CHANGE: Challenges and priority activities discussed at the 1st Assembly of the Montado Living Lab

The 1st Assembly of the Montado Living Lab brought together 34 entities to discuss the challenges and priority activities of the Living Lab on June 3rd at Gandum Village, in Montemor-o-Novo, in an event organized in partnership with Consulai.

The Living Lab for the regeneration of the agro-silvo-pastoral Montado system (Montado Living Lab) is a project of CHANGE – Global Changes and Sustainability Institute that includes, besides the research units that make up the Associated Laboratory (CE3C, CENSE, and MED), producers’ associations, local development associations, public administration entities, companies linked to the Montado system, and owners or managers of Montado areas.

“The goal of the Living Lab is also to have a structure where various projects are organized and converge in the same direction,” emphasized Teresa Pinto Correia, president of CHANGE and researcher at MED.

The importance of having a common challenge and diverse perspectives on that challenge was one of the aspects highlighted by Herman Schoorlemmer from Wageningen University as a central element of a Living Lab, during his presentation on the European Living Lab case study. Emphasizing the importance of co-creation, he stated that “there is no fixed approach or direction, the approach should be interactive,” also highlighting the importance of investing time in exploring the problem before moving on to the phases of experimentation, testing, and scaling up the obtained results.

In addition to a network of partners, the Montado Living Lab will have a network of experimental Montado plots where long-term research activities, aimed at regenerating its agro-silvo-pastoral system, can be monitored.

Besides the challenges and priority activities, discussed and recorded in a group discussion dynamic, governance and communication rules were also discussed in a session presenting the results of a questionnaire filled out by the partners on the topic.

The first Assembly of the Montado Living Lab also included the discussion and approval of the Regulations, the election of the Coordinating Council, and the approval of the 2024/2025 Activity Plan of the Montado Living Lab.