Make your research project matter through the Living Lab
Have you ever had really interesting findings in one of your research projects for a class, but no way to apply them? Have you felt frustrated by the fact that your assignment will often find its way into some dark corner of Blackboard, no matter how well-written it was? The Green Office Living Lab offers you a chance to take part in sustainability-related research whose results could lead to changes in Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ's environment. Would you like to know more? Contact us at livinglab.greenoffice@uu.nl before the start of the next academic block!
What is the Living Lab?
The Living Lab is a project by the Green Office, whereby different potential research topics are collected from various departments within the university, allowing students to take them up and propose a change to the university's operations. You can learn more about the Living Lab here.
Examples of Living Lab projects
During the last block, employees and researchers joined efforts to find the gaps in the measured carbon footprint attributed to mobility at Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ. Some gaps like the unmeasured impact of students’ fieldwork, internships, or writing of theses abroad were found. If all the trips in the gap which involved flights of 700km or less would take the train, we could potentially reduce Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ's carbon footprint by 354 tCO2, as was found by one of our Living Lab project groups. There is clearly much work to be done!
At present, the Living Lab project is busy supporting research projects on the following topics: 'Pollution in UU buildings', and "Does nudging sustainable food in the Educatorium really work?". We are excited to hear the results by the end of this block, but it will not end there. We will need new bright minds during the next block to keep the Living Lab living, and to make sure that Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ keeps moving in the right direction.
Our new Living Lab Coordinator, and how you can get involved
With a new year, came a fresh face for the Living Lab. If you were to join the Living Lab, you will be dealing with Tom, our new Living Lab coordinator. Tom just started his master's in Earth Surface and Water, after having gained fieldwork experience all over the world to create a more sustainable future. For one of his projects, he even made a documentary called the . Don't be afraid to get in touch with him, via livinglab.greenoffice@uu.nl, to see how you can change the fabric of Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ before you leave.
The Living Lab is a project of the Green Office. The Green Office is where fresh hearts and minds come together to support Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ's sustainable development.