The Envi­ron­men­tal Futures and Big Data Impact Lab is a part­ner­ship of sev­en Devon-based organ­i­sa­tions, work­ing togeth­er to help busi­ness­es analyse data to cre­ate new prod­ucts and ser­vices, focus­ing on safe­guard­ing the environment.

An aug­ment­ed real­i­ty art­work by Dr Tom Milnes, co-cre­at­ed with stu­dents and sup­port­ed by Fab Lab South West 3D scan­ning, that engaged the pub­lic with ash dieback through sev­en twi­light per­for­mances on Ply­mouth Hoe, Devon, and mobile AR access city-wide.

The Smart Cit­i­zens Pro­gramme is open­ing Fab Lab South West to com­mu­ni­ties. We’re sup­port­ing cit­i­zens in devel­op­ing skills to design and make their own objects, prod­ucts and art­work using dig­i­tal fabrication.

Devon-based Barnaby’s Brew­house worked with Fab Lab South West to design and pro­to­type a sys­tem that cap­tures and puri­fies CO₂ from beer fer­men­ta­tion. The inno­va­tion reduces reliance on fos­sil fuel-derived CO₂, cuts costs, and opens new pos­si­bil­i­ties for reuse in food and agriculture.

Fab Lab South West worked with Dorset-based Agri­ki­net­ics to test whether mis­cant­hus grass pulp could replace import­ed paper and card in pack­ag­ing. The project proved the con­cept, pro­duc­ing moulds for fruit car­tons and sup­port­ing a grant to scale local production.

SageTech part­nered with Fab Lab South West to pro­to­type com­po­nents for an anaes­thet­ic gas cap­ture and recy­cling sys­tem — accel­er­at­ing R&D from con­cept to pilot and sup­port­ing a low­er-car­bon future for oper­at­ing theatres.

Fab Lab South West sup­port­ed Atkin­son Archi­tects with LiDAR scan­ning and archi­tec­tur­al mod­el-mak­ing for a Grade I‑listed ren­o­va­tion on the Dart­ing­ton Estate, deliv­er­ing dig­i­tal pre­ci­sion and tan­gi­ble pro­to­types to inform con­ser­va­tion planning.

Irish glass artist and Arts Uni­ver­si­ty Ply­mouth alum­na Lau­ra Quinn col­lab­o­rat­ed with Fab Lab South West to cre­ate mod­u­lar, wear­able glass art using bespoke 3D-print­ed con­nec­tors, blend­ing tra­di­tion­al glass­blow­ing with dig­i­tal fab­ri­ca­tion for more sus­tain­able, adapt­able design.

The EU fund­ed Atlantic Cre­ative Youth Hubs Project builds a social inno­va­tion mod­el for young peo­ple sup­port­ing social entre­pre­neur­ship, employ­ment and edu­ca­tion in the cre­ative and cul­tur­al industries.

Art & Ener­gy CIC part­nered with Fab Lab South West at Arts Uni­ver­si­ty Ply­mouth in Ply­mouth, South West Eng­land, to explore how pho­to­volta­ic pan­els can be cut, engraved and artis­ti­cal­ly fin­ished with­out sac­ri­fic­ing per­for­mance. The col­lab­o­ra­tion demon­strates how cre­ative tech­nol­o­gy can accel­er­ate pub­lic accep­tance of green infra­struc­ture by mak­ing it desir­able as well as functional.

Bridg­ing the dig­i­tal divide that hin­ders the use of dig­i­tal fab­ri­ca­tion knowl­edge and tech­nolo­gies in the Euro­pean cul­tur­al and cre­ative sectors.

We want to inspire dig­i­tal mak­ers, devel­op dig­i­tal mak­ing skills in young peo­ple, and sup­port the dig­i­tal agen­da with­in the curriculum.

Our Skills Sup­port for the Work­force project invit­ed busi­ness­es, artists and small traders into our Fab Lab to take part in a course that trained them how to use the kit and then how to adapt it to their practice.

Part of Ven­turefest South West, Hack­Fest is a coun­ty-wide project for young peo­ple to come togeth­er to cre­ate prod­uct pro­to­types that respond to the issues of the future.