Digital Kiosks

One way to tackle overconsumption is to give people the option to rent goods instead of purchasing: the sharing economy. This provides environmental and socioeconomic benefits. However, the sharing economy is made up of small-scale initiatives and it is unknown what this economy needs to scale up.

The Digital Kiosk project aims to evaluate the application and use of innovative (digital) sharing stations. Understanding sharing stations experiences of users, the general public, investors and local municipalities can support the development of the sharing economy.

A scalable sharing station
A science-based innovation framework for sharing stations
Understanding consumption behavior of potential sharing goods
Cooperation between municipalities, research agents and sharing station providers

01 May 2024 - 01 May 2027

New sharing economy infrastructure will be piloted in city-regions. Lockers with a digital interface will be placed on 22 locations across European cities. They can be used by local residents to gain access to shared goods. These pilots are realized through cooperation between sharing station providers, municipalities and academic researchers.

Impact on education

The Digital Kiosks project provides ample opportunity for students to contribute to ongoing research with societal relevance. Potential activities consist of public survey design, analysis of user data, impact assessment and designing citizen engagement activities. The collaborative nature and the location of the pilots supports multidisciplinary projects for comparative assessments and international site-visits. Students interested in the sharing economy, bottom-up transformation processes and public-private partnership approaches can contact the project researcher to discuss options.