DiCoLab

In recent years, globalisation has led to the increasing differentiation of European value chains and the growing complexity of supply chains. In order to find innovative and competence-enhancing solutions to successfully overcome these challenges, the question arises: Which systemic and procedural changes are required for sustainable digital learning and working? The overarching aim of the research project DiCoLab therefore is to design, develop and test a skills and collaboration platform to make work and learning processes in international networks sustainable. To improve communication and innovation processes, the needs of manufacturing companies and the potential of digitally supported solutions are to be included.

In the DiCoLab project, the Wuppertal Institute is responsible for developing future perspectives for the planned platform. To this end, the researchers specify the vision and mission of the competence and collaboration platform, explore the needs and ideas for European cooperation, synthesise the results and prepare initial application scenarios. 

The Institute pursues the following individual goals:

1. To gain new insights into the implementation of sustainable innovation processes in international collaboration networks and to systematically record interdependencies with the industrial transformation towards a climate- and resource-friendly economy.
2. To better understand the opportunities of international cooperation and sustainable business models and to contribute to the proactive shaping of sustainable and digital structural change through user-oriented and practical experiments.

The Innovation Labs Research Unit at the Wuppertal Institute contributes its long expertise in living lab research, among other things. It thus supports the iterative and collaborative development and testing of the platform.