City as Lab is a new creative engine for digital research and engaged academic practice. It connects researchers, communities and partners in collaborative projects that tackle real-world challenges in the Nottingham city region.

Using Nottingham as a dynamic living laboratory, City as Lab brings people together to create, co-produce and test new ideas, tools and technologies that put local challenges at the heart of activities.

Growing out of the university’s Digital Nottingham initiative, City as Lab helps researchers and local partners come together to co-create innovative and impactful projects that deliver people-centred, place-led change.

The initiative is already working with all five faculties at the university, funding projects which touch on community life in both virtual worlds and the real world.

From recreating Nottingham in Minecraft, supporting schoolchildren to imaginatively engage with their city while building their digital skills, to making street furniture in the city interactive, featuring QR codes and mobile numbers to encourage local residents to share their views on climate change and learn more about efforts to combat it within Nottingham in the Hello Lamp Post project.

From January 2024, City as Lab will provide pilot space on Castle Meadow Campus to researchers across faculties for project and engagement activities, interaction with partners, and exhibition and showcasing.

The space will prioritise use for place-led research and knowledge exchange that is grounded in the Nottingham city region and that explores digital and data interventions.

City as Lab has helped develop digital/data assets that enable place-based research and knowledge exchange across disciplinary boundaries.

We will be running workshops throughout this year to see, play and prototype these Digital Nottingham Assets (DNA) and other tools.

For more information on City as Lab, visit our website.