LAB42 is the University of Amsterdam’s new centre for Digital Innovation and AI. Where students and researchers from UvA’s Informatics Institute, the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC) and companies all work together. 

We believe that people are key to solving the technological challenges of the future. That is why we create an environment where people can develop themselves. The best way to achieve this is to put research, education and industry under one roof.

To share knowledge and nurture innovation. In a building where first-rate students, the latest research and other AI companies are within reach.


Being part of the community gives companies a benefit

'Answer tomorrows questions together'. With this message in large letters at the entrance to LAB42 every visitor and resident is being welcomed. By 'together' is meant not only cooperation between scientists and students within the institutes themselves, but also with companies. Especially for those companies, the third floor of the brand-new building has been reserved. Companies wishing to hold offices here can contact business developer Siddique Sheikh. 'We want students, researchers and companies who are here to really get to know each other,' he says as he gives a short tour of the building. 'That's also why the walls are mostly glass. Look, you can see inside everywhere like this.'

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'Our mission is to do three things: top education, top research and impactful valorisation.'

LAB42 is more than just another new building. It is meant to create a new ecosystem. 'Our mission is to do three things', says the director of the Informatics Institute Alfons Hoekstra, 'top education, top research and impactful valorisation. This is the first time we have all those three functions together in one building. The third floor houses the co-creation space. Above that, are three floors with academic research, and below are all the teaching spaces. We easily meet in this building. It feels like a unity, that we have never had before. Education and research is of course what we have traditionally been doing. The third function, valorisation is relatively new, so it is exciting to see how it will play out to have it under one roof.'

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‘We wanted to create a fully circular building. Keeping that goal in mind was a huge challenge.’

The future LAB42 building will be zero-energy, easy to dismantle and reusable – so naturally, designing and building it was no easy feat. An interview with the building’s architect, Joost Vos.

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Answer tomorrow’s questions together

LAB42 believes the future is human. The future needs people who can guide dialogue, kickstart innovation, and link technological advancement to societal problems.

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