What is Living Lab for Health?
We promote health with and for society
The Living Lab for Health carries out projects for health promotion and transformative change of the R&I system that are co-developed with different stakeholders, including the scientific and education communities, policy makers, business and industry, civil society organizations and citizens in general.
These projects include educational programmes and participatory programmes related with research and innovation (R&I) and governance, and are carried out with and for the community.
- We promote healthy lifestyles encouraging citizens to make informed decisions about their health based on scientific reasoning and critical thinking.
- We empower citizens engageing them to take part in R&I projects, in R&I decision-making and in interventions to promote health.
- We align R&I and interventions with social needs and expectations facilitating participatory processes in different R&I phases: in prioritizing research agendas, in defining and implementing R&I projects and in designing public health promotion policies and interventions.
- We promote Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) & Open Science providing training, outreach and consultancy on RRI at the local, national and European levels, through European Projects.
How do we do it?
- We apply RRI & Open Science methodologies, taking inspiration from methods published by the RRI Toolkit and by two complementary European RRI platforms: the Living Labs of the ENOLL network and the Science Shops of the Living Knowledge Network.
- We use methods of deliberative reflection with and for the community, such as community-based participatory research (CBPR), systems analysis, participatory research agenda setting, open innovation and participatory governance.
- We apply an iterative process in which dynamic participation with different stakeholders is facilitated throughout all different stages and processes that follow the RRI quality criteria.
- We promote innovative educational programmes that foster scientific knowledge, competencies, such as scientific reasoning and critical thinking skills, and values around topics related to socio-scientific issues and current research.
Participatory programmes
We promote a more open and inclusive health research system
We promote health with and for society in collaboration with universities, research centres, patient associations, policy makers, industry and the education community.
- We promote participatory agenda setting where we explore research needs of different stakeholders.
- We implement Community Based Participatory Research projects, in which the different stakeholders collectively align research with their needs and explore different solutions. At the same time they develop scientific reasoning, critical thinking and engagement skills.
- We encourage participation in defining public health policies and prevention interventions.
Educational programmes
We promote a transformative education that bridges the gap with current research
IrsiCaixa, in collaboration with "la Caixa" Foundation and Amgen, coordinates health promotion programmes aimed at secondary and vocational training pupils. Their goals are as follows:
- To bridge the gap between biomedical research and education.
- To promote health by facilitating evidence-based decision making guided by quality research and by processes of scientific reasoning and critical thinking.
- To foster innovation in science education through collaboration with different stakeholders, contextualization in socio-scientific issues linked to current research, inquiry-based teaching, cooperative learning and formative evaluation. We also promote reflection on the nature of science and on issues underlying scientific reasoning and critical analysis of R&I, as well as reflection on ethical, legal and social aspects of R&I.
- To empower young people by equipping them with the knowledge, skills and values necessary to participate in research and research-related decision making and to contribute with solutions to social challenges.
- To encourage students to feel part of the science and innovation system so that they can contribute to the knowledge society as participatory and responsible citizens.
- To inspire future researchers.
How do we do it?
- Through classroom activities. Experimental workshops (+ 25,000 participants each year), courses and seminars.
- And through educational resources available online (+ 10,000 visitors per month): multimedia resources (videos, virtual experiments, online serious games, games to engage in a dialogue) experiment protocols and teaching guides.
RRI training, collaborations and consultancy
- We offer training sessions in master and undergraduate courses
- We conduct workshops, courses and conferences
- We develop resources such as the RRI Toolkit to which we contribute with the RRI Tools project.
- We participate in European Commission-funded RRI projects.
- We collaborate with other institutions developing with them and for them participatory & educational programmes and resources aimed at transformative change (i.e. research agendas, community interventions, participatory research and educational projects).
Who are we?
All Living Lab activities are possible thanks to a team of dedicated and motivated people who are keen in opening up the biomedical research world to the society.
Find the whole team involved at this link
