Talk organised by UniNEtZ at the University of Applied Arts in Viena, 4/2/2023

3. Research Laboratory for Digital Culture and Society
MediaLab UGR
@MedialabUGR
Directorate of Participation and Social Innovation

4. http://medialab.ugr.es/what-is-ugr-medialab/

6. Medialab UGR
Medialab UGR is a living and changing citizen laboratory, which evolves as its projects develop and adapt
to social needs and demands, working in democratic processes, public policies, social participation and
social and public innovation, as a response to the main challenges of our society.
We work on different initiatives with a research, digital and innovative approach; with the aim of
generating knowledge with different social groups. We are experts in innovation and participation
methodologies such as social innovation labs. We generate impact globally through our research and in the
local and regional communities.

7. Why social innovation labs?
A social innovation laboratory is an instrument to think together with an
experimentation and prototyping approach, combining reflection and orientation to
action, thinking openly about our communities with awareness of the global, with the
aim of generating responses to the complex challenges of our time, whether in
neighborhoods, in public institutions, in companies, in organizations in general, in
society as a whole.

8. Our social context
● Uncertainty: managing ignorance and multiple knowledge.
● Need to strengthen democracy: participation and the institutional.
● Connections on multiple dimensions: physical and digital; reconfiguration
of vertical and horizontal relations.
● Integration of multiple forms of intelligence to create stronger
institutions: collective, expert, algorithmic, political intelligence.
● Commitment to the local and the global.
● Ethics of care.

9. Labs
Laboratories can be considered as:
● Institutions. For example: Medialab UGR, LAAAB or Medialab Prado.
● Projects. For example, those resulting from a specific call for laboratories.
● Attitude, methodology, philosophy.
Types of laboratories:
● Citizen laboratories.
● Government laboratories / Govlabs.
● Living Labs.
● Fablabs / Makerspaces / Medialabs / Hacklabs.
● Other types of social laboratories.

10. Our values
● Proactivity and oriented towards action. From consumer to prosumer
but within a citizen perspective.
● Culture of participation and care.
● Diversity and inclusiveness.
● Digital culture.
● Open source projects.
● Local action and global connection. Scalability.
● Different types of knowledge.
● Way of learning: process and results go hand in hand.
● Documentation of the process as part of the learning.
● Cooperation versus competition.

11. Who at Medialab?

15. LabIN Granada - a Citizen Lab for Granada
labingranada.org
LabIN Granada - a Citizen Lab for Granada
(http://labingranada.org/). It is a collaborative
social innovation project focused on
generating ideas, prototyping solutions and
developing projects for the city of Granada and
its province. The lab has carried out
participatory actions with the support of
different local and provincial institutions.

16. labingranada.org

19. Labin Granada

22. ugrencasa.labingranada.org

27. Facultad Cero
facultadcero.org
It is a think-tank devoted to the future of higher
education. It is an open forum for the meeting of
different stakeholders who wish to contribute to
what the university institution could look like.
It played a relevant role during COVID 19 by
coordinating actions of more than 20 universities,
sharing resources and training.

29. The Facultad Cero Process invites us to rethink and redesign the University through two ways:
● the detection of areas for improvement and their debate; and
● the generation of concrete proposals for our university and its environment.
The process consists of a series of meetings and living labs that aim at the co-creation of prototypes
by the university community as a whole (students, PAS, PDI) and the general public that contribute
to improving the University of Granada and the way it relates to its environment based on an open
and critical discussion.

30. Raise a debate on the challenges and problems and the
opportunities facing the university, and on the other hand, on the
basis of co-creation, generate proposals that provide a solution, in
whole or in part, to these challenges.
main
objective
specific
objectives
• To generate proposals that help improve the University of Granada.
• To promote the participation of all groups of the university community in matters
that concern them.
• More democratic and participatory university.
• To create a space for dialogue and a genuine epistemological approach to
address the university as a whole.
• To establish alliances and connections between social actors around specific
themes that have the University as a common element.

31. • 36 labs
• More than 300 participants

34. https://facultadcero.org
How to
redesign higher
education?
Then
2020

35. Facultad Cero
All universities that wish to participate in this initiative, as well as all faculty who
individually wish to do so, are called upon to participate. We also wanto to hear the
voices of the students.
The values of this project are: innovation, openness, collaboration, critical thinking, and
a clearly proactive and constructive approach.
Two main characteristics:
● Bottom-up approach to complement the institutional approach.
● Participatory approach.

36. Institutions in the project

37. University Conferences

38. Facultad Cero Dialogues Program
https://facultadcero.org/estudiantes/

40. LABORATORY 717
Laboratory of Participation and
Democratic Innovation of Andalusia
laboratorio717.org
This project is an open platform for the analysis and
exploration of participatory processes generated
throughout the Andalusia region, which has almost 9
million inhabitants. Laboratorio 717 is a space for
transparency, visualisation, collaboration and
democratic training.

41. laboratorio717.org

46. ● 126 processes of citizen participation.
● 251 entities/persons.
● 60 methodologies.
● 32 resources.
● 92 news items published.
● 400 people subscribed to our mailing list.
● 268 followers on Twitter.
● 1 European Erasmus + project.
● 4 training events.
● 9,500 new users on the website in 2022.
● Podcasting.

48. UnInPública - Universities for
public innovation
uninpublica.net
Red UnInPública (https://uninpublica.net/), a network for public
innovation from universities.
This project aims to identify, connect, analyse and disseminate
university initiatives for knowledge transfer to the public sector. In
May 2020, an international online meeting was held, attended by
more than 300 people, which resulted in the creation of the
Manifesto Universities for Public Innovation. More than 50 entities
from Europe and Latin America (labs, NGOs, public administrations
and universities) have joined this project.

49. uninpublica.net

54. Social Innovation Labs
medialab.ugr.es/2020/10/15/labs2020/
The Social Innovation Laboratories, was a virtual
process in pandemic time, during 2020 and 2021. The
participants proposed different themes to work in the
labs.
Of the 58 proposals received, a total of 44 Laboratories
were created successfully, by people from Spain and
other countries, such as the US, Mexico, Brazil, China,
Italy or Guinea. Almost 400 people enrolled in them,
mostly university students, teachers and researchers,
but citizens in general. They have worked on innovative
solutions to problems related to creativity, sports,
ecology and the environment, education, inclusion,
health or tourism.

55. Back to labs

59. Impronta Granada
improntagranada.es
Impronta Granada is an alliance between the
Diputación de Granada and the University of
Granada to address relevant challenges in Granada,
from a multilevel and multi-stakeholder approach
(expert, citizen and political knowledge, etc.), at
provincial and municipal level, within the framework
of the 2030 Agenda and the Urban Agendas.

61. Impronta Granada
University Territory
➔ Research
➔ Teaching
➔ Management
➔ Public institutions
◆ Provincial government
◆ Local governments
➔ Citizenship
➔ Private sector
Open
innovation
Public
innovation
Citizen/Social
Innovation
Articulate a new university
mission
Potential national pilot
International impact:
Uninpública
Opportunity for the Provincial Government to
systematise its cooperation with the University,
improving the impact on public policies.
Pilot potential at regional/national level, as a
reference for other public institutions.
Political agenda:
● Agenda 2030
● Urban Agenda
● Recovery plans
● Citizen and territorial
challenges

62. Main focus
The project will mainly focus on the three main regional challenges
posed by the Urban Agenda of the Province of Granada:
• Reverse the depopulation of rural areas.
• Bioclimatic resilience.
• Equality and inclusion.

63. Web

64. Web
• Marketplace of needs and proposals in the territory, a unique window
to channel demands and joint actions;
• Space for transparency between the University and the Provincial
Council;
• Space to reflect the transformative social impact of the University in
the territory;
• Repository of resources and calls to promote the connection
University - Territory;
• Virtual place for the development of living labs in the territory.
• Profiles to access the website: public administration, university,
citizens.

65. What do we do?
This initiative is set in the 2030 Agenda, the Urban
Agenda, and the post-pandemic recovery plans. To
this end, our proposal is developed in three phases:
Phase 1: Data analysis: through the web platform
(currently under development) that connects more
than 1000 lines of action of the urban agendas
developed in the province of Granada with the
research done at the University of Granada.
Phase 2: Call for Participation in the pairing
scheme UGR - territory.
Phase 3: Co-creation laboratories (our living labs)
in all kind of topics:
1. discover opportunities for transferring
existing knowledge,
2. generate opportunities to design new
research projects or other forms of
collaboration,
3. design service-learning opportunities so that
university students contribute to the transfer
of scientific knowledge while transforming
the territory.

66. Web

67. Web

69. Web
❖ Profile University
➢ Discover new opportunities to transfer existing knowledge.
➢ Generate opportunities to design new research projects and
other forms of collaboration,
➢ Design service-learning opportunities for students to
contribute to the transfer of scientific knowledge and
transforming the territory.

70. Web
Calls for students

71. Web
Research calls

72. Web
❖ Profile Public Administration
➢ To be a source for generating innovative projects for
municipalities.
➢ To function as a platform for transparency to public sector.
➢ To have access to expert knowledge and top-level academic
research that can be used to improve public policies.

73. Web
❖ Profile Citizenship
➢ To disseminate good practices that are already being carried
out in the province of Granada.
➢ Address challenges that have a positive impact on the
population and its environment.
➢ Involve citizens in participatory decision-making processes.

74. Web

75. 1st Action:
Innovation Laboratories on
Climate Change
A meeting will take place in different
collaborative work sessions between
different academic and social actors.
Our aim is to create connections and
generate projects between researchers and
policymakers through social innovation
laboratories, using a digital platform that
connects the challenges of the territory, at
local and regional level, with lines of research
carried out at the University of Granada.

79. Topics

80. 2. Regional Eco-Centre for Tourism in the Montes Occidentales.
3. Circular economy as a driving force for the province.
4. Sustainable metropolitan mobility.
5. Sustainable rural mobility.
6. Social and marketing processes to promote Energy Communities.
7. Reconciling heritage protection and renewable projects.
8. Flexible and innovative legal frameworks: law, administration and renewable projects.
9. Applications to competitive project calls. The case of Urban Innovation Action.
Topics

81. 1. Introduction of the session by facilitator (5 minutes).
2. Introduction of participants (15 minutes).
3. Presentation by one or several technical or political participants (20 minutes) in order to
introduce the problems and challenges existing in the territory related to the theme.
4. Participation of researchers, and participants from the private sector and other
organisations (30 minutes).
5. Discussion to generate and integrate ideas (40 minutes).
6. Proposals (25 minutes).
Innovation Lab Structure

91. 2nd Action:
New Innovation Laboratories
New living labs to be held in different territories of the province
of Granada:
• Costa Tropical.
• Metropolitan Area of the City of Granada.
• Comarca de Baza.

92. Evaluation
Evaluation as a
constant process of
learning.

93. Social Media
And Communication

94. Social Networks
Twitter

95. Social Networks
Twitter

96. Social Networks
Instagram

98. Social
Networks
Youtube

99. Radiolab UGR

101. MAKER ART: project
for the digital
transformation of the
cultural industry related
to crafts, through
design, collaborative
processes and Maker
culture.

102. OBJECTIVES
Objective 1. To promote the use and
dissemination of Maker technologies
in the Andalusian cultural and
creative industries, particularly in
crafts, as a form of preservation,
dissemination and remediation of
tradition through contemporary
design and technology.
Objective 2. To create a Maker
structure at Andalusian level to
generate synergies and
collaborative work in the craft
sector, favouring our productions
based on digital production and
collaborative production in order to
optimise production and generate
business and entrepreneurship
opportunities.

103. PLATFORM

104. PLATFORM
makerart.es

105. PLATFORM
makerart.es

106. PLATFORM

107. PLATFORM

108. PLATAFORMA

109. co-creation | innovation | collaboration
SDGs

110. Thanks for your attention!
medialab@ugr.es
medialab.ugr.es