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Z. A. Danial Hariz and M. A. Noor Adelyna
2 University as Living Labs: Efforts in Revolutionising
Biodiversity Assessment for Sustainable Development
The idea of a university as a Living Lab were firstly introduced in the early 2000s (Van
Geenhuizen 2013). As for any emerging sustainability concept, many preliminary or
pilot research reports have been published thus far, as well as many reviews highlighting the potential of the Living Lab concept in sustainable development (Evans and
Karoven 2011; Dell’Era and Landoni 2014; Evans et al. 2015). Living Lab concept
can be described as an ecosystem that catalyse action and collaboration in developing innovation. Living Lab concept has started to be practiced in Universiti Sains
Malaysia (USM) recently, with the implementation of various knowledge transfer
programs and holistic academic syllabus that focusing on sustainable development
and conservation of the ecosystem. USM tries to combat global sustainability-related
crisis by providing guidance and answer to students, staffs and academics through
advance research infrastructures and practices. The Living Lab concept in USM also
offers opportunities to all university stakeholders, researchers, industry, and policy makers to collaborate in initiating high-impact research and innovation for the
sustainable development of socio-cultural and economic.
USM realizes that the sustainability challenges are new and emerging and there is
an urgent need to develop a new approach in tackling these circumstances. Through
facilitating research, global environment situation, such as the challenges in documenting biodiversity and assessing environment health can be solved by developing
practical solutions and embracing the digital technologies advancement. By utilising
the existing and newly generated qualitative and quantitative data, refine solutions to
these environment issues can be proposed. Collaborative Living Lab projects with
multiple researchers, government agencies and natural resource managers would
definitely enable more opportunities of initiating impactful research and catalyse
sustainable innovation. For instance, with collaboration of USM’s researchers, students and a government agency—Fisheries Research Institute (FRI), Malaysia, a
pilot study has been proposed with a specific goal to develop a sustainable and
cost-effective method in assessing fish diversity in selected ecosystem utilising the
environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding technique. Through the Living Lab concept, conventional method of biodiversity surveys can be revolutionised, and these
advances will enable researchers and natural resource managers to better understand,
manage, and conserve biodiversity globally.
3 eDNA Metabarcoding as a Sustainable Tool
of Biodiversity Surveys
Routine biological surveys are crucial in managing the species population and monitoring the aquatic ecosystem especially in the important coastal environment. Netting
approaches in capture-based method of biological surveys are invasive to the natural
Z. A. Danial Hariz and M. A. Noor Adelyna
2 University as Living Labs: Efforts in Revolutionising
Biodiversity Assessment for Sustainable Development
The idea of a university as a Living Lab were firstly introduced in the early 2000s (Van
Geenhuizen 2013). As for any emerging sustainability concept, many preliminary or
pilot research reports have been published thus far, as well as many reviews highlighting the potential of the Living Lab concept in sustainable development (Evans and
Karoven 2011; Dell’Era and Landoni 2014; Evans et al. 2015). Living Lab concept
can be described as an ecosystem that catalyse action and collaboration in developing innovation. Living Lab concept has started to be practiced in Universiti Sains
Malaysia (USM) recently, with the implementation of various knowledge transfer
programs and holistic academic syllabus that focusing on sustainable development
and conservation of the ecosystem. USM tries to combat global sustainability-related
crisis by providing guidance and answer to students, staffs and academics through
advance research infrastructures and practices. The Living Lab concept in USM also
offers opportunities to all university stakeholders, researchers, industry, and policy makers to collaborate in initiating high-impact research and innovation for the
sustainable development of socio-cultural and economic.
USM realizes that the sustainability challenges are new and emerging and there is
an urgent need to develop a new approach in tackling these circumstances. Through
facilitating research, global environment situation, such as the challenges in documenting biodiversity and assessing environment health can be solved by developing
practical solutions and embracing the digital technologies advancement. By utilising
the existing and newly generated qualitative and quantitative data, refine solutions to
these environment issues can be proposed. Collaborative Living Lab projects with
multiple researchers, government agencies and natural resource managers would
definitely enable more opportunities of initiating impactful research and catalyse
sustainable innovation. For instance, with collaboration of USM’s researchers, students and a government agency—Fisheries Research Institute (FRI), Malaysia, a
pilot study has been proposed with a specific goal to develop a sustainable and
cost-effective method in assessing fish diversity in selected ecosystem utilising the
environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding technique. Through the Living Lab concept, conventional method of biodiversity surveys can be revolutionised, and these
advances will enable researchers and natural resource managers to better understand,
manage, and conserve biodiversity globally.
3 eDNA Metabarcoding as a Sustainable Tool
of Biodiversity Surveys
Routine biological surveys are crucial in managing the species population and monitoring the aquatic ecosystem especially in the important coastal environment. Netting
approaches in capture-based method of biological surveys are invasive to the natural