Cross-case Learning Pilot: Reflections from roundtable discussions on university campuses as experimentation arenas at Linköping University

On February 26 and March 17, 2026, Linköping University Sustainability Transformations and ULALABS hosted two roundtable discussions with researchers and students from two of Linköping University’s campuses. The aim was to explore how Linköping University’s campus environments could evolve as arenas for experimentation where research, education, and societal collaboration intersect through exploration, interdisciplinarity, and co-creation.

Reflections on Previous and Ongoing Initiatives

The roundtables began with a recap of lessons learned from the experimentation arenas that were presented in the ULALABS webinar “The University Campus as an Experimentation Arena” held on January 29 (will soon be available as a podcast and a part of the ULALABS learning toolkit) as well as reflections on previous experiences among the participants. Participants emphasised that many promising initiatives are already taking place across Linköping University’s campuses, though often in parallel rather than in coordinated ways. One example was the greenhouse gas measurements carried out in the ponds at Campus Valla, where the controlled environment enabled unique studies that would have been difficult to conduct elsewhere. Another example was sensor-deployment across campuses to measure air quality and using apps to collect campus-users experiences of air quality.

The Importance of Student Engagement

Across both roundtables, the role of students emerged as one of the central themes. Participants highlighted that long-term and meaningful student engagement is essential for developing vibrant experimentation environments on campus. At the same time, challenges remain in ensuring that student involvement is supported by clear structures, incentives, and resources.

Suggestions for strengthening student participation included yearlong, interdisciplinary courses with practical and experimental components, high-profile, cross-faculty projects where students work on real-world challenges, seed funding enabling students to initiate their own projects and build leadership and project management skills, and clear pathways for student influence and a sense of ownership within the experimentation arena.

Experimentation Within University Structures

A key topic in the discussions was the tension between the exploratory nature of experimentation, characterised by uncertainty, flexibility, and informality, and the formal, bureaucratic structures of universities, which often rely on predictability and established procedures. To support a more experimental approach on campus, participants indicated a need for dedicated administrative support, clear contact points, and infrastructure that can accommodate both rapid iterations and uncertainty.

Participants underlined that experimentation is not only about data collection or technical tests. It also involves building relationships, fostering curiosity, creating reflective spaces, and opening room for conversations about deeper cultural and behavioural shifts. Experimentation can include practices such as observation, meditation, and reflection, as well as hands-on interventions.

Campus as a Societal Experimentation Environment

Participants envisioned a future experimentation arena serving as a central gateway for collaboration, an accessible entry point where external stakeholders, students, and researchers can connect. Such an arena could increase visibility of ongoing projects and needs, facilitate matchmaking across disciplinary and organisational boundaries, offer “in-residence” opportunities and knowledge exchange and strengthen local, national, and international collaboration.

The Path Forward

The roundtable discussions revealed strong interest in further developing Linköping University’s campuses as experimentation arenas. To achieve this, supportive structures are needed to enable interdisciplinary meeting spaces, student-driven and student-inclusive initiatives, room for uncertainty, trial and error, and reflection, coordination and visibility across projects and actors.

These roundtables were important steps of the ongoing journey for the development of the Linköping University campuses as experimentation arenas and an important part of the ULALABS Cross Case Learning Pilot “How can we prepare and open up urban spaces for experimentation & innovation, and how can we transform a University Campus into an experimentation and collaboration arena?”. Several events will be held during the spring to further develop a roadmap for a Linköping University experimentation arena and to further explore urban and campus experimentation arenas as spaces for inclusive and sustainable development and innovation.