Workshop Series 3: Co-creating the Utrecht University Living Lab for Sustainable Farming

We warmly invite you to join the third workshop in our Living Lab for Sustainable Farming series: “Designing the Living Lab” This session builds on the foundation laid in the previous workshops, and is designed to bring together farmers, researchers, policymakers, and other partners to explore the real-world possibilities and the key hurdles for implementing multifunctional, sustainable farming at Utrecht University’s Living Lab farms.

Workshop 3 – Designing the Living Lab
Date: Thursday, 12 February 2026
Time: 9:15–12:00 (walk-in and coffee from 9:00; lunch until 13:00)
Location: University Library Utrecht Science Park – 6th floor, Bucheliuszaal 6.18

Focus of Workshop 3
The Netherlands is facing an agricultural crisis: climate change, loss of biodiversity, animal health and increasing pressure on farmers' livelihoods make it necessary to switch to resilient, regionally anchored food systems that integrate human health, ecosystem services and viable business models. The Living Lab Farming Landscape aims to provide a place for academics, farmers, policymakers and citizens to test, learn and scale up new agricultural paradigms. Boerderij de Boeijen can be used for this purpose, but other farmers from the region are also welcome to join.

Now that we have established a shared vision and explored a number of opportunities, we are going to give shape to the first projects. What exactly do we want to do and how? To this end, table hosts have drawn up an initial plan based on problem definitions and the first two workshops. Together, we will critically examine, adapt, refine and expand the project concepts where necessary. The end products of this session may need further work afterwards, but will serve as a starting point for the (future) writing teams.

Your participation will help us surface the key tradeoffs and strategic priorities for designing viable interventions in our Living Lab.

Save the date for the upcoming Workshops

Workshop 4 – Organizing the Living Lab: 12 March 2026
Workshop 5 – Funding: 16 April 2026

This workshop is part of the Pathways to Sustainability initiative at Utrecht University. It brings together researchers, farmers, policymakers, and other practitioners to explore how universities can contribute to just and sustainable transformations in food systems. Through the Living Lab for Sustainable Farming, we aim to connect scientific research with practice to develop and test farming approaches that combine productive agriculture with biodiversity conservation, climate adaptation, and social value. By working collaboratively across disciplines and sectors, this initiative seeks to demonstrate how multifunctional farming systems can thrive in real-world, economically viable settings and inspire broader regional transitions.