Amsterdam-based research lab bridging technology and society through citizen co-creation, FabLabs, data sovereignty, and responsible digital innovation.
Waag Society is an Amsterdam-based research lab and FabLab operator that sits at the intersection of technology, design, and society. They specialize in co-creating digital tools and methodologies with citizens — from privacy-preserving data architectures to maker education programs and open-source hardware. Their practical contribution to EU projects is bringing citizen engagement, ethical technology design, and creative prototyping into technically-driven consortia, ensuring solutions are grounded in real community needs. They operate across digital rights, urban transformation, circular economy, and science education.
Core role across DECODE (citizen-owned data), URBANITE (co-creation for urban AI), DSI4EU/DSISCALE (digital social innovation), Making Sense (their only coordinated project), and Cities-4-People.
Consistent thread from DOIT (maker education for youth) through Make it Open (FabLab, inquiry-based learning), shemakes.eu (FabLab gender gap), Made4You (digital fabrication healthcare), and OPEN_NEXT (open source hardware).
Deep involvement in DECODE (decentralised data, blockchain, privacy design strategy), CLARITY (eGovernment transparency), and URBANITE (AI with co-creation governance).
Projects like REFLOW (circular material flows), CENTRINNO (industrial area transformation), T-Factor (culture-led urban hubs), and ATELIER (positive energy districts) show consistent urban systems work.
Two rounds of STARTS Prize (arts/technology innovation), FEAT (future and emerging art), BrainHack (art-science brain interfaces), and ARTSFORMATION (arts for digital transformation).
Recent projects URBANITE and ARTSFORMATION explicitly address artificial intelligence governance, future of work, and democracy concerns — a clear growth area from 2020 onward.
In 2014-2018, Waag focused on citizen science, digital social innovation platforms, collaborative economy, and art-science crossovers — exploratory work establishing their identity as a bridge between technology and society. From 2019 onward, their projects shifted toward more applied domains: circular economy (REFLOW), AI governance (URBANITE, ARTSFORMATION), FabLab-based education, and smart city energy systems (ATELIER). The evolution shows a move from broad digital-social experimentation toward concrete urban and industrial challenges where citizen engagement meets hard technology.
Waag is moving toward applied AI ethics, circular economy design, and FabLab-driven manufacturing — expect them to seek projects combining responsible AI with tangible urban or industrial outcomes.
Waag operates almost exclusively as a participant (30 of 31 projects), bringing citizen engagement methodology and creative prototyping into larger consortia rather than leading them. With 364 unique partners across 38 countries, they are a well-connected hub — not locked into repeat partnerships but instead plugging into diverse consortia wherever the citizen-technology interface needs attention. Their even split between Innovation Actions (11) and Coordination/Support Actions (11) shows they contribute both to building things and to shaping ecosystems.
Waag has collaborated with 364 distinct partners across 38 countries, making them one of the most broadly networked research organizations in the Netherlands. Their partnerships span all of Europe with no narrow geographic concentration, reflecting their role as a versatile methodology partner that fits into many consortium configurations.
Waag occupies a rare niche: they are a design-and-technology research lab that genuinely practices citizen co-creation rather than just studying it. Unlike universities that theorize about public engagement or tech companies that build tools without community input, Waag operates physical FabLabs and runs real participatory processes — making them credible to both technical partners and civil society. For consortium builders, they solve the perennial problem of "how do we make this project actually involve citizens" with tested methods rather than checkbox exercises.
