During the 18th International Summer School of Economics, the CROSS-REIS project brought its Living Lab out of the seminar room and into the streets of Niš, transforming King Alexander Square, the green, bustling civic heart of the city, into an open-air laboratory where citizens, students, institutions and researchers co-create solutions to local ecological challenges.
The activity is part of involving stakeholders for participative co-design and co-management of urban nature-based solutions (NbS). It puts into practice one of the project's core ideas: that a public space can become a shared platform for testing creative, real-world solutions, turning the city itself into a living classroom.
A Living Lab is an open-innovation platform in which citizens are active co-creators rather than passive observers. King Alexander Square was chosen for exactly this reason. Situated in the very centre of Niš, right on the doorstep of the Faculty of Economics, it is visited daily by thousands of people of all ages, holds deep symbolic and historical value for the city, and boasts a rich and diverse tree stock ideal for biodiversity labelling, ecological research and public education. Every ingredient for participatory, high-impact urban science was already there.
At the centre of the initiative is a tree-labelling programme built around QR codes. The work unfolded in three steps: first, an inventory of the park's trees, documenting each species, its age, ecological value and interesting biodiversity facts; second, the installation of information boards bearing a QR code beside each tree, produced and installed with the support of the Municipal Assembly of Medijana and local utility companies Mediana and Gorica; and third, open digital access, so that anyone scanning a code with a smartphone instantly reaches rich, accessible information about the tree in front of them. In one gesture, urban biodiversity becomes legible to everyone, from schoolchildren to senior citizens.
The Summer School gave the Living Lab an international dimension. Students from across the participating countries stepped into the role of ambassadors of urban biodiversity: each had the unique opportunity to give a name to a tree in the park, forging a personal bond with urban nature, and to help shape the digital content delivered through the QR codes, merging their academic knowledge with accessible technology. The activity deliberately bridges generations, cultures and institutions, uniting them around a single goal: raising environmental awareness.
The benefits of the Living Lab extend well beyond the Summer School week. For the city, it creates a green tourist attraction in the centre, introduces digital infrastructure into public space, and positions Niš as an innovative city aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. For citizens, it makes biodiversity information accessible, offers educational content for children and adults alike, and strengthens the sense of community and shared responsibility for urban nature. For science, it enables real-world data collection, tests the Living Lab methodology in practice, raises the project's international visibility, and lays the foundation for future biodiversity research.
The initiative is a genuine partnership: the Faculty of Economics, University of Niš as CROSS-REIS coordinator, the Municipal Assembly of Medijana and local utility companies Mediana and Gorica as field-implementation partner, and the general public as active participants and ambassadors. Together, they are demonstrating how a widening-participation research network can deliver tangible value where people actually live.