How we work at Agri Living Lab Sweden

By combining development, testing and demonstration, new solutions can move from idea to practical use. The work is built around three types of farms with different roles.

What is a Living lab?

A Living Lab is an open innovation environment where companies, researchers, the public sector, and users collaborate to develop and test new solutions in real-world settings. It is about moving from idea to practice 鈥� together with the people who will actually use the solution.

A Living Lab differs from traditional research and development by:

Testing in real-world environments
Innovations are developed and tested in real settings, not only in laboratories.
Enabling broad collaboration
Multiple stakeholders are involved, including industry, academia, the public sector, and end users.
Putting users at the center
Users are co-creators, not just test participants.
Working with mature solutions
The focus is on further development, testing, and validation rather than early-stage research.
Building on open innovation
Knowledge is shared and developed collaboratively between stakeholders

Ett diagram 枚ver ett n盲tverk av personer som 盲r anslutna till ett n盲tverk.

The model illustrates how Agri Living Lab Sweden connects agriculture, research, and companies.

From Idea to Implementation

Idea and needs

Identified through dialogue with farmers, where challenges and opportunities form development.

Develop & test

Solutions are developed and tested in real farming environments through development and test farms.

Implementation

Results, experiences, and knowledge are shared through demonstrations and networks.

Test Farms

Structured testing of technologies and methods

Test farms are real agricultural environments where new technologies, prototypes, and cultivation methods are tested under practical conditions. Systematic and quality-assured full-scale testing is carried out here, with a focus on evaluating functionality, impact, and usability in daily operations.

The work includes field testing of machinery, sensors, and decision-support systems, comparative cultivation trials, and user testing where farmers’ experiences are taken into account. By repeating tests in different environments, reliable and comparable results can be achieved, creating a strong foundation for the further development and implementation of new solutions in practice.

Development Farms

Environments for research and innovation projects

Development farms are environments for research and development where new solutions are created through close collaboration between farmers, researchers, and agtech companies. Experiments, data collection, and analysis are integrated into the innovation process, with a focus on understanding needs, testing ideas, and developing new approaches.

The work enables long-term studies, modelling, and system analysis, as well as data-driven development of sustainable farming systems. Through co-creation between different stakeholders, solutions are developed based on real agricultural needs, making them relevant, practical, and applicable in real-world conditions.

Dr枚narbild p氓 en g氓rd. — Hilmér Lantbruk

Demonstration Farms (Lighthouse farms)

Showcasing and sharing knowledge

Demonstration farms (Lighthouse Farms) are environments where technologies, methods, and results from testing and development projects are showcased in practice. They provide opportunities to see solutions operating in real agricultural environments, creating a concrete understanding of how they work and the value they can generate.

Activities at demonstration farms include field days, demonstrations, and educational events where farmers, companies, and other stakeholders can share experiences, exchange knowledge, and discuss practical applications. By making results visible and comparing different solutions, demonstration farms help lower the threshold for adoption and support broader implementation in practice.

En hjord av n枚tkreatur som st氓r p氓 ett gr枚nskande f盲lt.

福利姬