If you want to start a field lab, think twice

In recent years, we’ve seen field labs popping up in many places and on many subjects. Many are or want to be financed by governments. Some blossom, others barely survive and many silently disappear. Why and when should anyone build a field lab, and what’s needed to become successful?

The best, if not the only, reason to start a field lab or a comparable open-innovation facility is to move a breakthrough technology to industrial application. That’s a complex process because companies lack the knowledge to fully grasp the advantages and intricacies of the breakthrough technology, the facilities to test it and the staff to implement it. Meanwhile, the people who developed it don’t have the market and domain knowledge to understand the real implications, problems, failures and drawbacks of their beautiful new technology. Companies and developers need to work together and be willing to learn from each other.