KTH Makerspace Network – establishment and cooperation
The project involves establishing a coherent ecosystem of open, experimental and accessible makerspaces at KTH. The project is also expected to contribute to increased visibility for KTH's work with student-centred and experimental learning, innovation and interdisciplinary educational development.
Project context
Based on the decision on specialised makerspaces at KTH, project Strategic direction for experimental environments (makerspaces) at KTH (2408-KTH) , extensive development work is already underway at the schools and at KTH Central Makerspace (2525-KTH) .
KTH is – through this project within the framework of Future Education – establishing a coherent ecosystem of open, experimental and accessible makerspaces. The project is also expected to contribute to increased visibility for KTH's work with student-centred learning, innovation and interdisciplinary educational development.
The ecosystem firstly consists of a distributed network of specialised makerspaces at the schools, where each school develops profiles adapted to its educational and research areas. Secondly, it includes KTH's Central Makerspace, which constitutes a visible and welcoming hub for the maker community and provides shared functions. All the makerspaces in the ecosystem constitute a physical and socially inclusive infrastructure that supports pedagogical practical pilot activities. Each school also already has a number of best practices from existing experimental environments that can be shared.
A central starting point is to make the makerspaces easily accessible to all KTH students and employees through several clear entrances to the operations, shared systems and an inclusive student culture.
Purpose (outcome)
The purpose of the project is to contribute to KTH's long-term development of future educational environments by creating a coherent ecosystem of open, experimental and accessible makerspaces. The impact objectives are:
- improved access to advanced learning environments,
- increased student use of makerspaces,
- strengthened practical and experimental learning,
- increased progression of maker activities and skills without being locked into a specific school/programme,
- increased interdisciplinary collaboration between students and schools,
- increased student activity and student-driven innovation,
- a more vibrant and inclusive campus environment,
- increased visibility for KTH's work with student-centred learning, innovation and interdisciplinary educational development.
Project results (output)
Since the makerspace initiative means that project activities are ongoing at all KTH schools and at KTH's Central Makerspace, it is important to reduce redundancy between (reduce the burden on) the individual projects. The output that can be produced jointly and shared is important for this purpose. Another advantage is that such jointly designed output is experienced as more uniform by the makerspace users, even if its content differs between the schools. The ecosystem as a whole is then experienced as more open. Another possibility is to increase the scalability of use by having standardised equipment that can be shared by larger student groups.
1. Jointly produced and shared output: The list of joint outputs must be defined in consultation with the schools' makerspace projects, but a recommendation is the following elements:
- A communication platform (website/portal) that enables:
- Visibility (public) of all makerspaces
- Internal communication between all makerspaces – can be seen as a digital collaboration tool for knowledge sharing and joint development between all makerspaces;
- Jointly implemented communication activities for:
- students (ranging from student information on the website, via targeted news, to student activities during the reception weeks)
- KTH employees (presentations, study visits, etc.);
- Jointly developed* model for security management;
- Jointly developed* educational material for introduction and use of the specialised makerspace (students, teachers, researchers, etc.).
* Each makerspace may have very specific security requirements. However, the actual management (development of security regulations, confirmation via canvas course that the user has taken part, etc.) can be handled jointly – both to relieve the burden on the individual makerspaces and to ensure a uniform experience for the users of the makerspaces. The same principle applies to the educational material.
2. Coordination*, coordinated reporting and visibility of the individual makerspace projects' development of their respective:
- Specialised makerspaces, where each school develops profiles adapted to its educational and research areas;
- Pedagogical pilots (take place in selected courses at each school);
- Best practices (which are shared on the aforementioned internal collaboration platform).
* The project will, as part of the coordination, strive to identify and remove obstacles to the schools' work.
Time plan
Start date: 2026-06-01
End date: 2027-12-31
Project documentation
If you have a KTH ID, you can read the documents when logged in:
- Poster: The project’s first poster (in Swedish) will be available at the ”Storträffen” meetup autumn 2026
- Project directive (Swedish): Projektdirektiv_FrU25_2608-KTH_Makerspace-Network.pdf
