The session brought together founders, investors, innovation support organisations, educators and public-sector representatives to explore how Malta could strengthen its innovation ecosystem by adopting a Living Lab approach for EdTech startups. The session was jointly moderated by Stacy Quackenbush (Hive3), Mariah Vella and Enya Maria Haber (both Xjenza Malta), Vladyslav Saviak (SuperCharger Ventures), and our Dr. Cari Leyshon and Dr. Andreas Meiszner, PhD.
Building on founder experiences and ecosystem perspectives, the discussion focused on improving how startups test, validate and scale innovations through stronger collaboration between industry, academia and government.
Rather than isolated pilot projects, the vision discussed was of an ecosystem where government, academia and industry actively facilitate experimentation and knowledge sharing.
What We Can Learn from Living Labs: The Value of Trusted Pathways
Many startups struggle not because they lack innovative ideas, but because they cannot easily gain access to schools, universities, businesses and public-sector organisations willing to pilot new technologies.
The discussion reinforced that successful founders spend significant time understanding customers and validating assumptions before seeking investment, rather than relying solely on the strength of their product. Creating trusted pathways can therefore be an effective means of supporting startups and innovation.
This is where the analogy with the Living Lab model fits particularly well: it creates trusted pathways for collaboration, enabling founders to gather evidence, validate products and iterate more quickly.
Identified Enablers for Nurturing Trusted Pathways and Collaboration
The dialogue highlighted the importance of improving communication and collaboration across the ecosystem.
Several opportunities were identified:
- creating clearer routes for founders to access public institutions, universities and corporate partners;
- increasing dialogue between policymakers and entrepreneurs to better understand startup realities;
- supporting networking opportunities that build trusted relationships across sectors;
- recognising startups as long-term contributors to economic growth rather than expecting immediate high-growth success.
Participants emphasised that many founders simply need easier access to potential collaborators, customers and testing environments, rather than additional bureaucracy.
Language as a Key Barrier and Enabler
Scientists, startups, business sectors, the education sector and policymakers all speak different languages. This is not new: we are naturally shaped by the environments in which we operate, and these environments influence how we frame problems, interpret evidence and define what constitutes a useful outcome. It is nevertheless important, as understanding these barriers and addressing them can also open up opportunities for richer discussions, knowledge exchange and the transfer of best practice.
This was one of the recurring learnings that emerged during the three-month Startup Ecosystem Insight Lab initiative. At GSBM, we are experienced in guiding working professionals through their doctoral journey, which in some respects shares similarities with the development journey that startups go through. Both involve navigating uncertainty, challenging assumptions, working with evidence and progressively refining an idea or approach. Yet the two worlds are framed differently, and these different framings can create a clear barrier to connection.
Given this, we want to take some of the way doctoral researchers are trained to approach complex problems and test what it can do for a real business.
This will be the focus of our next—and first—Doctoral Research & Innovation Exchange: Translation Layer, taking place on Thursday, 10 September 2026.
If this sounds of interest to you, please register your interest in participating in the session.
