The general task of capacity building in Higher Education Institutions of two partner countries South Africa and Russia in the framework of the LiLaCC project has two primary objectives.The LiLaCC consortium builds the MOOC in Disruptive Information Technologies (DIT) as applied to mitigation and adaptation in climate change. Secondly, in each partner university (South Africa and Russia), the LiLaCC project builds a fab lab with the research focus on Disruptive Information Technologies in Climate Change. Altogether four fab lab facilities will be created, and in each university from a partner country, i.e. at the University KwaZulu-Natal and Stellenbosch University (South Africa) as well as at the Northern (Arctic) Federal University and ITMO University (Russian Federation). Together with the existing facilities in programme countries (Finland and Sweden), these establishments comprise LiLaCC network Living Laboratory. Both significant outcomes of the LiLaCC project, i.e. MOOC and living laboratory infrastructure are intended in the first place for university students.However, since MOOCs are by definition, massive and open for the general public, the same applies to the availability of fab lab facilities. The prerequisite for an interested individual outside a partnering university to participate in a fab lab project would be the successful completion of the LiLaCC MOOC. This arrangement contributes to the issues of social responsibility of academia in South Africa and Russia and further emphasises and enhances societal participation and response to the climate change problems. The novelty of LiLaCC project lies in the combination of two disruptive approaches, which are a modern massive open pedagogical strategy (MOOC) along with the MOOCs subject matter in disruptive information technologies, which offers potential solutions to barriers impeding climate change mitigation actions.