PhD Student at Open Lab

Sebastian Prost

Sebastian is a final year PhD student in Digital Civics at Open Lab at Newcastle University, UK.

His research focuses on sustainable and inclusive food systems in the context of socio-economic deprivation. He is particularly interested in the role of digital technologies in enabling responsible research and innovation. In his PhD, Sebastian followed a participatory design and living lab approach to configure socio-digital tools to co-create and sustain food innovations.

The living lab builds on a close partnership between the university and civil society organisations to create an open-ended and long-term environment for innovation. So far, this included a local food hub, a co-design process to launch a community garden, and a pedagogic programme to engage young people with critical aspects of the food system. Sebastian has co-authored more than 10 peer-reviewed articles at the intersection of food, technology and society.

He holds a BA in Sociology from the University of Vienna, Austria, a BSc and MSc in Media Computer Science from the Vienna University of Technology, and an MRes in Digital Civics from Newcastle University.