Open Laboratories and Collaboratories

An important mission of the reform universities, from the beginning, was to engage with society. The university should not be an ivory tower, detached from its surroundings. During the last half century, reform universities have therefore also embraced a series of institutional innovations to ensure society-university collaboration. The purpose of these are not only knowledge transfer, from university to society, but also the empowerment of citizens and the co-production of knowledge. One such innovation is spaces, which invite citizens into the universities and allow citizens as well as students to pursue research and creative activities on their own terms.  These are called open laboratories. For examples in ERUA, see here https://erua-eui.eu/open-laboratories/. Another innovation is institutions, which aim to bring the university out into the world, starting from the science shops of the 1970s–these are called collaboratories. For examples in ERUA, see here https://erua-eui.eu/collaboratories/