Sustainability research within the Green Office Living Labs

The Radboud Green Office is the central sustainability hub for Radboud University and Radboudumc. We work across education, research, campus operations, and student engagement to accelerate the university’s transition towards a sustainable and healthy campus environment. Our aim at the Green Office is to bridge academic expertise and practical implementation. The Living Labs contribute directly to this objective.

Green Office Living Lab

What is a Living Lab?

A Living Lab is a form of academic research that is applied on campus, such as the Radboud University campus. Within a Living Lab, you would develop research ideas that respond to concrete sustainability challenges identified by campus operations, staff, or external partners (also known as idea owners). These ideas are translated into research projects that are carried out and tested directly on campus by students, allowing them to study sustainability issues in practice rather than in theory alone. Throughout the process, students work in close collaboration with the idea owner and are academically supervised by their professors, who guide the research design, methods, and analysis. This collaborative and co-creative structure ensures that projects produce insights that are relevant and applicable sustainable challenges on campus while also aligning with students’ study goals and disciplinary focus, allowing their academic work to meaningfully contribute to the project.

Our vision

Within the Living Labs, we aim to contribute to the university’s sustainability strategic goals by supporting research initiatives that lead to tangible and transferable impact. We ensure this contribution by embedding sustainability into practice. This is done through using the university campus as a real-world setting in which research ideas are tested through interventions, then evaluated, and refined. By treating the campus as a Living Lab, sustainability becomes part of everyday academic life, allowing the tested research to directly target real sustainability challenges at Radboud.

This work is carried out through a co-creative approach that brings together students, academic staff, and stakeholders to jointly develop, implement, and reflect on sustainability initiatives that are actionable and context sensitive to Radboud’s sustainability themes and goals.

Our services

Collaboration and facilitation 

We act as an intermediary by linking students with relevant stakeholders within and beyond Radboud University. You can compare us to a broker who brings together the right partners around a shared research question. 

Methodological support

We provide support with research design, data collection, and analysis, helping students translate real-world challenges into rigorous applied research projects.

Learning opportunities

We offer workshops, seminars, and co-creation events that support skill development and expand students’ sustainability-related knowledge and competencies.

How to Get Involved

Use the form below to submit your idea or select an existing theme or internship offer. You can also reach us at livinglab [at] ru.nl (livinglab[at]ru[dot]nl). Together, we turn research into sustainable impact!

Registration form Living Lab

* Mandatory field
How did you find the Living Lab?
One file only.
20 MB limit.

Radboud Green Office

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