What constitutes a Real-World Laboratory? Our idea of a RwL

Our idea of a Real-World Laboratory is based on the term and concept coined by the researchers and designers of the first Real-World Laboratories in Baden-Württemberg.

“Real-World Laboratories are institutions at the interface between academia and practice. They provide a framework for pursuing research objectives as well as educational and practical goals. Real-World Laboratories are transformative in nature and pursue socially legitimate, ethically well-grounded goals that are oriented toward the common good. Design principles for Real-World Laboratories are used for framing the factual, spatial, and temporal context and for establishing a role constellation of involved actors appropriate to the transformation processes to be handled. Transdisciplinary projects (real-world experiments in particular) are implemented in Real-World Laboratories. These projects are continuously reflected upon in the sense of an experimental and reflective working method, and their course is adjusted accordingly (Beecroft et al. 2018, 78).

Based on this idea of a Real-World Laboratory, core characteristics were identified that are constitutive, which is ideal-typical of Real-World Laboratories (Schäpke et al. 2017; 2018; Wanner et al. 2018:101; Wagner, Grunwald 2019:261ff.; Parodi, Steglich 2021:256f.)

1. Normativity and sustainability Real-World Laboratories are clearly oriented toward the guiding principle of sustainable development and make clear their normative assumptions, principles, and goals.
2. Transformational science as a research orientation: In Real-World Laboratories, three types of knowledge are generated: system, target, and transformation knowledge.
3. Transformativity and shaping: Real-World Laboratories contribute directly to the shaping and sustainability transformation of society.
4. Experimentation as a research method and the laboratory character. Real-world experiments create evidence about solution strategies for sustainability challenges and are intended to build a bridge from “knowledge to action”.
5. Transdisciplinarity
   
   1. Real-world everyday problems are the starting point of the research project.
   2. Scientists from various disciplines and citizens work together to find concrete solutions.
   3. The intensity of the participation of non-academic actors varies, depending on the goals and situations in the respective project phase.
   4. Ideal-typical procedures during the collaboration are co-design, co-production, and co-evaluation
   5. Members of civil society (Change Agents, Pioneers of Change) play a key role in the Real-World Laboratories.
   6. Inter- and transdisciplinary teaching and learning is taking place in Real-World Laboratories.

6. The long-term nature and transferability/scalability of research and its findings
7. Cyclical learning through ongoing theoretical and methodological reflection | Education for sustainable development