Exploring Synergies Between European and Andean Approaches in Living Labs and Open Innovation Ecosystems

Professor Carmen Arbulú, from Universidad César Vallejo (Peru), visited the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) to learn about the ULALABS project and the university’s experience in open innovation and living labs.

The visit took place in June during the initial phase of the project University Living Labs for Co-Creation as Open Innovation Ecosystems in an Andean Urban Context (2025–2027), led by Universidad César Vallejo in collaboration with researchers Amado Fernández Cueva and Juan Pablo Moreno Muro. The initiative aims to develop a situated innovation laboratory capable of addressing local social, educational, and territorial challenges.

This collaboration builds on a previous academic exchange between the two institutions. Earlier, Professor Paloma Valdivia visited Universidad César Vallejo, where she participated in a programme focused on education, innovation, and territory in Andean urban contexts. During her stay at UCV Chiclayo, she presented the potential of Living Labs in higher education as open innovation ecosystems that connect universities with social, educational, and territorial challenges. She also introduced the ULALABS project, opening a dialogue on how university living labs can support co-creation, participation, and knowledge mobilisation in local contexts.

During her stay, Professor Arbulú explored the ecosystem that enables an open innovation laboratory to operate within a university. She learned how UAB articulates spaces, methodologies, institutional structures and territorial alliances to connect teaching, research, participation and social knowledge transfer.

During the visit, she learned about different open innovation laboratories at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB Open Labs) and explored the concept of an innovation campus as a model that activates university resources in response to social, educational, cultural and territorial challenges. This approach helped to understand labs as spaces of mediation between knowledge, the university community and the territory. This perspective highlighted the role of labs as bridges between knowledge production, the university community, and society.

The visit also provided insights into the essence of the ULALABS project, which focuses on articulating collaborative and inclusive learning communities through shared R&D&I agendas among European regions. From this perspective, the experience highlighted both the broader dimension of the project, linked to cooperation among universities and regions, and its locally situated dimension, reflected in the ways each university develops and organizes its innovation ecosystem within its own context.

Another focus of the visit was service-learning and civic engagement, particularly through the work of the Fundació Autònoma Solidària (FAS), which connects academic learning with social commitment and local needs. This work is supported by UAB's COREs, which foster territorial collaboration in areas such as heritage, smart and sustainable cities, and education and employability.

For Universidad César Vallejo, the visit offered practical references for designing and sustaining an innovation laboratory rooted in its territorial context and connected to communities through teaching, research, and collaboration. Observing an established university innovation ecosystem provided valuable insights for adapting the model to the Andean urban context.

For UAB and the ULALABS project, the exchange brought a valuable perspective from the Global South, creating opportunities to contrast European living lab approaches with different social, educational, and territorial realities. This exchange enriches the project by opening questions about how collaborative and inclusive learning communities can engage with rural, urban and Andean realities, and how shared R&D&I agendas can incorporate greater territorial, intercultural and social sensitivity.