Living labs that bring researchers and local organisations together to tackle rural challenges are valued for building relationships and local trust, but often struggle to turn their work into policy change within a project’s lifetime, according to a new study of 14 such labs across Europe.
The paper, published in European Planning Studies on 20 October, draws on interviews with 27 coordinators and partners in RUSTIK, a Horizon Europe and Innovate UK-funded project running from September 2022 to December 2026 with partners in 12 countries. Its 14 living labs, spread across 10 countries and announced at the project’s launch, each paired a research organisation with a practice partner such as a local authority, development agency, Local Action Group or NGO to run data experiments on demographic change, climate and digitalisation.
The authors, Kirsten Clarke, Daniel Keech, Aimee Morse, Janet Dwyer and Katarina Kubinakova of the Countryside and Community Research Institute at the University of Gloucestershire, found that every respondent would use the approach again. Fourteen participants said it enabled deeper collaboration than conventional research, and practice partners valued access to regional data they otherwise lacked. One coordinator likened the method to “taking the research out of the Petri dish”.
Translating outputs into policy proved the hardest part. Eight participants said policy impacts take longer to emerge than a project allows, and respondents cited limited access to decision-makers, low awareness of results, data-sharing concerns and early scepticism from policymakers. Keeping stakeholders engaged was another recurring difficulty, particularly where practice partners lacked established local networks, and changes in local or regional government sometimes disrupted relationships.
The paper sets out five lessons for future labs: align activities with policy priorities from the outset; agree roles, responsibilities and coordination early; build on existing relationships and networks; set realistic expectations about how long policy impact takes; and create structured exchange between labs so that regions facing similar challenges can learn from one another. The study is open access.
For rural communities, the findings indicate that place-based research partnerships work best where local networks and institutional capacity already exist, leaving the most thinly served areas with the most ground to make up.
Featured image: Francis Close Hall, University of Gloucestershire. Photo: Terry Jacombs, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
