The PFN leads by example!

Participatory Research in Agriculture: Living Labs and Practical Research

In German-speaking countries, participatory research in the agricultural context has traditionally taken place as “practical research” (“Praxisforschung”). In recent years, the term “Living Lab”—or “Reallabor” in German—has increasingly been used as an umbrella term for participatory research conducted under real-world conditions with various stakeholder groups.

Both terms generally refer to co-creative approaches to collaboration and research in practice, though they are not yet clearly defined. This makes it worthwhile to take a closer look when discussing practical research and living labs. Participatory processes aiming for equitable collaboration take time and are often challenging to coordinate. Therefore, it is crucial to examine this topic from multiple perspectives.

The querFELDein podcast—a science podcast on environment, climate, agriculture, and nutrition—has dedicated an episode to this topic:

🔗 #31 Living Labs – How Can We Bring Research Results into Practice Faster?

This episode focuses on living labs in agriculture and explores key questions such as:

• What is a living lab?
• How does it differ from “traditional research”?
• Why do we need living labs, and what do the guests expect from policymakers in this regard?

Guests in this episode:

• Dr. Susanne Hoischen-Taubner, Coordinator of the Hessian Research Network for Agricultural Systems Ecology (HFA) at the University of Kassel
• Ralf Remmert, Managing Director of Prignitzer Landschwein
• Sebastian Rogga, Human Geographer at the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF)

Additionally, the episode features expert insights from:

• Dr. Maria Busse, Landscape Planning Expert at ZALF
• Toni Klemm, Geographer at ZALF
• Esther Mieves, Association of Organic Agriculture in Hessen

🎧 Tune in to learn more about the role of living labs in agriculture and how they can help bridge the gap between research and practice!