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REAL LIFE LABS

Collaboration platform for urban climate resilience.

We connect academia, startups, and corporations to co-create open-source, research-based solutions for urgent climate and urban resilience challenges. Real Life Labs is a partner project with BHT Berlin and part of “Zukunft findet Stadt”.

FOR STARTUPS & CORPORATES

Do you have a pressing challenge where academic insight could accelerate your impact? Real Life Labs connects impact-driven businesses with professors, researchers, and students from BHT, HTW, KHSB, EHB, and HWR to co-create open-source solutions for real-world problems.

Answer our 10-minute survey — we’ll reach out when a match is found.

FOR STUDENTS

Are you passionate about climate action, circular economy, urban innovation, or social impact? Whether you already have a topic for your seminar, Bachelor’s, or Master’s thesis — or you’re looking for a real-world challenge to work on — we want to hear from you.

Fill in our short survey. We’ll match you with relevant partners from our network of startups, corporates, and researchers across BHT, HTW, KHSB, EHB, and HWR. There is also a possibility to have Impact Hub Berlin, as your corporate partner. Together, you’ll define a project scope that aligns with your academic requirements and timeline.

HOW TO GET INVOLVED

1. Submit your challenge — as a startup or corporate, or submit your thesis topic as a student from one of our partner universities.

2. Get matched — RLL pairs your topic with the right academic and industry partners.

3. Kick off the collaboration — co-create solutions with guidance from Impact Hub Berlin.

4. Track, publish, and test — document progress, publish results, and test solutions in real-life contexts.

There is no fixed timeline — it is an ongoing matchmaking process. If you are a student, we align with your thesis submission deadline. Once a match is found, you define the project plan together with your startup partner and thesis supervisor.

ABOUT REAL LIFE LABS

RLL is jointly developed by Berliner Hochschule für Technik (BHT) and Impact Hub Berlin within the program "Zukunft findet Stadt", together with Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin (HTW), Katholische Hochschule für Sozialwesen Berlin (KHSB), Evangelische Hochschule Berlin (EHB), and Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Recht Berlin (HWR). Together we enable startups and companies to tap into a network of researchers and students, while contributing real-world challenges that benefit from academic investigation.

HOW IT WORKS

We at Impact Hub Berlin are looking for challenges tackling climate resilience in urban areas in-house and in our impact ecosystem. Topics we welcome include climate action, circularity, DEI, sustainable food systems, tech for good, urban resilience, building and architecture, product design, biomaterials — and other areas where research can accelerate impact.

WHY PARTICIPATE?

  • Collaborate on research projects tailored to your actual needs
  • Publish your results in open-access research
  • Co-develop and test real-life prototypes
  • Gain visibility in the Impact Hub Berlin network
  • Flexible level of involvement:
    • One interview or micro-collaboration
    • Semester-long seminar
    • Bachelor's or Master's thesis
    • In-depth research with a professor, including applied testing and prototype development

 

Stephanie Ries — Project Lead
Özüm Yenen — Project Manager

Questions about the survey or the project? Reach us at impact.ecosystem@impacthub.net