SOIL – Social Innovation Living Lab

Project

Botildenborg is a farm and organization whose mission is to help people and communities grow and thrive through food, cultivation, and community. SOIL is Botildenborg’s Social Innovation Living Lab – a platform for developing, testing, and sharing social innovations related to food, cultivation, and sustainable urban development.

At Botildenborg, social and ecological resilience are combined to develop methods that make a tangible difference in people’s everyday lives and the future of the city. Together with Form/Design Center, Malmö University, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), LUCSUS at Lund University, Region Skåne, and the City of Malmö, Botildenborg runs SOIL. The aim is to strengthen research and knowledge development around the social innovations carried out at Botildenborg, and to enable knowledge sharing and collaboration with other cities, countries, and organizations.

What is a Living Lab?

A Living Lab is an environment where different stakeholders work together to test, understand, and develop solutions to complex societal challenges. The knowledge and concepts developed can then be shared and applied in other contexts. The Social Innovation Living Lab SOIL was launched in spring 2024.

Research

Why do people benefit from participating in cultivation? How is health affected when seniors meet children through cooking? Within SOIL, Botildenborg collaborates with universities and researchers to measure impacts and understand underlying mechanisms – exploring how food and cultivation can contribute to sustainable urban development and function as part of social interventions.

Students

Within SOIL, Botildenborg offers an international internship programme in Social Farming for students and professionals who want to work at the intersection of sustainable development, social innovation, and nature-based solutions. The programme is carried out in collaboration with universities and higher education institutions and combines hands-on work in the organisation with opportunities to engage in research on the social and health impacts of nature-based interventions. Participants contribute both operationally and academically to the development of inclusive food systems, community work, and knowledge building.

Conferences

Several times a year, Botildenborg organises knowledge-sharing conferences on current themes. These gatherings bring together stakeholders from business, academia, civil society, organisations, and the public to exchange experiences and build new collaborations. Through concrete examples and on-site engagement, new perspectives emerge on how we can work together towards a more sustainable society.

Website

Participants

Malmö universitet, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet, LUCSUS vid Lunds universitet, Region Skåne, Malmö stad and Form/Design Center

Funders

The Sten K Johnson Foundation supports SOIL and has awarded a grant for the work of running and developing the initiative. The grant was presented at the School of Economics and Management in Lund in June 2024 and was received by Botildenborg’s founder, Lena Friblick.

From Basement to Kitchen

How can empty basements be transformed into green, vibrant meeting places? From Basement to Kitchen is an initiative where underused spaces in Rosengård are developed into places for cultivation, community, and future opportunities. Here, mushrooms and microgreens are grown using sustainable methods, while residents come together to share knowledge, cook, and develop new ideas for how neighbourhoods can be strengthened. The project demonstrates how nature-based solutions can contribute to both social and sustainable transformation – right beneath our feet.