BARCELONA
The Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), located in Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallès), near Barcelona, is one of the major public universities in Spain. Since its recognition as a Campus for International Excellence, the UAB has been involved in developing initiatives to reinforce collaboration between the university and the local government, research centres, organisations and companies in the region, known collectively as the UAB Sphere.
A wide range of disciplines integrated into a single campus helps to promote inter-disciplinary research and collaboration, and that is the main strength and inspiration behind the Smart Campus Living Lab concept for the Bellaterra UAB campus. In 2014 the UAB was the first university in Spain to the accredited as a Living Lab by the European Network of Living Labs (EnoLL). The UAB wants its campus to become a space for innovation and demonstration of new technologies and methodologies, both for the research community and for its productive and social environment. This is why the UAB Open Labs network has been created. The objective of the network is to act as an engine for digital and social innovation within the campus and in the territory.​
UAB Open Labs are currently in operation within the UAB campus, all different in focus and complementary with each other. The Campus Living Lab and the UAB Open Labs is managed by the Unit of the Research Strategic Management which also created and manages the COREs; the Research Communities Orientated on Strategic Challenges, whose thematics had been identified and chosen in accordance with the Catalan Regional Smart Specialisation Strategy's (RIS3) and in this sense, four such communities have been created so far.
The UAB has also been the principal promotor of the Hub B30, an open innovation ecosystem created to promote collaboration, economic development and social cohesion within the B30 territory of the Barcelona Province. The B-30 is one of the key industrial hubs for innovation, research and entrepreneurship in Southern Europe. The name of B-30 comes from B30 highway, which is one of the most important traffic hubs in all of Catalonia. It has a population of 1 million inhabitants, distributed in 23 municipalities. There are around 1,300 industrial sector companies that have a medium-high/high level of technology and place a clear emphasis on exportation. Through various projects and activities it aims to articulate shared R+D+I agendas in the territory around key themes and challenges in order to promote collaboratively with territorial agents, the development of viable alternatives that transform dominant practices to move towards a more resilient, digital, green, fair development model that prioritizes people and nature.
Part of HUB B30 work is the launch and facilitation of the Valles Labs Network to provide spaces for participation and co-creation in which new models of open, transformative and user-based innovation are promoted, supporting the local agents in delivering transformative actions while implementing the shared agendas (focusing mostly on sustainability and health and wellbeing challenges in the region). So far 8 regional labs are participating.
