On Wednesday, March 3rd, 2026, Fieldlabs@Scale hosted its online masterclass “The Role of Public Funding in the Long Term Sustainability of Fieldlabs.” The session brought together practitioners, policymakers, and fieldlab managers to discuss how funding instruments shape the operational sustainability of experimental environments, such as fieldlabs. The masterclass was led by Orlando Vazquez, Jaime Bonnin Roca, and Marcel Bogers.

A recording of the session is now publicly available: click here. 

Why public funding matters

Fieldlabs are increasingly used to upscale innovations tackling societal challenges. As shared physical environments, they provide innovation ecosystem actors, such as companies, universities, and research institutes, with access to infrastructure for prototyping, testing, validating, and demonstrating innovations before scaling to the market. By pooling resources, fieldlabs enable collaborative learning, knowledge exchange, and cost sharing, reducing the need for each actor to invest in expensive infrastructure individually.

Yet despite their growing importance, many fieldlabs struggle with long-term financial sustainability. Firms typically avoid investing in shared infrastructure due to uncertain or limited private returns, making public funding essential for both its development and operation. However, most funding instruments were not originally designed for the specific needs of fieldlabs, creating structural mismatches that constrain their long-term viability.

From research to insight

The masterclass presented findings from an empirical study exploring how public funding affects the sustainability of fieldlabs. The study analyzed 34 interviews, 30 policy documents, and 16 hours of observations, offering a ground level view of fieldlab needs, policy design, and implementation challenges.

Three recurring needs voiced by fieldlabs:

• Funding for both infrastructure and its exploitation: While ERDF typically supports equipment investments, day to day operational costs often remain underfunded.
• Accessible funding for SMEs and startups: Many small firms lack the administrative capacity to navigate complex procedures.
• Instruments tailored to local innovation ecosystems: Regional economic structures and challenges vary widely, requiring tailored support.

Navigating policy tensions

Policy makers designing and implementing funding instruments must balance three tensions:

1. Supporting exploitation without creating dependency
   Public funding is needed to develop and exploit infrastructure, yet long-term support might create structural dependency.
2. Ensuring efficiency without sacrificing accountability
   Simplifying funding procedures can improve access for SMEs and reduce administrative burden, but it may bring some accountability challenges.
3. Tailoring instruments to regional needs without increasing complexity
   Customizing funds to regional needs can improve alignment with ecosystem requirements, but it risks fragmentation and inconsistent implementation across Europe.

Strategic approaches to future-proof fieldlabs

The masterclass highlighted three evidence informed strategies to better align funding instruments with fieldlab needs:

• Invest where infrastructure matters and stimulate its active use
  Invest in infrastructure when there is a clear need for it and ensure its use to drive collaboration.
• Move toward simplified models
  Transit towards a simplified model to reduce entry barriers and promote results-oriented reporting.
• Cocreate funding calls with regional ecosystems
  Tailor funding programs in close collaboration with the local innovation ecosystems and other regional authorities without adding more complexity.

Key takeaways

• Fieldlabs are essential for upscaling innovations, but their sustainability depends on funding instruments that recognize both their infrastructural and operational needs.
• Public funding is justified by market, structural, and transformational failures, yet misaligned instruments can limit their impact on fieldlabs.
• Public tensions can be reconciled by balancing support with autonomy, efficiency with accountability, and tailoring with administrative consistency.
• A strategic, flexible policy mix is needed to ensure fieldlabs continue supporting experimentation and the upscaling of innovations.

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