The Interdisciplinary Laboratory of Creative Problem Solving - Regional Development is offered as an elective course to first and second-year’s master students of LEGS. The course accounts for 3 ETC and comprises a total of 16 teaching hours. The modules are held by a researcher team of the Eurac Research Institute for Regional Development (Bolzano-Bozen, Italy) and include some interventions by local and international guest speakers.
The laboratory is structured around a basic theoretical overview and a series of practical insights and up-to-date case studies linked to creative problem solving practices in different ambits of regional development. It aims at familiarizing students with alternative approaches to problem-solving and provides them with a practical tool-kit to enrich their soft-skills and general knowledge of collaborative techniques.
The laboratory takes its inputs and contents from different research fields including social and natural sciences, legal studies and cultural management. A common trait among all sections of the laboratory is the interdisciplinary approach of creative problem-solving case studies, their link to applied research within the context of Regional Development and the overall perspective of tackling conflicts as a source of opportunities.

The laboratory was launched and coordinated by Eleonora Psenner and is carried out together with fellow researchers from different areas of the Institute for Regional Development, including in particular Isidoro De Bortoli, Federica Maino and Bianca Elzenbaumer.