A vital part of our research on rural communities is hearing from people living in rural and island communities about: ​

• The challenges they face in their everyday lives​
• How things are changing​
• What they would like to see happen in the future​

We are working with eight communities across rural and island Scotland during the project (2022-2027) to understand the lived experiences of residents and businesses. We are looking at a range of factors that affect the liveability of rural and island communities and identifying ways of addressing challenges that have applicability elsewhere. ​

We call the communities living labs because we aim to facilitate as well as observe change. We also want the research to influence decision-makers. The living labs are settings for data collection, experimental methods, and exchanging knowledge.​

As well as listening to the experiences of residents and businesses, we want to activate our role as researchers – where there is a call to do so – by putting our research skills to use for the benefit of the communities and by linking them to policy-makers and other stakeholders to help address challenges. ​

Each living lab explores a different topic. By speaking with people about these issues, we are uncovering how these challenges manifest for people in diverse places, and how we can help to inform policy about what solutions work best in different situations.