise solutions for societal challenges. Sports and exercise is an ideal candidate for this practical methodology. We therefore support a number of living labs Sport and Exercise. 
The level of knowledge and experience, particularly that of the user, creates a flywheel effect. Living lab activities take place in neighborhoods, schools, institutions, or organizations where the user lives, works, participates in sports, and exercises.

• A joint challenge: you determine the challenges of the lab together with the network.
• A lynchpin: the lab director is the lynchpin between all parties in the network.
• A diverse range of partners in its network: a highly diverse range of partners must be present in the network of a living lab. This ensures that all groups are involved and that the lab reflects society.
• High involvement of the partners: if the partners invest a lot of time and energy in the lab, that keeps the collaboration vibrant.
• Co-creation: creating something with all people involved, so also the people who will make use of the innovation.
• Work in everyday practice: as experimentation takes place in everyday practice, the idea can be immediately tested in society. This is how a living lab differs from a field or university lab.
• Different working methods and strategies: a living lab searches for solutions to problems that occur in a specific environment; therefore, the various problems and environments require different working methods and strategies.

Within the Living Labs in Sports and Exercise Network, labs exchange knowledge and information about setting up, expanding, and sustaining their labs, as well as the challenges they face and the solutions they find. Two driving forces - Sanne Cobussen and Tom Naberink of HAN University of Applied Sciences - support this process and ensure that new knowledge from other sectors can also be incorporated into the network.

The Living Labs Sport and Exercise all have a lab director from a municipality or university of applied sciences. A lab director is a facilitator of innovation who actively supports the network of a living lab. The lab director puts the problem on the agenda of the different network partners. The involved parties need to become aware that there is a shared problem, and they all need to be convinced that they can contribute to solving this challenge. The task of the lab director is to connect the parties involved in this process.