On 17 September, DIAMOND Empower partners met online to prepare for the next stage of the project’s Grassroot Living Labs.
During the meeting, the Universidad de Burgos team presented a practical guide designed to support Grassroot organisations as they prepare and conduct sessions with end users and stakeholders. The team also shared insights from Living Lab sessions with Fundación Miradas in Burgos, offering practical experience to inform the next sessions across partner organisations.
A Guide for Each Stage of the Process
The practical guide provides support for the different sessions planned as part of the Grassroot Living Lab process. These include:
- An initial session before the training courses begin
- An intermediate session during the training period
- Final sessions after the training has been completed
Each stage creates an opportunity for end users and stakeholders to contribute their experiences, perspectives and observations throughout the process.
Particular attention during the meeting was given to preparing the first Living Lab session. This initial stage will establish how participants engage with the process before the training begins and help ensure that they understand the purpose of their involvement.
Selecting End Users and Stakeholders
Careful participant selection is an important part of the preparations. Each Grassroot organisation will involve four stakeholders, with one person representing each of the four areas of the quadruple helix model:
- Business – firms and companies
- Public sector – governments, public administrations and labour entities
- Education & Research – universities and research institutes
- Civil society – NGOs, foundations, associations, citizens and interest groups
These stakeholders will participate alongside end users, bringing together different areas of expertise as well as lived experiences.
This combination of perspectives can help the Living Labs reflect a broader range of needs, challenges and viewpoints and provide DIAMOND Empower with practice-based insights from the people and organisations connected to the project.
The guide is intended to help the organizations explain the purpose of the sessions and the role each participant will have. Ensuring that everyone understands why their contribution matters will be important for creating useful discussions throughout the Living Lab process.
Bringing Different Perspectives into the Training Process
The Grassroot Living Labs give DIAMOND Empower a structured way to involve both the people who may benefit from its activities and stakeholders from different areas of society.
End users can contribute their own experiences and needs, while stakeholders can bring perspectives based on their respective fields and expertise. Bringing these voices together can help generate insights that are more closely connected to real experiences and support the development of relevant and human-centred employability solutions.
The initial, intermediate and final sessions will provide several opportunities for participants to share expectations, experiences and observations as the project progresses.
The 17 September meeting helped Grassroot organisations prepare for this next stage by introducing a shared practical guide, reviewing the structure of the sessions and highlighting the importance of careful participant selection.
As the first Living Labs begin across the partner organisations, these different voices and perspectives will play an important role in shaping the process.
Funding Agency: European Research Executive Agency (REA)
Learn more about DIAMOND: https://diamond-empower.eu/
Project: 101178081 — DIAMOND — HORIZON-CL2-2024-TRANSFORMATIONS-01
Disclaimer: Funded by the European Union.
Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Executive Agency (REA).
Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
