This spring, the Faculty of Social Sciences launched the Social Impact Lab — in collaboration with LU Innovation — to help researchers translate their work into societal benefit.The initiative challenges the STEM-dominated innovation landscape by placing social innovation front and centre.
Five selected researchers will receive three weeks of funded working time, access to a peer group, and a series of workshops providing structure and support to develop their ideas into services, products, methods or processes with real potential for implementation.
We spoke with Sophie Hydén Picasso, Innovation Developer at LU Innovation, about the thinking behind the programme.
Why a Social Impact Lab at Lund University?
"The goal is to give researchers time and support to bring their research closer to practical application. There has been a growing interest in innovation among social scientists, but the infrastructure to support that journey hasn't always been there.Social Impact Lab as a concept has been growing across universities since it started in Örebro in 2017, and we want to bring that concept to Lund — tailored to our researchers and our context."
What makes this programme different from other innovation support?
"It comes down to three things: time, community, and structure. Researchers get dedicated funded time to work on their idea — that alone is significant. But they also get access to a group of like-minded peers going through the same process, and workshops that give shape to the journey. The workshops focus on things like stakeholder mapping, how to achieve change, financing plans and legal aspects. It's designed specifically for social and behavioural scientists and what they need."
What kinds of projects are we talking about?
"The projects span a wide range — from elderly care to organisational unlearning. The common thread is that participants are exploring how to implement their research. The focus is always on what kind of change they want to achieve in the world. In this programme, they get to test that. They're not just researchers anymore — they're learning to become innovators."
Social Impact Lab runs through early autumn 2026. The programme is a collaboration between the Faculty of Social Sciences and LU Innovation.