Disseminating and applying knowledge on sustainability and social innovation: the case of the Education Laboratory for Sustainability and Social Innovation - LEdS

The issue of sustainable development has been one of the recurrent themes on the agenda in higher education institutions. Within this perspective, the State University of Santa Catarina, Brazil (UDESC), has developed an institutional project called "UDESC Sustentável", which promotes initiatives to put sustainability into practice. One of these initiatives called "Education Laboratory for Sustainability and Social Innovation" or simply LEdS was developed at UDESC Campus I in Florianópolis, and aims, from the idea of ​​a living lab, to encourage students and teachers to develop research and practices that attack the main public problems of the city, dialoguing with the target public involved, as well as acting on their particularities or specific demands. The objective is, therefore, to disseminate and apply knowledge about sustainability and social innovation. This article describes this initiative, the theoretical approaches and actions are being put into practice.

Keywords:
sustainability; social innovation; living labs; education for sustainability; higher education