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Field labs seem to be a new panacea in the world of economic development, mission-driven innovation policy, development of knowledge and innovation ecosystems, valorisation, and vocational education. The call for a field lab, a living lab, or a test bed is increasingly heard as a kind of cure-all that comes in handy for any initiative involving businesses, government, knowledge institutions, and/or educational institutions (and sometimes also organized groups of users or citizens).
Zuid-Holland is characterized by an extensive infrastructure of field labs and other large-scale experimental environments. Here, knowledge development and application go hand in hand, serving as an important addition to the linear model of successive knowledge production and application where much of the developed knowledge is not applied and utilized more broadly (the well-known knowledge paradox).
The question, however, is how the aforementioned field lab infrastructure in Zuid-Holland will further develop in the near future and especially how the Province of Zuid-Holland, InnovationQuarter, and the Metropolitan Region of Rotterdam The Hague - all three of which are already involved in a series of initiatives - can best contribute to this.
In this study, we have mapped and characterized all field labs and field lab-like initiatives in the province of Zuid-Holland. Additionally, a framework has been developed that can be used by the three commissioners - Province of Zuid-Holland, InnovationQuarter, and MRDH - to determine how each can relate to existing and new field lab initiatives.
