LausitzLabs is a collaborative project aimed at establishing a hybrid educational ecosystem for digital, media and MINKT skills in Lusatia. At its heart lies the question of how future-oriented education, social participation and regional development can be systematically linked within a region undergoing transformation. The project creates a network comprising a central makerspace in Cottbus, several satellite labs across the region and mobile learning programmes for rural areas. The aim is to provide children, teenagers, young adults, families and educational professionals with low-threshold access to digital education, media literacy, making and career guidance. The LausitzLabs project is funded under the Coal Regions Investment Act and is designed as a multi-year collaborative initiative. The proposed duration runs from 1 May 2026 to 31 December 2030. 

Project partners

LausitzLabs is being implemented by an interdisciplinary consortium that brings together scientific, civil society and educational expertise. Participants include the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg, the University of Potsdam, Junge Tüftler gGmbH, mediale pfade.org – Verein für Medienbildung e.V. and the Landesfachverband Medienbildung Brandenburg e.V., which is responsible for coordinating the consortium.

The Landesfachverband Medienbildung Brandenburg e.V. is responsible for the overall coordination and the establishment of the LausitzLabs structure. The University of Potsdam contributes its expertise in empirical educational research and the study of individual competence development, whilst Junge Tüftler gGmbH and mediale pfade.org develop educational formats, learning pathways and practical offerings in the fields of making, media education and democratic participation.

Role of the BTU in the project

The BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg is responsible for the accompanying scientific research within the project, with a clear focus on the meso and macro levels:

• At the meso level, the BTU examines how schools, youth centres, universities, businesses and civil society initiatives are developing new educational programmes, cooperating and undergoing organisational change through LausitzLabs.
• At the macro level, it analyses how the LausitzLabs educational ecosystem is embedded in regional structural change strategies, securing a skilled workforce and democratic participation, and what long-term effects this has on the region.

In doing so, the BTU provides the analytical backbone of the project: it highlights the conditions necessary for educational innovations to have a sustainable impact in a region undergoing transformation.

BTU’s key research areas

The BTU’s work focuses on several key themes:

• Transformation research: How do new educational programmes contribute to social and economic transformation in the Lusatian coal region?
• Educational ecosystems: How do stable, interconnected structures – in other words, a regional educational ecosystem – emerge from many individual projects?
• Governance and cooperation: How do local stakeholders, educational institutions, associations and civil society work together, and which forms of governance prove effective?
• Impact and sustainability: Under what conditions do time-limited projects become long-term, established structures in the region?

To this end, the BTU employs qualitative and mixed-methods approaches, e.g. interviews, network and case studies, policy analyses and participatory workshops with regional stakeholders.

Benefits for the region, academia and practice

The BTU’s work yields:

• well-founded analyses of how digital and MINKT education can be sustainably established in rural areas
• practical recommendations for local authorities, education providers and policymakers
• theoretical models and empirical findings that are also relevant for other regions undergoing structural change in Germany and Europe

LausitzLabs thus becomes not only a new learning space for the region but – through the BTU’s research – also a model project for education in the context of structural change.

Translation with DeepL