Many Higher Education Institutions utilize living labs to address complex societal challenges and foster innovative and sustainable solutions on campus. Despite the perceived benefits of campus environments for transdisciplinary real-world innovation, living labs often encounter challenges. As such, there is a growing need for more knowledge on facilitating these on-campus initiatives in different development phases. Here, enabling factors for on-campus living labs are investigated and their salience across the living labs’ development process established. First, a systematic literature review was conducted, identifying sixteen enabling factors. The most pertinent ones were stakeholders and networks, coordination on the organizational level, a conducive work culture, co-creation and collaboration, and suitable methods and practices for living labs. Second, all factors’ relevance across living labs’ development phases were assessed through the input of an expert panel. To that end, a mapping exercise was developed, which can in itself serve as a discussion tool for living lab practitioners. The results suggested that the initiation phase relies on leadership, coordination, stakeholder engagement, a conducive work culture, and funding. In contrast, operational phases were enabled by shared understanding, internal management, stakeholder collaboration, methodological appropriateness, and evaluation. Lastly, the dissemination phase hinged on transfer, scaling, evaluation, learning, and bridging stakeholders and contexts. These insights contribute to a better understanding of enabling factors for campus living labs during different phases of development, offering tailored guidance for stakeholders while stressing adaptability to local contexts. Subsequently, campus living labs may be better equipped to effectively generate sustainable solutions for the complex societal questions of this time.

Higher Education Institutions can play a crucial role in tackling today’s complex societal challenges through their innovation capacity. This capacity could be further unleashed by leveraging their vast knowledge base and opportunities for experimentation, collaboration, and co-creation on campus sites. In this regard, Living Labs represent a promising approach to solving complex social problems and are already being used in many Higher Education Institutions worldwide. However, there remains a need for a comprehensive understanding of their implications and implementation requirements, particularly when Higher Education Institutions aim to structurally harness their sustainable transformation potential beyond single initiatives. As such, there is a growing demand for concepts and tools that allow Higher Education Institutions to move from facilitating individual living lab initiatives to a more comprehensive approach. Responding to this demand, this chapter aims to support Higher Education Institutions in establishing the Campus as a Living Lab. Drawing on insights from an international Community of Practice, existing literature, and case studies, we offer a conceptualization of the “Campus as a Living Lab,” distinct from the traditional approach of individual living lab initiatives. The Campus as a Living Lab is a comprehensive, connected, and firmly embedded approach, striving to create synergies, knowledge exchange, and cross-fertilization. The whole campus and the organization are understood as a living lab, providing fertile ground for sustainable experimentation and innovation. We clarify the development stages of implementing this approach and introduce a practical tool for launching the Campus as a Living Lab, adaptable to diverse contexts. This chapter encourages Higher Education Institutions to transition from hosting stand-alone living labs and experiments to an integrated approach, enabling them to utilize their unique position to make significant contributions to sustainable transformation processes.

Living labs are becoming increasingly popular as suitable arrangements for cocreation and innovation by bringing multiple stakeholders together to work on (solving) complex societal challenges. University campuses are ideal places for living labs, and many universities use such arrangements for various experiments in relation to sustainable future initiatives. Despite the popularity of the living lab concept, much remains unclear about their ways of operation and their potential to innovate. This study aims to show some of the current challenges of on-campus living labs involved with experiments concerning the energy transition. A total of six different living labs were examined based on semistructured interviews with different stakeholders ranging from researchers to operational staff members. Our results show several internal and external challenges, such as the living lab set-up and multiple operational challenges concerning administration, coordination and governance. More external challenges include the overall embeddedness of living labs within the more traditional organizational structure of the university and the tensions between academic and operational processes. Despite these challenges, we conclude that a university campus is still a fruitful place for living labs to cocreate and innovate. By creating awareness and understanding of the challenges living labs face, future initiatives may be facilitated better so that campus living labs are able to unlock their potential to innovate and contribute to societal challenges sooner rather than later.