Living Labs - embedding live research at Fishermans Bend

The vision for the Fishermans Bend campus is ‘a vibrant place of large-scale research and project-based learning that creates interdisciplinary collaboration and partnerships with industry’.

One way we can bring this vision to life is through ‘Living Labs’ – using the campus as a live setting where researchers and students, government, business and end-users can come together to co-create solutions to real world problems, at scale.

Contact us for more information at fishermans-bend@unimelb.edu.au

A live setting (in this case the Fishermans Bend campus) used by researchers and students, government, business and end-users co-create solutions to real world problems. The key aspects of a Living Lab are collaboration between stakeholders (such as academic and industry partners) and a ‘live’ setting.
    There are several ways Living Labs as research and teaching and learning opportunities can be embedded within the Fishermans Bend project: short term experiments, longer term initiatives, specific infrastructure design, engagement with students and partners, consideration of new design technologies or methodologies, and data capture and dissemination. This can happen in all stages of the project, including design, construction, and operations.
  • Create impactful research, teaching and learning
  • Draw on the interaction between stakeholders to drive innovation
  • Apply realism to ensure experimentation is undertaken in natural, real-life scenarios
  • Contribute to sustainability
  • Promote openness between stakeholders and catalyse the innovation process in the precinct
  • Contribute to and benefit from the broader Fishermans Bend Employment Precinct and leverage the unique opportunity of a new purpose-built campus, in Australia’s largest urban renewal area
  • A Living lab enabler facilitates research and teaching and learning projects over the long term.  They can be thought of as a class of research infrastructure that are embedded in the real world and can be used for multiple experiments.
  • A Living Lab experiment may be a one-off to increase knowledge about a particular issue.

To give an example, here is how a building facade Living Lab could look:

  • As an enabler: designing the side of a building to host different façade modules to be installed, tested, then removed again, enabling a range of experiments to be undertaken over time.
  • As an experiment: different types of façade built into the side of one building to enable comparison of their performance in different seasons.

Contact us for more information by email at fishermans-bend@unimelb.edu.au

If you have a question that is not answered here contact us by email at fishermans-bend@unimelb.edu.au