"LifeLab's mission:-
LifeLab is Cambridge and the East of England's European Researchers' Night, led by the Wellcome Genome Campus Public Engagement team working with the following world-leading research organisations: Wellcome Sanger Institute, European Bioinformatics Institute, Babraham Institute, University of Cambridge and the Laboratory for Molecular Biology.
The mission of the project is to extend the reach and opportunity of Cambridge's vast research and innovation infrastructure in the life sciences and biotech sectors into communities where people would be otherwise unlikely to engage. This is important because of the skills gaps in areas of biodata and bioinformatics and the potential for reaching out create new and exciting career paths.
LifeLab was hallmarked by an inaugural programme of events in September 2018 building on education, cultural and engagement partnerships developed across our region. Through the events, LifeLab showcases the importance of collaboration in science. We also celebrated Europe’s Year of Cultural Heritage in 2018 by casting a spotlight on science through local stories from the past, present and future. In 2019, LifeLab extended its reach to include three cities - Cambridge, Peterborough and Ely.
LifeLab's approach
We identified locations for activities and events where our audiences felt comfortable. This included shopping malls, cafes, libraries and other city centre locations. In 2018, throughout 36 hours of events, LifeLab brought together 150 scientists and 3,500 adults, families and school students. In 2019, over a similar period we brought 210 researchers together with 3,538 people.
Events included talks, performances, storytelling, hands-on activities and tours. LifeLab helped inspire new efforts to work collaboratively across our research institutes, forging new formats of engagement and extending reach to people not traditionally engaging with science. We made a special effort to take ""the lab"" to the people, which in Peterborough happened quite literally via an improvised biology and genetics lab setting up in the heart of the city's main shopping centre. A summary of all our 2018 and 2019 events and a video is available at www.camlifelab.co.uk with additional activity viewable at our twitter account @camlifelab."
