The creation of innovation laboratories within universities arises from the need to consolidate pedagogical and research aspects. These innovation laboratories are becoming key spaces for the development of innovation competences. In this article, we describe the experiences of developing a pilot project on distributed recycling approach. The results showed how the development of this project can play a role in strategy development at the innovation laboratory level. These insights are pertinent for the managers of these spaces to identify com-petencies to develop in the middle/long term. The development of methodological tools to connect the operational, tactical and strategic levels and competences for these spaces are important future paths of development