Living Lab Alleppey, an initiative of the Ashank Desai Centre for Policy Studies, IIT Bombay, works to develop contextual solutions for a climate changing world. This lab emerged as an offshoot of CANALPY, a collaboration with the Kerala Institute of Local Administration (KILA).

Communities in developing countries are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The emergent issues are contextual in nature and the solutions developed often remain universal and general. This creates a need for co-production of knowledge with local stakeholders. Local governments and communities have a deep understanding of their issues and can provide valuable insights. Collaborating with these stakeholders helps in co-creating contextual and scalable solutions.

The Living Lab Alleppey is a collaborative platform that brings together local stakeholders, researchers, and policymakers to co-create and implement context-specific solutions for climate change-related issues in vulnerable locations. The lab is guided by the principles of participatory research, co-production of knowledge, and community engagement to generate actionable solutions that are tailored to the local context.

Through the process, the local self-governments and communities are capacitated to plan and implement climate-resilient solutions that address their specific vulnerabilities. By involving local stakeholders in the research and development process, the solutions are grounded in the local realities and are more likely to be accepted and adopted by the community.

"Living"

Where does the problem live?
Where is the solution created?

Academic knowledge travels to the location of the problem
Solutions created on ground where problems ‘live’

"Lab"

How are solutions created?
Who all participate?

Through co–creation and iterative feedback processes
Multiple stakeholders, testing and scaling–up of solutions
All stakeholders strive to be equal participants in the knowledge
co-creation process