Student Perceptions of Living Lab Research Internships in the COVID-19 Pandemic - A Dutch Case Study

To effectively generate solutions to today's complex challenges, cooperation between governments, industry, civil society and academia is essential. To prepare students for collaboration across academic and non-academic disciplines and stakeholders, Living Labs (LLs), unique research internships have emerged in the educational systems, which are focused on generating insights for society while embedding student learning in both practice and academia. To legitimise the LLs as a method of education in the academic curriculum, it is necessary to evaluate the experience of and potential benefits for students' development of their academic, professional and personal skills. Through self-reported pre-and post-questionnaires into students' confidence levels, this paper aims to investigate the outcomes of participating in LLs from the student's perspective via a case study at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. A secondary aim is to evaluate the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on the learning experience of the students.