UK-Kenya Partnerships: Learning & Design Labs

The project was funded by the British Council.

The UK-Kenya University Partnerships: The Learning and Design Labs brought together universities and industry partners in Kenya and the UK to explore new ways of working and collaboration opportunities so that they can develop longer-term partnerships. The goal of the pilot was to prove the concept for university and industry collaboration by focusing on a climate resilience challenge posed to university students by an industry partner. As part of the project, three partnerships were funded, one of which was between the University of Portsmouth and Rongo University. Each Lab was a 5-day (Monday to Friday) interactive workshop and activities that brought together students from one Kenyan and one UK university in Nairobi, Kenya, with the goal to co-create human-centred solutions to a specific climate challenge that was posed by a Kenyan industry partner. Additional engagements took place remotely before (reading, briefings, other preparation) and after (reflections, lessons learnt, etc) the Lab.

Based on the outcomes and lessons from the pilot, the intention is to scale the Learning and Design Labs to multiple sectors, design challenges and partners.