ACTIVITIES :: Living Labs
Smart Cities and Living Labs for user-driven open innovation and the Future Internet
Constituency Building Workshop
Open Innovation for Internet-enabled services and
next
generation
access (NGA) services in 'smart' cities
Tuesday, 24 January 2012, from 09:00
to 17:00
Centre
Albert Borschette (CCAB), room AB-0D
Rue Froissart 36, 1040 Brussels
(map)
The workshop started with presenting the Objective 1.3 – "Open Innovation for Internet-enabled services and next generation access (NGA) services in 'smart' cities" – foreseen in the draft Work Programme 2012 of the ICT Policy Support Programme, and related ongoing activities. Opportunities have been provided for interested parties to present their pilot proposal ideas and for potential pilot participants to present their competences.
The pilots foreseen to be launched based on this Objective 1.3 are due to complement current pilots, such as these based on ICT PSP Work Programme 2010, and these pilots on ICT PSP Work Programme 2011. Other related projects can be found for example here.
For updates at the overall ICT Policy Support Programme level, follow the ICT PSP webpage.
Living Labs for user-driven open innovation
Citizens - Ever wanted to influence future technologies?
Companies and SMEs - Ever wanted to access larger or more varied markets?
Researchers - Ever dreamt of bringing revolutionary technological breakthroughs closer to the 'man on the street'?
As a user-driven open innovation system, Living Labs speeds up the innovation process by addressing the user's needs.
User-driven open innovation:
It is an efficient way to deal with market fragmentation and obstacles. Related methodologies, such as Living Labs, have made the innovation process more efficient by bridging the gap between R & D and market entrance, supporting better and faster take-up of R & D results. These methodologies are rapidly becoming the new mainstream method of innovating as they are expected to enable small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to create lead markets by overcoming existing barriers on various local and regional markets in Europe.
Through partnerships between citizens, businesses and public authorities, the Living Labs model allows people and industries to test tomorrow's best innovations in Information and Communications Technologies (ICT).
Living Labs:
Open innovation ecosystems in real-life settings in which user-driven innovation is fully integrated in the co-creative process of new services, products and societal infrastructures.
The Living Labs model includes end-user participation from an early stage of the creative process of technology development. As a result, evaluating aspects such as social and economic implications of new technologies has become more accurate. So the needs of users are better listened to and fulfilled.
The Living Labs model benefits citizens, industry and research
- Living Labs empower citizens, as end-users, to influence the development of innovative services & products that eventually could benefit the whole society.
- Living Labs allow industry to develop, validate and integrate new ideas, to partner with other companies and to increase their chances of success during product and/or service launches.
- Living Labs facilitate the integration of technological innovation in society and increase return on investments in ICT research.
Living Labs across domains and regions
There is a large number of Living Labs in Europe with a variety of different characteristics. The European Network of Living Labs ENoLL has now more than 100 members in 2008. Some focus on a particular technology such as mobile communications or RFIDs (Radio Frequency Identification), others focus on a particular industrial sector, again others focus on groups of services to local citizens, just to mention some of these characteristics.
There is an additional dimension – the European one, which is just starting to be explored: Small groups of Living Labs in different regions join forces by sharing knowledge, services and even developments based on win-win strategies to pave the way for co-selling developments and services on the European or global market rather than just on their local regional market. This "networked Living Labs" approach is of particular interest for SMEs and micro-entrepreneurs, which do not have the expertise and resources to expand their activities to other regions or across Europe due to different structural characteristics, regulations, or societal and economic structures in the respective regions and countries. Please find some typical examples:
Click on the picture for better quality
Living Labs have in general an important role in filling gaps. They bridge the different gaps between technology ideation and development on the one hand, and market entry and fulfilment on the other. As flexible ecosystems, Living Labs can provide a demand-driven 'concurrent innovation' approach by iteratively engaging all the key actors across the phases, and putting the user in the driver's seat. Living Labs often start their bridging in the applied research phase. Taking the step from technology prototypes for innovative and visionary users to evolving products for pragmatic and mainstream user, also called crossing the "pre-commercial gap" or "chasm", is the major acting field for Living Labs as iterative user involvement adds significant value to the rapid prototyping and service/product development phases.
Policy context
The Information Society and Media Directorate-General of the European Commission (Information Society and Media DG) is promoting user-driven open innovation methodologies in its research, development and innovation programmes along three dimensions.
By placing the user at the centre of the innovation lifecycle, and this in real life settings, the Living Lab concept is tightly linked to the first EUROPE 2020 priority, and to the ensuing Digital Agenda for Europe aiming "to deliver sustainable economic and social benefits from a Digital Single Market based on fast and ultra fast internet and interoperable applications".
Under the ICT policy support programme of the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (CIP) and the ICT Programme of the Seventh Framework Programme, the European Commission supports several projects with strong elements of user-centric open innovation and Living Lab methodologies.
The European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL), that was founded in 2006 and includes 212 members, is continuously supported through the ICT and other programmes.