The LAB institute promotes research aimed at maintaining and improving the uses and non-uses of spaces for the present and future generations. Its mission is to:
- Nourish and contribute to reflections,
- Propose new approaches, tools, and methods, and
- Support experimentation
to respond to and anticipate - in a systemic, critical, sensitive, innovative and rigorous way - the present and future challenges of our territories, places and resources, through research of scientific excellence, and environmental, technical, cultural, economic and social relevance, which is recognized locally and internationally.
Vision of the LAB Institute
The LAB institute vision is to provide an ecosystem and a research environment, a culture and an identity, which take care of researchers and promote intellectual and creative emulation, encouraging collaborations and nurturing individual and collective well-being.
Values of the LAB Institute
The values on which the LAB Institute is founded aim to enrich the four fondamental values of UCLouvain - openness, freedom, solidarity, respect - by:
- Ambition
- Creativity
- Inclusiveness
- Responsibility
- Rigour
Specifities of the LAB Institute
- Articulation on three sites: Brussels (European metropolis), Tournai (historical city in a cross-border context), Louvain-la-Neuve (new city)
- Pooling of ethos and resources with the LOCI Faculty
- Openness to multi/inter/trans-disciplinarity of research to support the transition towards more sustainable, resilient and circular societies
- The project as a method and as a research result
- Valorisation of "high-tech" and "low-tech" and their articulations and associations
- Attention to the transferability of research results, locally and globally
- Collaborations with other institutes and platforms and with a vast network of academic, scientific, industrial and business partners in Belgium, Europe and the world
- Strong relationships both with key market players and stakeholders, as well as the users of spaces and thedecision-making powers (e.g., municipalities, local, regional, federal and European governments).