The Schools as Living Labs Academy 2026
28 June - 3 July 2026
Re-imagining schools as open, collaborative learning ecosystems
Across Europe, schools are increasingly expected to respond to complex and interconnected societal challenges: sustainability and environmental change, health and wellbeing, digital transformation, equity, and democratic participation. These challenges cannot be meaningfully addressed through isolated lessons or short-term projects alone. They require schools to work differently: to open up to their communities, to collaborate across disciplines and sectors, and to engage learners with real-world issues in sustained and purposeful ways.
This Summer School on Schools as Living Labs offers a distinctive professional learning experience for teachers, school leaders, and educators from diverse learning spaces who wish to rethink how education can contribute to societal transformation. The Schools as Living Labs approach positions schools not as closed institutions, but as open, dynamic learning ecosystems where experimentation, co-creation, and reflection are part of everyday practice.
The summer school builds on long-standing European work on Schools as Living Labs (SALL), STEAM Learning Ecologies (SLEs), and Road-STEAMer, and is further informed by current Horizon Europe projects such as SUNRISE, where schools act as living labs for adolescent health and wellbeing, and NEMESIS, which applies living-lab approaches to environmental sustainability and soil health. Together, these initiatives demonstrate the versatility and robustness of the approach across thematic domains and policy priorities.
Participants will not simply learn about Schools as Living Labs. They will experience the approach from the inside, engaging in collaborative processes that connect educational practice with real-world challenges and community actors.
What Are Schools as Living Labs?
Schools as Living Labs are schools that intentionally open themselves to their social, cultural, environmental, and economic surroundings. They function as spaces where students, educators, researchers, families, and external stakeholders collaboratively explore authentic challenges and co-create responses that have relevance beyond the classroom.
At their core, Schools as Living Labs represent a shift in educational culture. Learning is understood as an active, inquiry-driven process grounded in real contexts. Teaching becomes a form of professional inquiry, supported by evidence, dialogue, and reflection. Innovation is not imported from outside, but developed collaboratively within the school ecosystem.
Crucially, Schools as Living Labs are not a prescriptive model. They are a methodological approach that can be adapted to different contexts, educational levels, and thematic priorities. Whether addressing sustainability, health, digital literacy, or social inclusion, the living-lab approach provides a structured yet flexible way for schools to engage with complexity, uncertainty, and change.
What You Will Experience During the Summer School
The summer school itself is designed as a living lab. Participants are immersed in an intensive learning environment that mirrors the processes they are encouraged to develop in their own schools and organisations.
Working in interdisciplinary and cross-role groups, participants will engage with real educational challenges, explore them from multiple perspectives, and move through cycles of exploration, co-design, experimentation, and reflection. These processes draw on practices already applied in large-scale European initiatives such as SUNRISE, where schools co-create health-promotion interventions with adolescents, and NEMESIS, where living labs support community-based environmental action.
The emphasis is on learning through doing, supported by structured facilitation and collective reflection. Time is deliberately allocated for peer exchange, dialogue, and critical sense-making, recognising that meaningful educational innovation emerges through shared understanding rather than individual effort alone.
Who the Summer School Is For
The Summer School is designed for professionals who actively shape learning environments and educational change, including:
- teachers from all educational levels and subject areas
- school leaders and members of leadership and innovation teams
- educators working in non-formal and informal learning settings, such as museums, science centres, NGOs, and community initiatives
Participants typically come from diverse national and institutional contexts. This diversity is a key asset, reflecting the reality of contemporary learning ecologies and enabling rich exchange across roles, disciplines, and perspectives.
Learning Outcomes and Professional Value
By participating in the summer school, participants will develop:
- a deep, practice-informed understanding of the Schools as Living Labs approach
- the ability to design and facilitate inquiry-based, collaborative learning processes
- strategies for engaging students and community actors around real-world challenges
- enhanced leadership capacity for sustainable, ecosystem-level innovation
- transferable tools for connecting curriculum, community engagement, and policy priorities
The focus is on building long-term professional capacity, enabling participants to act as change agents within and beyond their own institutions.
Learning Ecologies, Open Schooling and STEAM
The summer school is grounded in an understanding of learning as ecological: distributed across spaces, actors, and contexts. Learning ecologies extend beyond the classroom, connecting formal schooling with non-formal and informal learning environments and with societal challenges.
Open schooling provides the structural foundation for this work, supporting permeability between schools and society and fostering collaboration with families, communities, cultural institutions, and policy actors. Within this framework, STEAM education is approached as an integrative and inquiry-driven practice, bringing together scientific, technological, artistic, and social perspectives to address complex issues.
This approach has been tested and refined across European initiatives such as SALL, SLEs, Road-STEAMer, and more recent mission-oriented projects like SUNRISE and NEMESIS, demonstrating its relevance across domains ranging from health and wellbeing to environmental sustainability.
Indicative Programme – Learning Through Living Labs
The summer school unfolds over five days and is designed as a coherent learning journey, gradually moving from shared understanding and inspiration to co-creation, experimentation, and concrete planning for implementation. Each day combines conceptual framing, hands-on work, collaborative reflection, and informal learning moments.
Sunday (16:00–18:00)
Opening & Keynote Session: Schools as Living Labs in a Changing Europe
Welcome and introduction to the summer school approach and community.
Keynote talks exploring Schools as Living Labs as a response to contemporary educational and societal challenges, including sustainability, wellbeing, equity, and democratic participation.
Positioning Schools as Living Labs within European policy and innovation contexts, including open schooling, learning ecologies, and mission-oriented approaches.
Monday (09:00–13:00 & 15:00–17:00)
Foundations of Schools as Living Labs and Open Schooling
Introduction to the Schools as Living Labs approach as a methodological framework for educational innovation.
From schools as closed institutions to schools as open, collaborative learning ecosystems.
Connections to learning ecologies, open schooling, and STEAM education.
Exploring whole-school and ecosystem-level approaches:
– engaging students, teachers, leadership, families, and community actors
– aligning curriculum, real-world challenges, and local contexts
– fostering a culture of inquiry, experimentation, and reflection
(18:00–00:00 – Cultural visit and shared dinner)
Tuesday (09:00–13:00 & 15:00–17:00)
Schools as Living Labs in Practice: Real-World Challenges
Working with authentic societal challenges as drivers for learning and innovation.
Indicative thematic fields include sustainability and climate action, health and wellbeing, environmental stewardship, and community resilience, drawing inspiration from current European initiatives where schools operate as living labs.
Hands-on sessions focusing on:
– identifying and framing meaningful challenges
– working across disciplines and perspectives
– co-designing learning activities and interventions with real-world relevance
Participants work collaboratively in mixed groups, applying living-lab cycles of exploration, design, testing, and reflection.
Wednesday (09:00–13:00)
Learning Environments and Learning Ecologies
Exploring how physical, social, and digital environments support Schools as Living Labs.
From classrooms to schoolyards, neighbourhoods, museums, science centres, and community spaces as interconnected learning environments.
Topics include:
– schools as hubs within wider learning ecologies
– connecting formal, non-formal, and informal learning
– wellbeing, inclusion, accessibility, and participation
– strengthening community engagement through shared learning spaces
(15:00–00:00 – Cultural visit and shared dinner)
Thursday (09:00–13:00 & 15:00–17:00)
Designing, Sustaining and Evaluating Schools as Living Labs
Schools as Living Labs for sustainable and systemic change.
From thematic focus areas (e.g. environment, health, social innovation) to whole-school strategies and long-term vision.
Key aspects include:
– developing coherent living-lab strategies at school or ecosystem level
– leadership and governance for open, collaborative innovation
– documenting learning processes and evaluating impact
– connecting school-level innovation with wider policy and funding opportunities
Introduction to European cooperation and funding opportunities supporting Schools as Living Labs and open schooling initiatives.
(20:00–00:00 – Farewell dinner)
Friday (09:00–13:00)
From Experience to Action: Planning for Implementation
Participant-led presentations and peer exchange.
Each group presents a draft plan for applying the Schools as Living Labs approach in their own context, including next steps, potential partners, and anticipated challenges.
Collective reflection on learning, transferability, and follow-up.
Closing of the summer school and outlook towards continued collaboration within a growing Schools as Living Labs community.
Course fee
The course fee for all ESIA Summer Schools is 480€ (80€/per day) and fully within the funding opportunities of the Erasmus+ Programme.
The course fee covers:
- Expert lecturers for lectures, seminars and workshops
- All materials and equipment needed for the course
- Participation in the social programme & excursions (e.g. Sunset and dinner at Cape Sounio, excursion to the Acropolis and visit to the Acropolis Museum and dinner in downtown Athens, traditional night and farewell dinner, etc.)
Subsistence & accommodation
The Summer School will be held at Golden Coast Hotel & Bungalows, an A-class/ 4-star sea-side hotel which stretches on the golden, sandy beach of the Marathon Bay, near the historic location of Marathon, at the outskirts of Athens.
ESIA has made special arrangement with the hotel and are happy to offer to all participants a single or double room with all-inclusive services (i.e. breakfast, lunch, dinner, drinks and free of charge services for outdoors sports and recreational activities).
The costs for subsistence are also within the ceilings of the Erasmus+ programme for KA1 mobility actions.
ACCOMMODATION AT GOLDEN COAST HOTEL 2025 (Indicative prices)
COST FOR THE PARTICIPANTS (All Inclusive)
- Per person in SINGLE: 140 €/per night
- Per person in DOUBLE: 98 €/per night
Extra persons (All Inclusive)
- TRIPLE room: 88 €/per person/per night
EXTRA SERVICES (the following refers to other project participants that don’t pay the course fee)
TOURS & EXCURSIONS
Cape Sounio Tour (Price: 100 €/per person)
Monday @ 18:00
Includes:
-
- Transport by bus (Golden Coast – Cape Sounio – Golden Coast)
- Guided tour of Poseidon temple with Professional and Lisensed guide
- Entrance fees of the Temple of Poseidon
- Lunch at local tavern
- All taxes
Athens tour & Acropolis Museum (Price: 123 €/per person)
Wednesday @ 16:00
Includes:
-
- Transport by bus (Golden Coast – Athens – Golden Coast)
- Short panoramic tour by bus of historic center of Athens
- Services of a Professional and licensed guide
- Entrance fees of Acropolis museum
- Lunch at local tavern
- All taxes
+ Entrance fees to the Acropolis Archaeological Site ticket cost of 30 €/per person.
+ Entrance fees to the Sounio Archaeological Site ticket cost of 20 €/per person.
*** The above prices are calculated based on current costs, tickets to museums / archeological sites, fuel cost, VAT
The Summer School will be held at Golden Coast Hotel & Bungalows, an A-class/ 4-star sea-side hotel which stretches on the golden, sandy beach of the Marathon Bay, near the historic location of Marathon, at the outskirts of Athens.
It is the area of Marathon, that has hosted since the times of myths when Theseus killed the terrible bull of Marathon, to the times of the Persian wars and the Battle of Marathon, further on to our days and the marathon race and Marathon Run, the emblematic symbol of man’s quest for freedom and the will to defend his most noble deeds which constitute the foundations of the Human civilization. The plethora of natural, historical sites and museums of the area reveal in all details this unique historical voyage.
Participants are expected to arrive through the Athens International Airport, approximately 25 km (15,53 miles) distance from the hotel.
School Heads and Teachers participation in the summer courses can be funded by the ERASMUS+ Programme.
In case your school or organization does not have the funds to cover the costs of your participation in the Summer School, there is another option: you can apply to be funded by by the ERASMUS+ Programme.
Please note that the Erasmus+ KA1 application can only be submitted by the school or the organization – no individual applications can be submitted.
The deadline for application is February 19, 2025.
What is ERASMUS+?
Erasmus+ is the European Commission’s Programme for education, training, youth, and sport for the period 2021-2027. As an integrated programme, Erasmus+ offers more opportunities for the mobility of learners and staff and cooperation across the education, training, and youth sectors and is easier to access than its predecessors, with simplified funding rules and a structure that aims to streamline the administration of the programme.
Erasmus+ Key Action 1 (KA1) provides a unique opportunity for teachers, headmasters, trainers, and other staff of educational institutions to participate in international training courses in different European countries. Schools, universities, vocational education and training, and adult education organizations are all eligible to receive full funding to attend courses under a KA1 mobility grant. The Erasmus+ KA1 grant covers all the costs to attend teacher training courses: including travel, subsistence, and course fee.
For up-to-date information about Erasmus+ please check the Programme’s website. Your school will need to apply to your country’s National Agency, who is also the one who will evaluate the proposal. Therefore, your National Agency is also a very good point to start for more information.
Don’t forget to go through the the New Programme Guide and you will have all you need to know.
The steps to apply for an Erasmus+ KA1 School Education Staff Mobility grant are:
- Fill in the registration form to our Summer School with your details. This is an individual registration form, so if there are more than one participant from the same school, each one will have to submit a separate registration form. This way you have reserved a slot in the course in case your application for Erasmus+ funding is successful!
- Register your school/organization here: https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/erasmus-esc/index/ , if not already registered.
- Check the compliance with the programme criteria
- Check the financial conditions
- Fill in and submit the application form
- Respect the deadline
- Do not forget to inform us as soon as you get notified from your National Agency whether your grant application is accepted or rejected.
You can find all related information about submitting an Erasmus+ Application HERE.
We will be happy to guide you through the process.