<p>Real-world laboratories address societal challenges at the intersection of science and practice by combining transdisciplinary collaboration with experimental approaches. Particular emphasis is placed on the intensive cooperation of all involved actors—from problem identification to the transfer of results. Real-world lab research is becoming increasingly popular, especially in those areas where solutions are to be developed and implemented jointly by experts and users or target groups, such as in sustainable urban development or technological innovations. Real-world labs provide an infrastructural framework for collaboratively defining problems, developing solutions, and testing them under real-world conditions with practitioners, researchers, and civil society actors. In social work, however, real-world lab research has so far received surprisingly little attention, even though its focus on social innovation and societal transformation aligns closely with the core principles of the profession. Real-world lab research and methodology can be used to engage with social work practice, its organizational frameworks, or its societal embedding and to help shape transformation and development processes together with relevant stakeholder groups. This article first describes the motivations behind real-world lab research, ideal-typical aspects, key discourses, and constitutive characteristics, before presenting possible approaches and practical steps for initiating real-world lab projects.</p>