At the end of October, the COLABORAR volunteer network celebrated its 12th anniversary. The occasion, which was marked with a Halloween Ball in the UPTEC auditorium, included some of the network’s volunteers.
COLABORAR was created in 2011. It is open to the outside world, meaning that companies or organisations can use this network as a way of gathering suggestions and expectations from the target audience for new products and services. Over the years, volunteers in this group have taken part in all kinds of research activities, such as in-depth interviews, usability tests, everyday observation sessions, group discussion sessions, surveys and user experience evaluation. Since its beginning, COLABORAR has conducted a total of 3,266 research activities as part of 83 R&D projects.
The COLABORAR network also has several partner institutions. Currently, 20 are active, but in COLABORAR’s history, 82 institutional partnerships have been established. The group already has 1616 volunteers, with 552 currently active.
COLABORAR was created to connect technology researchers with users in different application areas such as well-being, health, security, agriculture, retail, energy, quality of life in old age and technology for communities. Creating technology is not exclusive to researchers and programmers. COLABORAR volunteers are also part of the process.