VIKO Faculty of Agrotechnologies

Process & Engagement

VIKO ATF’s Living Lab approach is built around hands-on experimentation and close collaboration with external partners. Businesses, municipalities and other organisations bring practical challenges, while VIKO researchers, lecturers and students contribute scientific expertise, laboratory infrastructure and testing capacity.

Depending on the challenge, collaboration can cover the full development process: from initial formulation and laboratory analysis to prototyping, sensory evaluation and testing in real-world environments.

The Faculty’s main Living Lab strengths include:

• Food technology & processing: fermentation, freeze-drying, new product development and recipe formulation.
• Sensory analysis & consumer studies: evaluation of product characteristics, consumer acceptance and preferences.
• Environmental analysis: soil, water, chemical and biochemical testing supporting agricultural and environmental applications.
• Urban greening: testing plants, substrates and sustainable landscaping solutions.
• Veterinary science: diagnostics, animal health monitoring and applied veterinary research.

For industry partners, this translates into practical services ranging from the development of new recipes and functional ingredients to chemical composition and safety testing, shelf-life assessment, sensory profiling, soil and water quality evaluation, eco-design and applied animal health R&D.

Success Stories

Reducing food waste across Lithuania

Through EIT FoodEducators, VIKO coordinated food literacy and food-waste prevention activities in more than 100 schools across Lithuania. By involving children, teachers and families, the initiative brought food-system challenges directly into local communities and encouraged practical approaches to responsible consumption and food-waste reduction.

Testing insect-based fertilisers with industry

Together with UAB DIVAKS, VIKO carried out real-world trials of frass-based biofertilisers. Their effects were assessed on white mustard and garden plants, generating practical evidence on their impact on plant productivity.

The collaboration demonstrates how VIKO’s Living Lab ecosystem can connect business innovation with applied testing, helping companies evaluate circular and bio-based solutions under real conditions.

Co-creating alternative food products with companies

VIKO has collaborated with UAB Lašų Duona and SKULAS on the development of new buckwheat-based products and healthier snacks for retail and gas-station markets.

VIKO specialists supported the process through formulation, technological development, laboratory testing and sensory evaluation, helping turn initial concepts into products designed for real consumers and commercial environments.

Sustainable urban greening with Vilnius Municipality

In cooperation with Vilnius Municipality, VIKO has supported Living Lab spaces in schools that bring together urban greening, biodiversity, climate education and nature-based solutions.

These spaces provide opportunities to test and demonstrate sustainable greening approaches while involving students and local communities, extending experimentation beyond conventional laboratory environments and directly into the city.

Impact & Added Value

One of VIKO ATF’s key strengths is its ability to quickly mobilise specialists, laboratory infrastructure, students and local partners around concrete challenges.

Its application-oriented model is particularly valuable for SMEs and other organisations seeking accessible expertise and facilities to develop, test and validate new ideas without establishing their own extensive R&D infrastructure.

By bringing together food technology, environmental analysis, veterinary expertise and urban greening within one applied ecosystem, VIKO supports experimentation across interconnected challenges — from healthier and more sustainable food products to circular bio-based solutions and greener urban environments.

Looking Ahead

Through SIXFOLD, VIKO ATF is strengthening its connections with other European Living Labs and exploring opportunities for cross-border experimentation, knowledge exchange and collaboration with businesses and other innovation actors.

VIKO’s experience demonstrates the important role that applied higher education institutions can play within the European Living Lab landscape: providing practical environments where knowledge meets industry needs and where solutions can be developed and tested together with businesses, municipalities and communities.