Circle Innovation partnered with the British Council to design and implement Learning and Design Labs that brought together students from Kenyan and UK universities for a 2 month hybrid co-creative process to develop human-centered solutions for a challenge posed by an industry partner within the field of climate resilience and adaptation. Each lab had 20 students that the partner universities pre-selected and who were organized in diverse intercultural teams to enable disruptive innovation.

• Human centered design lab: The lab provides an opportunity for the students to learn the application of the human-centered design process through a real design challenge.
• UK - Kenya university partnerships: The lab fosters an environment that promotes cross-learning and enhanced collaboration, helping institutions benefit from the internationalization of education.
• Industry exposure for students: The lab collaborates with industry partners to provide a real challenge they are facing and enhance the local community immersion through interacting with the different users and communities
• Intercultural collaboration: The lab convenes a diverse set of students who work in groups to enhance peer-peer learning and cross-cultural working

• Train students on the fundamentals of the Human Centered Design (HCD) approach and the application of a co-creation approach to problem solving
• Enhance collaborations between higher education institutions in Kenya and UK with industry partners
• Enhance inter-cultural exchange and learning between Kenyan and UK students through immersion in local context whilst solving a design challenge

• Each university selects 8-10 students either in their bachelor’s degree final year of study or master’s degree study
• Students from each university should be from at least 2 diverse areas of study
• A diverse student group which enhances gender inclusivity and equity

• A company with an innovative product or service aimed at combating climate change
• Openness to sharing a challenge they are facing that affects or contributes to climate change
• Openness to adopting a co-creative and human centered approaches to problem solving as part of the labs
• Interest in fostering skill development for curious and innovative minds and collaborate with them to solve an existing company challenge
• Openness to work with students with the solution with the highest potential to implement the solution post-Learning and Design Labs

We implemented the lab in a 2-month hybrid co-creative process with close collaboration with the respective industry and university partners.