Building the SOAS Living Lab: a student perspective
Over the past few months, we three student Co-Creator interns at SOAS have been working to develop a new initiative on campus: the SOAS Living Lab.
The idea behind the Living Lab is simple but powerful. Universities are not only places where sustainability is studied but are also spaces where it can be practiced, tested, and shaped by the communities that learn and work within them.
To introduce ourselves: we’re Juhi Yadav, second year economics student, and Noorum Ahmed and Ned Frost, both final year philosophy, politics and economics students, working with Dr Ros Taplin (Department of Development Studies) who is SOAS's academic lead for sustainability. As students, we often encounter sustainability initiatives from the sidelines, through emails, campaigns, or occasional events. The Living Lab seeks to change this by placing students at the centre of sustainability research and decision-making at SOAS.
What is the SOAS Living Lab?
The SOAS Living Lab is designed as a collaborative space where students, academic and research staff, and professional staff can work together as researchers to address real sustainability challenges on campus. Rather than treating the university as separate from the issues discussed in the classroom, the Living Lab approaches the campus itself as a site for experimentation, dialogue, and learning.
This approach is not unique to SOAS. Over the past two decades, universities around the world have adopted Living Lab models to connect teaching, research, and sustainability practice. Monash University, for instance, describes Living Labs as 'relational infrastructure' or collaborative networks that bring together different members of the university community to address sustainability challenges. Similarly, Cornell University’s Living Lab harnesses the resources of the entire campus to tackle environmental and social issues within the built and living environment.
Our pilot projects
At SOAS, our work as Co-Creator interns has focused on developing this model through two student led pilot research projects:
Sustainability that Speaks: Empowering SOAS Students through Communication
This project examines the effectiveness of SOAS’s sustainability communications for students. While several sustainability initiatives are already underway across the university, many students remain unaware of them. Through student focus groups, this project seeks to understand how sustainability information currently reaches students, where communication gaps may exist, and how engagement could be strengthened. Identifying these gaps is an important step toward building a more coordinated and transparent sustainability culture at SOAS.
Decolonising Sustainability in the SOAS Curriculum
The second project explores student perspectives on decolonising the sustainability education they experience at SOAS. As a university known for its critical and global approach to knowledge, SOAS offers a unique environment for sustainability teaching and learning to incorporate Global Majority perspectives, Indigenous knowledge systems, and decolonial approaches to environmental challenges. Through open discussions with students, we hope to better understand how these perspectives are valued and how they might be more meaningfully integrated into the curriculum.
Looking ahead
Both projects aim to amplify student voices in shaping sustainability at SOAS. On 15 April, we will host student focus groups on campus and warmly invite students from across the university to participate. We are also planning online focus groups. These conversations will provide a space for students to share their experiences, perspectives, and ideas on how sustainability initiatives and teaching at SOAS can continue to develop.
Ultimately, we hope these projects will contribute to the long-term establishment institution of the SOAS Living Lab, a platform where students are not only participants in sustainability discussions but are at the heart of the process as active leaders in building a more sustainable university. The Living Lab is still evolving, but its direction is clear: sustainability at SOAS should be something we create together.
Students interested in participating in the focus groups can register through this Living Lab Student Focus Groups form. Focus groups will be in person on Wednesday 15 April 2026; from 3:00pm to 5:00pm; in Room S116, Paul Webley Wing, Senate House as well as online.
