The "Eucor-MobiLab Roadshow 2023" is designed to enhance dialog with the local population on excellent sustainability research. It will start today, June 26, 2023, in Freiburg. Until October, the MobiLab developed by Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) will stop in Freiburg, Basel, Kehl, Strasbourg, Karlsruhe, and Mulhouse. Partners of this novel cross-border knowledge transfer and communication initiative are the member universities of the trinational Eucor Confederation, namely, KIT and the universities of Freiburg, Basel, Strasbourg, and Haute-Alsace.
On Monday, June 26, 2023 at 5 pm, the Eucor-MobiLab Roadshow 2023 will be opened officially on the Platz der Alten Synagoge in Freiburg. Until June 30, interested citizens will be presented a program with research, join-in, information, and dialog elements organized by the University of Freiburg in cooperation with KIT. Citizens are invited to participate in the generation of a map and survey on urban heat or in the dialog forum "Intelligence for Cities" for AI-based adaptation of cities to climate change. They may also obtain practical advice regarding the installation and operation of a photovoltaic module on the balcony.
"Sustainable life and business no longer is a niche topic, but a big, pressing, and partly polarizing challenge for all areas of our society," says Dr. Judith Müller, Managing Director of the KIT Humans and Technology Center that is in charge of the project. "We are very happy that our roadshow will stop in the centers of six cities located in the Upper Rhine region." "A culture of sustainability will only develop at places where bridges are built, bridges between different people, their needs and skills, between interests and opinions. We want to support this process with our EUCOR-MobiLab Roadshow that is aimed at enhancing the dialog between science and society," says Pia Laborgne, scientist at the Karlsruhe Transformation Center for Sustainability and Cultural Change (KAT) that also is a leading partner.
After the summer break, the Eucor-MobiLab Roadshow will be presented in Basel, Switzerland (September 15 - 18, 2023, Petersplatz). It will then stop in Kehl (September 20 -21, 2023, Marktplatz), Strasbourg (October 6 - 8, 2023, Place de Nobel), Karlsruhe (October 10 - 15, 2023, Kronenplatz), and Mulhouse (October 18 -22, 2023, Musée de l'Automobile). The route follows Eucor - The European Campus, the trinational confederation of five universities on the Upper Rhine. The stop in Kehl results from a cooperation with the science pillar of the Trinational Metropolitan Region Upper Rhine. In Karlsruhe, the roadshow will be part of this year's KIT Science Week that will also focus on sustainability and climate protection.
MobiLab - The Traveling Participation Lab
The Eucor-MobiLab Roadshow will be presented at MobiLab, the mobile participation lab of KIT. The sustainable tiny house on wheels was built in 2021 by the KIT Humans and Technology Center in cooperation with the Karlsruhe Transformation Center for Sustainability and Cultural Change located at the KIT Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis. Based on the experience gained by KIT's real-world lab "District Future - Urban Lab" that has been run by KIT in Karlsruhe since 2012, MobiLab is designed as a flexible platform for the exchange between science and society. Its interior and the neighboring public space allow for various participative uses. Hence, MobiLab is an innovative playing field for different forms of citizen science, participative research, and citizen dialog.
The Eucor-MobiLab Roadshow 2023 is funded by the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Science, Research, and the Arts (MWK), the KIT Humans and Technology Center, and the Karlsruhe Real-world Lab for Sustainable Climate Protection (KARLA).
