Agri-Innovation & Learning (AgILe) Living Laboratory

The Agri-Innovation & Learning (AgILe) group at the Department of Agri-Food Business and Spatial Analysis has been leading and applying a Living Laboratory approach since 2011. Involving diverse sectoral actors across agriculture, rural development, and wider innovation systems, the AgILe Living Laboratory addresses challenges across the domains of sustainability, agricultural production, governance, and community well-being.

Governance

The AgILe Living Laboratory is led by Áine Macken-Walsh, Principal Investigator of the various project cycles operating within the lab. The Lab sits within Teagasc’s established governance framework for research integrity, financial accountability, ethics, and stakeholder engagement. Within this framework, an adaptive governance model is used to support the Living Laboratory’s activities in project cycles. A bespoke governance panel is formed and operates for the duration of each cycle, representing all the relevant actors and stakeholders such as farmers, scientists, advisors, policy-makers, community representatives, creative practitioners, and researchers. These panels shape the project’s strategic direction, review progress, and ensure alignment with societal needs and Living Lab principles of openness, inclusivity, and shared value creation. Located within Teagasc, the AgILe Living Lab is strengthened by its positioning within a tripartite organisation (agricultural research, education and advisory services) that is integrated to Ireland’s Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS) and networked with international AKISs EU-wide.

actors involved in the Irish AKIS and how they are connected. It shows lines, of different thicknesses, to illustrate the significance of connections between actors. It is a graph that was co-designed by Teagasc professionals, and represents Teagasc’s view of the AKIS.

Strategic objectives and expected results

The Living Lab’s mission is to support co-creation and co-design for sustainable agricultural and rural innovation, aligning with EU and Irish policy priorities.

Short-term objectives

Support multi-actor innovation processes addressing specific agricultural, environmental, and social challenges.
Test and refine participatory methodologies and digital/behavioural toolboxes.

Medium-term objectives

Consolidate a transferable, flexible governance and methodological framework for co-creation processes across sectors.
Strengthen networks linking Teagasc, communities, and European Living Labs.

Long-term objectives

Contribute to Ireland’s leadership in transdisciplinary agricultural innovation.
Institutionalise participatory innovation as a sustainable governance approach within Teagasc and national policy frameworks.

Methodology

A comprehensive toolbox of participatory methods to operationalise and support the Living Laboratory approach has been co-developed on the basis of user experience in diverse projects spanning over a decade. The toolbox supports the Living Lab innovation lifecycle, described by ENoLL, across four phases:

Exploration
Co-creation
Experimentation
Evaluation

These phases occur within three broad and overlapping spaces: problem, solution, deployment.

Eight steps are mapped to each of the spaces.

Problem space

Context and need identification,
Stakeholder recruitment and engagement
Requirement definition

Solution space

Ideation and co-creation
Prototyping and development
Experimentation in real-life contexts

Deployment space

Evaluation and validation
Scaling and sustainability

Our Living Laboratory toolbox matches the challenges and opportunities of these phases, spaces and steps, and provides practical tools to address them. The toolbox is structured into six scenarios, which like the phases, spaces and steps above, are not sequential or discrete, but are mutually supportive and overlapping.

This is an illustration of the scenarios that commonly arise in multi-actor work and the challenges or tasks that characterise these scenarios. It is helpful for understanding the nature of the challenges that arise in mult-actor work.

The video below explains the AgILe Living Lab Toolbox

Living Laboratory Projects Cycle Timeline

2025-2028: DAFM/Horizon Europe Agroecology Partnership
2024-2027: Sustainable Livestock Systems, Transition and Evidence Platform for Upgrading Policies (STEP UP)
2018-2024: Behaviours for Safer Farming (BeSafe)
2020-2023: Ploutos – Data-driven, Sustainable Agri-Food chains
2020-2021: Development of a welfare strategy for Ireland’s Horse Racing Sector
2020-ongoing: Signpost Farm Programme
2019-2022: CattleDiversa
2018-2023: Farm Advisory digital Innovation tools Realised and Shared (FAIRShare)
2018-2020: Welfare and Biosecurity of Farmed Animals (SWAB)
2018-2022: Better Rural Innovation: Linking Actors, Instruments and Policies through Networks (LIAISON)
2017-2023: Knowledge Hub for a Sustainable Irish Bioeconomy
2016-2020: Short Supply Chain Knowledge and Innovation Network (SKIN)
2016-2020: Cereal Renaissance in Rural Europe: managing diversity in food systems (CERERE)
2016-2020: Building an interactive AgriDemo-Hub community: enhancing farmer to farmer learning (AGRI-Demo)
2013-2016: Joint Ventures to Enhance the Demographic Profile and Socio-Economic Sustainability of Irish Farming (Join-to-Farm)
2013-2017: AgILeTECH
2012-2017: ICON-MAP

Contact Áine Macken-Walsh, Department of Agri-Food Business and Spatial Analysis, for more information.