RAISE Suite Showcases Living Lab Research at PIONEER Governance Week 2026

RAISE Suite was presented at the PIONEER University Alliance Governance Week, hosted by project partner Laurea University of Applied Sciences in Espoo, Finland, from 22–24 September 2026.

In 2026, Laurea holds the presidency of the European PIONEER University Alliance, bringing together ten European higher education institutions. Governance Week gathered representatives from across the Alliance, including members of its Governing Board and Steering Committee, local coordinators and work package leaders, to exchange ideas and shape future collaboration.

During the event, our partner, Teemu Santonen from Laurea University of Applied Sciences, presented RAISE Suite as an example of how Horizon Europe research can combine Living Lab environments, sustainability challenges and Open Science practices.

A key focus of the presentation was the RAISE Suite food waste management use case at BarLaurea, Laurea’s campus restaurant and Living Lab. The longitudinal study systematically monitors different sources of food waste, including plate waste, kitchen waste and overproduction waste, and analyses them in relation to menu offerings. Gamification is also incorporated to explore and support behavioural change around food waste.

The use case demonstrates how Living Labs can provide real-world environments for generating evidence-based insights while contributing to more sustainable practices.

Teemu Santonen presenting the RAISE Suite project

From real-world data to reproducible research

Beyond the individual pilot, the presentation highlighted the broader RAISE Suite vision: enabling researchers to apply Open Science and FAIR-by-design principles throughout the research data lifecycle.

By developing services and workflows that support research data from collection through management, processing, sharing and reuse, RAISE Suite aims to reduce the effort required to follow good research data practices and contribute to transparent and reproducible research results.

Presenting RAISE Suite within the PIONEER community also created an opportunity to connect the project’s work on Living Labs and Open Science with a wider European network of universities working towards sustainable and resilient societies.