HORIZON-CL6-2027-01-BIODIV-06 | Living Labs for Inclusive Governance and Transformative Change

Target Topic: HORIZON-CL6-2027-01-BIODIV-06 – Living labs driving transformative change via knowledge integration and inclusive governance

Organisation: Gebze Technical University (GTU), Türkiye

Proposed Role: Research Partner / Consortium Partner

Project Stage: Early stage

Cooperation Objective

Gebze Technical University (GTU) is seeking international partners to develop a collaborative Horizon Europe proposal under BIODIV-06, focusing on the role of Living Labs in fostering transformative change through knowledge integration, inclusive governance, and multi-stakeholder collaboration.

Our proposed contribution focuses on the organisational, managerial, and governance dimensions of Living Labs, particularly how diverse stakeholders can jointly generate knowledge, develop solutions, and support transformative change towards biodiversity conservation and sustainability.

We are interested in exploring how participatory governance, strategic foresight, and innovation management approaches can strengthen the effectiveness and long-term impact of Living Lab initiatives.

Expertise and Relevant Experience

Our research team offers expertise in innovation management, strategic foresight, organisational change, research and innovation governance, stakeholder engagement, and cross-sectoral collaboration.

The team's lead researcher is a Professor of Business Administration at GTU and a former Vice President of TÜBİTAK, Türkiye's Scientific and Technological Research Council, with experience in national R&D and innovation support programmes, technology transfer, entrepreneurship, and academia-industry cooperation.

Previous senior management experience at Teknopark Istanbul further supports our understanding of innovation ecosystems, collaborative innovation processes, and partnerships involving research institutions, businesses, and public authorities.

Potential Contributions to the Project

GTU is interested in contributing to research activities and work packages involving:

• Living Lab governance models: Analysing and developing participatory governance arrangements, stakeholder roles, decision-making mechanisms, and collaborative management approaches for biodiversity-oriented Living Labs.

• Knowledge integration and co-creation: Designing approaches to integrate scientific knowledge, policy perspectives, practitioner experience, and local stakeholder insights into collaborative innovation processes.

• Strategic foresight and transformative pathways: Applying foresight methodologies, scenario development, and strategic analysis to explore alternative sustainability pathways and support long-term transformative change.

• Stakeholder engagement and inclusive participation: Developing stakeholder mapping, engagement strategies, participatory workshops, and mechanisms for meaningful involvement of public authorities, researchers, businesses, civil society, and local communities.

• Innovation and change management: Investigating organisational capabilities, institutional barriers, and enabling factors affecting the adoption and scaling of solutions developed through Living Labs.

• Monitoring, evaluation, and learning: Developing frameworks to assess collaborative processes, governance effectiveness, institutional learning, and the organisational and societal outcomes of Living Lab initiatives.

• Capacity building and knowledge exchange: Supporting training, peer learning, cross-regional knowledge sharing, and the dissemination of transferable governance and innovation practices.

Proposed Research Approaches

Depending on the consortium's objectives, our contributions may include comparative Living Lab case studies, stakeholder mapping, semi-structured interviews, surveys, participatory workshops, strategic foresight exercises, and qualitative or quantitative evaluation of governance and innovation processes.

Partnership Interests

We welcome collaboration with universities, biodiversity and environmental research institutes, Living Lab networks, public authorities, regional development agencies, civil society organisations, and innovation intermediaries.

We are particularly interested in consortia combining expertise in biodiversity, ecological restoration, participatory research, sustainability transitions, governance, and collaborative innovation.

GTU aims to contribute as a research and implementation partner, focusing on governance design, knowledge integration, strategic foresight, stakeholder engagement, and evaluation of transformative change processes.

We welcome discussions with prospective coordinators and consortium partners preparing proposals specifically for HORIZON-CL6-2027-01-BIODIV-06.