Living Labs – real-world experimental spaces where businesses, researchers, educators, and more, co-create context-specific solutions – hold great potential as a tool for transferring knowledge in meaningful and applied ways.
The Catalonia CoVE partners explored this participatory, hands-on approach as part of the ‘Living Labs for Mitigating Climate Change in Agriculture’ event, held in Barcelona last month.
Engaging with agricultural organisations, research centres, and public institutions from across Europe, they exchanged strategies and solutions to address the growing impact of climate change on agriculture. The discussions focused on Mediterranean regions, where the sector is becoming particularly vulnerable.
Among other new perspectives, the Living Labs emerged as a particularly relevant model for the EVECSA project, as a way to put EVECSA’s mission into practice – ie, promoting inclusive, practice-oriented, and collaborative learning environments that equip learners with the tools to lead the transition toward climate-smart agriculture systems.
The Catalonia CoVE partners discovered other inspiring initiatives related to regenerative agriculture and climate-resilient landscapes, as well as innovative approaches to pressing challenges such as soil degradation, water scarcity, and biodiversity loss.
Boscat gained new perspectives on the development of the agricultural sector, and knowledge of practices that are relevant to different technical levels. The Escola Agrària de Manresa, true to its collaborative and hands-on training approach, engaged with learning methodologies based on direct experimentation and cooperation with the business sector. Also concerned with building bridges between research, education, and the territory, CT BETA showcased its technological solutions and shared ideas for future pilot projects for more resilient and sustainable agriculture.
The event enriched the educational vision of the CoVE partners and strengthened networks of both local and global connections, which can help transform agriculture and vocational education in Catalonia.
