RESISTIRE D5.5: Overall report on Open Studios

This report provides an overall look at the Open Studios that were organised as part of the project. They constitute the essential co-creation step in the RESISTIRÉ process, with results from the consecutive research cycles (WP2-4) being interpreted in this multidisciplinary format. The Open Studios are action-oriented, which means that their ultimate output consists of ideas for concrete action, input for recommendations to reshape policies, and unanswered questions (missing insights or knowledge) that can form the foundation of a future research agenda.
In total, twelve Open Studios were organised over the three cycles of the project, with a mix of participants from the consortium and invited participants. Each Open Studio (OS) had a different thematic focus that reflected important topics that came up in the research. For two days, participants went through a creative process inspired by better stories and by personas that were prepared based on results of the research activities of the project. The overall result was a total of 76 action-ideas that were further used and developed in the RESISTIRÉ project to:

• Formulate recommendations towards different target groups including policymakers, civil society organisations (including NGOs), employers, and other kinds of stakeholders.
• Launch pilot actions that tested and demonstrated the potential of innovative approaches
• Feed the research agenda of RESISTIRÉ, which was promoted to research funding organisations.

While the Open Studios generally proved to be a very successful method of translating the research insights into ideas for concrete action, there are still a number of important lessons that were learned throughout the three cycles that can help improve the Open Studio methodology. These are detailed near the end of the report and will serve to finetune the Open Studio concept for use in future projects.