GREEN LABS

Programme: Erasmus+ KA220-VET – Cooperation Partnerships in Vocational Education and Training
Duration: 30 months (November 2024 – May 2027)
Lead Partner: Institut Régional de Formation à l’Environnement et au Développement Durable (IRFEDD) – France
Reference sectors: Green transition, living labs, VET innovation, multi-stakeholder co-creation

Project Overview

GREEN LABS (International Living Labs Network for Co-creation and Development of Green Ecosystems) builds a European network of living labs designed as collaborative spaces where citizens, businesses, public bodies, training organisations and research actors co-design innovative solutions for the green transition.

The project brings together seven partners from France, Italy, Greece, Serbia, Portugal and Germany — combining VET expertise, environmental training, entrepreneurship, public administration, collective intelligence methodologies and consulting — to ensure that the labs generate a concrete and replicable impact at local community level and train a new professional figure capable of facilitating the green transition: the Green Innovation Manager.

Objectives

• Create an international network of living labs as collaborative spaces for multi-stakeholder participatory innovation in support of the green transition at local ecosystem level
• Design, develop and pilot a new VET curriculum for the Green Innovation Manager (GIM), a professional figure capable of facilitating and coordinating co-design processes for green initiatives
• Generate positive community-level impacts towards more sustainable modes of production and living, through knowledge sharing and the co-creation of new initiatives
• Promote a widespread green social mindset across Europe through multichannel awareness campaigns and broad multi-stakeholder engagement.

Implementation

The seven partners work collaboratively across four work packages over 30 months. WP1 ensures management, coordination and quality assurance under the leadership of IRFEDD. WP2 builds and pilots the international living lab network for green ecosystems, applying a participatory approach based on the quintuple helix. WP3 designs, develops and tests the new VET curriculum for the Green Innovation Manager, validated through pilot training in the partner countries. WP4 handles communication, engagement and dissemination, with multichannel campaigns targeting citizens, stakeholders and policymakers during and beyond the project’s lifetime. Centoform participates as the Italian VET partner, ensuring that outputs are directly applicable in vocational training pathways (IFTS/ITS) and in cooperation with local socioeconomic actors.

Expected Results

• A European network of local living labs aimed at promoting the green transition and the development of a widespread green social mindset
• A new VET curriculum for the Green Innovation Manager — a facilitator figure capable of coordinating community-level green transition initiatives
• Pilot training delivered in the partner countries to validate the curriculum with the first cohorts of Green Innovation Managers
• Targeted multichannel awareness campaigns and extensive multi-stakeholder engagement activities
• A sustainability model for the post-project life of the labs and for their replicability in other European regions

GREEN LABS creates a living European network in which citizens, businesses and institutions co-design the green transition from the ground up, training the new facilitators Europe needs to make it happen.