Published on 05.05.2022 under General, Advisory, Open Innovation
The FabLab Kamp-Lintfort – the success factors
"The trick is to acquire new funding through new projects and still not constantly drive a new sow through the village, but to develop your own focal points.”
DR MARTIN KREYMANN
Hello Dr. Kreymann, welcome to the matrix. We want to talk about the success factors of a FabLab. Let's get straight into it: A FabLab wants to make digital manufacturing technologies available - for everyone. It's all about doing it yourself and the open exchange of knowledge, machines and experience. How long has the FabLab Kamp-Lintfort existed?
In 2013 I was the head of the zdi center Kamp-Lintfort at a seminar. The speaker mentioned a FabLab more in passing during the lunch break. I found this interesting and googled at home and finally visited the FabLab there with a colleague during a conference in Barcelona. There we met an international FabAcademy group who worked together on their projects with great enthusiasm until late at night in the greatest heat. I had never seen anything like it. Since then, the idea hasn't let go of me. An ERDF application was submitted and approved in 2013. In 2015, the FabLab Kamp-Lintfort opened at the Rhein-Waal University of Applied Sciences with an area of 600 square meters. It offers the necessary machines such as 3D printers, 3D scanners, laser cutters & Co. to realize your own ideas.
FabLab Kamp-Lintfort & matrix
As matrix, we supported the founding of the FabLab Kamp-Lintfort at the Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences. This has resulted in a valuable, lively collaboration between matrix and the FabLab Kamp-Lintfort in the following projects:
- Help Camps: Scientists, manufacturers of technical aids, makers and people with disabilities have developed new technical aids together in the FabLab.
- MakeOpaedics: Makers and medical supply stores jointly develop digitally manufactured open source prototypes such as B. a sensor-based sole system. It determines the pressure in an orthosis for patients with a Charcot foot to prevent wound formation.
- cooperation in FabLab Tunisia: The matrix team in Tunisia works on various projects in the country's largest FabLab. It was trained and guided by an experienced maker from the FabLab Kamp-Lintfort.
You were instrumental in founding the FabLab Kamp-Lintfort. From your point of view, what was particularly important for success in the conception and start-up phase?
First of all, a lucky coincidence. Shortly after the trip to Barcelona, during the zdi status meeting, Klaus Bömken, the regional manager responsible for matrix, asked me what else I was up to. So I said I would like to start a FabLab. The timing was favourable. He encouraged me to apply for a suitable zdi ERDF funding program. The university still had its own funds from the start-up phase, which would have expired at the end of the year, and was willing to use them. In addition, there were also free rooms in the course of the move to the new campus.
What else was important?
It is important that the goals of the carrier can be synchronized with the goals of the FabLab movement. The Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences has the subtitle "University of Applied Sciences". That goes pretty well with the FabLab idea. The advertising slogan for the university was "innovative - interdisciplinary - international". All three terms fit the FabLab like a glove. In addition, the zdi concept fits in with a task that is referred to in higher education as a "third mission", ie knowledge transfer from the university to society and from society to the university. This point also fits very well with the FabLab idea.
It was also important, both in the conception phase and later in the implementation phase, that we discussed and planned everything together with the partners in the region. We involved the IHK, the Niederrhein regional agency and the inter-communal business development agency Wir4 right from the start. We also discussed later funding applications together, pros and cons, and have already discussed the interlocking here. The support association of the university with all the companies in the region was also important.
Was it easy or difficult to get the partners?
It was easy. This was particularly easy because the zdi center was particularly popular with the region's stakeholders. We were an easy approach for a not so very targeted contact to the then newly founded university, in which many had pinned their hopes. We were very present locally in the municipalities with various measures, e.g. B. with the program “House of Little Researchers”. I wear different hats: I am zdi, Rhein-Waal University of Applied Sciences and FabLab. In addition, we have done countless guided tours, for example together with the Chamber of Industry and Commerce. We have had panel discussions, lecture events by different actors, also because they appreciate the atmosphere here.
I understand: It is important that the goals of the sponsor and the FabLab fit together and that the FabLab has a strong partner network in the region. Right?
Yeah right. But basically these are structures that are desired by the zdi regional office, and ultimately the zdi network itself must also be mentioned, because they also played a significant part in communication.
Does that mean the zdi network is an important success factor for the FabLab?
Yes, of course the zdi network also made the FabLab possible, initially because of the ERDF funds, but also because it made it easy to establish the FabLab at the university without being assigned to a specific faculty.
zdi
With over 5.000 partnerships with actors from science, schools, business, politics and society, zdi is the largest MINT network of its kind in Europe. In NRW there are over 70 zdi student laboratories and nationwide zdi offers in all districts and urban districts. Future through Innovation.NRW (zdi) is a joint offensive to promote young scientists and engineers in North Rhine-Westphalia.
matrix has been the zdi state office for over 15 years on behalf of the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.
That was the start-up phase, so to speak. What else was important to the success of the FabLab?
In the company, it quickly turned out that we have a different way of learning. MINT topics become tangible in the FabLab through "doing". As a didactic concept, “Making” relies on the development of team skills and solution-oriented project work. Working in the FabLab is above all learning in a concrete process. An example: With us, not everyone learns a software program in the abstract. The first course we offered was called “Build your own 3D printer”. The students actually did that. And have thus learned to construct with software in order to then be able to put their component into operation. They then learn CAD drawing in order to be able to use their own device.
This is the FabLab idea: project-based learning. That means that you have an idea and you are given the equipment to make it happen. Then, of course, you have to learn how to use the equipment in order to really be able to implement your project. And if you can't do it, then you have to look for someone, so you have to form a team to do it with. The joint search for solutions and improvements creates a feeling of togetherness. FabLabs become social spaces where you can meet like-minded people, exchange ideas, receive help and pass on your know-how in order to develop joint projects. Here, too, the FabLab and the university go well together. Every year, students from a wide range of courses come together in interdisciplinary projects at the Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences to work on various tasks and topics. Professors or external people can present projects, for which teams from different courses are then formed. Work on the project is then fairly free. The team organizes itself. The results are presented to the public. It can be a website for a municipality, an organic plant for a farmer, or a new corporate design for the zoo in Kleve - very different topics.
So it is also important for the company that, for example, the project-oriented way of working at zdi & FabLab fits in with the university again?
Yes absolutely. International networking has played another important role from the start. Makers see themselves as part of an international movement and network with other FabLabs around the world. FabLabs deliberately combine virtual and real aspects. Although the work in the FabLab is anchored locally and spatially, its open-source documentation (open source) allows global, project-related, virtual collaborations. Since all FabLabs have similar equipment, files of the digital models are adapted via exchange platforms and finally produced locally. New versions will be made available to the community again. We had direct contact with the FabFoundation from the start. We were the first FabLab in Germany to take over the MIT (MIT = Massachusetts Institute of Technology) training program, the FabAcademy. We participate in the online lectures of the FabFoundation. Here, FabLabs worldwide are interconnected and receive a specific work order. The FabLab was an important driver for the internationalization of the university. For example, we work with the University of Ghana and the FabLab Barcelona.
A very important success factor in the implementation phase are the employees, their passion and enthusiasm. By successfully participating in the FabAcademy, many students were later able to accompany the program worldwide as “instructor” (= lecturer/trainer) (e.g. FabLab Irbid (Jordan), FabLab Berytech (Lebanon), FabLab O (China), FabLab Brighton (UK)).
I also have the impression that someone who has once caught FabLab fever will not let go of the FabLab idea. How many employees work in the FabLab Kamp-Lintfort today?
5 employees are permanently employed, 2 employees work on a 450-euro basis. There are also student and research assistants. In addition, there are currently about 5 employees from different projects.
From your point of view, what else is essential for a successful operation?
A critical factor is the long-term funding. Even after almost 10 years, this is still not as stable as we would like it to be. The basic security is available through the financing of the staff and the free use of the premises. The trick is to acquire new funding through new projects and still not constantly drive a new sow through the village, but to develop your own focal points.
Would you like to give us a final word on the way?
In my view, the FabLab and the university belong together. After almost 10 years, I'm still totally enthusiastic about the FabLab idea and I'm happy about every newly founded FabLab.
Success factors FabLab Kamp-Lintfort:
1|8
The goals of the sponsor and the FabLab match.
2|8
Financing and support from zdi and ERDF.
3|8
Financing and premises by the university as the responsible body.
4|8
Low-threshold entrance door to the university for numerous partners.
5|8
Knowledge transfer between the university and companies in the region.
6|8
Internationalization and qualification in the FabAcademy and through the FabLab network.
7|8
Committed employees.
8|8
Profile formation through own focal points.
You can find out more about the FabLab Kamp-Lintfort at the Rhein-Waal University of Applied Sciences at: https://fablab.hochschule-rhein-waal.de/
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