In recent decades, higher education institutions have undergone a profound transformation, expanding their missions from teaching and research toward a stronger societal engagement and impact. Within this context, Dutch Universities of Applied Sciences (UASs) offer a distinctive case: since the formal …

Sustainable development has become the driving force for research and higher learning. Intergration of the sustainable development goals into the academic curriculum demands a transdiciplinary approach involving different disciplines and the stakeholdes. This study combined quantitative and qualitative …

Innovations often get stranded between concept and implementation, Living Labs serve as vital testing grounds where ideas are translated into real-world impact. At the Celcius House in Amersfoort, students, researchers, companies, and municipalities collaborate to shape the sustainable and healthy neighborhoods …

The energy community movement has grown considerably over the past ten years. Energy communities are also expanding their activities. However, room for new energy projects is limited because of grid congestion. Therefore, citizen energy communities (CECs) are looking for ways to reduce the pressure on …

This paper presents findings on the paradigmatic nature of business model development emerging from embedded, transdisciplinary research in a primarily linear economic context in the Netherlands. Reflecting on the author’s critical ethnographic inputs from long-term operational research in a circular …

There is an urgent need to engage with deep leverage points in sustainability transformations—fundamental myths, paradigms, and systems of meaning making—to open new collective horizons for action. Art and creative practice are uniquely suited to help facilitate change in these deeper transformational …

This text reflects on the recent Landscape Makers Congress co-organised by Studio Inscape as a design intervention seeking to re-politicise the South-Western Delta region (SWD) of the Netherlands. Like many coastal regions around the world, the Dutch coast (including the SWD) is facing serious challenges …

Fab labs are shared workshops, open to the public and equipped with modern as well as traditional tools and machines. A typical setup may consist of an electronics laboratory, 3D printers, laser cutters, and other computer-controlled machines, as well as classic hand tools and machines for wood-, textile, …

The Living Labs Greater Rotterdam and Greater Amsterdam are the real life urban laboratories and test beds of the RED&BLUE transdisciplinary knowledge agenda and impact program. The RED&BLUE research program focusses on the development of integrated real estate and infrastructure climate risk strategies …

For this book, we chose the term Applied Design Research. “We”are the Network Applied Design Research: a learning community of professors and researchers at various universities of applied sciences. Within this community, we share our experiences with the many forms of applied design research. We consciously …