Prototyping Labs for Local Innovation & Global Impact | 9th Edition: NNPC Limited – Nigeria
A strategic collaboration using digital fabrication, makerspace methodologies, and executive learning to activate innovation culture and future-focused capacity building at NNPC Limited – Nigeria
Supported and coordinated by Greenby International Ltd
Area
Supporting the transition towards regenerative and productive urban environments
Type of Project
Custom executive training and advisory program
A strategic collaboration between NNPC Limited, Fab Lab Barcelona, Greenby International Limited, and The Fab Foundation to explore how digital fabrication, makerspace methodologies, and hands-on executive learning can strengthen organisational innovation capacity and future-oriented workforce development. Through the ninth edition of the Prototyping Labs programme in Barcelona, participants from NNPC Limited engaged in an immersive training experience combining Fab Lab models, prototyping culture, and digital fabrication practices with strategic reflection on how these approaches could be adapted within the Nigerian context. The initiative built upon Fab Foundation’s earlier support for the deployment of NNPC’s new Fab Lab in Abuja, creating an integrated pathway that connected physical infrastructure development with people-centred activation, methodology transfer, and innovation culture building. By combining consultancy, executive training, ecosystem exposure, and practical learning, the project demonstrates how organisations can move beyond laboratory installation toward the creation of sustainable innovation ecosystems, internal learning cultures, and long-term institutional transformation.
The Goal
As organisations across sectors face accelerating technological change, workforce transformation, and the need for more agile innovation systems, NNPC Limited engaged with Fab Lab Barcelona to explore how digital fabrication, hands-on learning, and makerspace methodologies can support institutional capacity building, innovation culture, and the development of future-facing learning environments.
The collaboration reached Fab Lab Barcelona through the innovation advisory and consultancy services of Greenby International Limited, a Nigeria-based company that identified the opportunity, connected the parties, and coordinated the programme locally with NNPC Limited.
Importantly, the executive training experience delivered by Fab Lab Barcelona formed part of a broader process that had already begun with Fab Foundation’s support in the set-up of NNPC’s new Fab Lab in Nigeria. Prior to the facilitation of Prototyping Labs, Fab Foundation contributed to the deployment phase through services related to set-up, procurement, and installation, led by Jean-Michel Molenaar. Fab Foundation laboratory’s deployment services encompass the creation of Fab Labs from space design through purchasing, transport, and installation, as well as consultancy to help future labs become sustainable and meaningfully connected to local and global networks. This made Prototyping Labs a complementary layer focused on people, programmes, and activation once the physical lab development process in Abuja was underway.
This case study therefore reflects a model in which Prototyping Labs can be delivered either as a standalone executive training and advisory service, or in coordination with Fab Foundation’s lab deployment services, helping organisations move from infrastructure set-up to team preparation, methodology transfer, and strategic activation. In this sense, the training component plays a complementary role to the technical deployment process, ensuring that the installation of a lab is matched with the development of internal capacities and use strategies needed to activate it meaningfully by:
Introducing participants to Fab Lab and makerspace models as drivers of innovation, experimentation, and problem-solving.
Exploring how digital fabrication and prototyping can strengthen internal learning cultures and cross-disciplinary collaboration.
Transferring practical knowledge, methodologies, and inspiration that participants could later adapt to their own organisational and local context.
Demonstrating how executive training can complement the technical deployment of a lab by helping organisations activate people, programmes, and long-term use cases.
Our Approach
Fab Lab Barcelona combines experiential learning, strategic reflection, and exposure to real projects through the Adopt–Adapt–Create methodology used in its Prototyping Labs programmes.
For this edition, the programme was designed as a short, high-intensity learning journey in Barcelona that connected the existence of a future lab infrastructure in Abuja – Nigeria with the human, organisational, and methodological capacities required to make that infrastructure meaningful and sustainable.
Adopt: immersion in Fab Lab Barcelona’s model, facilities, workflows, and culture of innovation.
Adapt: reflection on how these methodologies and spaces could be translated into the Nigerian context and organisational realities of NNPC Limited.
Create: identification of opportunities for future application, internal capacity building, and possible next steps toward innovation-oriented learning environments.
Format and timeline
In-person executive training modules in Barcelona.
Hands-on exposure to Fab Lab Barcelona’s facilities, projects, and methodologies.
Strategic connection between lab infrastructure deployment and programme activation.
Supporting deliverables including training materials, photographic documentation, and digital certificates.
Our Contribution
Fab Lab Barcelona designed and facilitated a tailored executive training experience for the participant group from NNPC Limited, in collaboration with Greenby International Limited, and in strategic complementarity with the prior deployment support provided by Fab Foundation.
M1. Fab Lab foundations: the Fab Lab Barcelona model
Introduction to Fab Labs as platforms for innovation, learning, and collaboration. The module presented Fab Lab Barcelona’s operational model, organisational logic, workflows, and real-world applications, while offering participants direct exposure to the spaces, machines, and practices that shape the lab’s day-to-day activity.
M2. Prototyping culture and digital fabrication in practice
A hands-on exploration of how prototyping and digital fabrication tools can support experimentation, rapid iteration, and interdisciplinary problem-solving. The focus was not only on technologies, but on the mindset and methodologies required to make innovation more tangible and actionable inside organisations.
During M1 and M2, participants were also introduced to the broader local ecosystem of maker spaces in Barcelona through guided tours of key members of the ENSEMBLE Network of Productive Spaces. These guided visits included Akasha Hub, TMDC, and the Ateneu de Fabricació Les Corts, showcasing educational, community-based and professional makerspaces. The visits were designed to provide inspiration from different laboratory models and their role in promoting digital fabrication, technological literacy, and access to tools and knowledge.
Immersive learning experience
Participants were introduced to Fab Lab Barcelona’s wider innovation ecosystem through guided visits, demonstrations, and direct interaction with projects, experts, and facilities. This immersive dimension helped connect strategic ideas with concrete practices, making the learning process more immediate and applicable.
Knowledge transfer deliverables
To support continuity after the programme, Fab Lab Barcelona compiled and shared key learning materials, programme documentation, a photographic record of the experience, and digital participation certificates.
This edition also shows the value of Prototyping Labs as a service that can operate in two ways: independently, for organisations seeking executive training and innovation-oriented capacity building; or in coordination with Fab Foundation, where deployment of the physical lab is complemented by a parallel process of people-centred activation, learning design, and programme strategy.
Impact
The ninth edition of Prototyping Labs created value at several levels:
Capacity building for innovation: participants strengthened their understanding of how makerspaces, prototyping, and digital fabrication can support organisational learning and innovation processes.
Practical exposure to applied methodologies: the programme translated abstract concepts into direct experience, helping participants understand how labs operate in practice and how ideas move from concept to prototype.
Inspiration for future application: by engaging with Fab Lab Barcelona’s model and projects, participants were able to identify relevant insights and possible adaptations for their own institutional environment.
Coordination across complementary services: Greenby International Limited played a key role in identifying the opportunity and coordinating the collaboration, while Fab Foundation’s prior support in deployment created the physical basis upon which Fab Lab Barcelona’s training could build.
A stronger end-to-end offer: the case demonstrates how organisations can benefit from a combined pathway that includes lab deployment, procurement, and installation on one side, and executive training, activation, and methodology transfer on the other.
Foundation for continued collaboration: the training opened a pathway for future exchanges, feedback loops, and potential new editions or follow-up activities.
Project Team
Fab Lab Barcelona (IAAC) Direction and facilitation of content, consultancy, and network connection:
Milena Juarez. Prototyping Labs for Local Innovation and Global Impact Programme Director & Local Communities Expert at Fab Lab Barcelona.
Guillem Camprodon. Executive Director at Fab Lab Barcelona
Shyam Zonca. Director of Laboratories at IAAC
Jessica Guy. Distributed Design Lead at Fab Lab Barcelona
Julia Bertolaso. Creative Action Researcher at Fab Lab Barcelona
Chiara Dall’Olio – Programme Coordinator
Greenby International Limited: Innovation advisory, consultancy, and programme coordination:
Peter Edache. Programme coordinator with NNPC Limited
NNPC Limited Participant group and institutional counterpart.
Fab Foundation Deployment support prior to the training phase
Jean-Michel Molenaar. Director of Deployment and IT, leading support related to the set-up, procurement, and installation of the laboratory in Nigeria.
Who is it for?
Large organisations seeking new ways to strengthen internal innovation capacity through hands-on, future-oriented learning.
Public and private institutions interested in understanding how Fab Labs and makerspaces can support transformation, experimentation, and workforce development.
Universities, companies, and innovation leaders looking for immersive executive training programmes connected to real digital fabrication ecosystems.
Organisations exploring how to translate global innovation methodologies into local strategies and practical implementation pathways.
Institutions setting up new fabrication or innovation spaces and looking for a service that can support either the activation phase alone or a coordinated journey together with Fab Foundation’s deployment services.
Partners
Let’s prototype the future together
Would you like to bring this program to your institution or territory?
We tailor executive training and advisory programmes to your context, challenges, and ambitions.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
