European Concept of Living Lab

EDE2008, Sofia, 30-31 October 1

European Concept of Living Lab

Roumen NikolovSofia University


Basic definitionA Living Lab is about experimentation and co-creationwith real users in real life environments, where userstogether with researchers, firms and public institutions looktogether for new solutions, new products, new services ornew business models.Living Labs are about societal involvement, aboutpromoting open innovation in a societal basis, involvingacademia, SMEs, public institutions and large companies inan Open Innovation process that because happens in realenvironments has an immediate impact. Living Labs aim to contribute to a new InnovationSystem where users and citizens become activeactors and not only passive receivers.


European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL)


Living Labs in EU context


Bulgarian involvement in LL projectsECOSPACE, COMIST and other


i2Cat - Catalonia Digital LabThe i2CAT foundation is a non-profitorganization whose aim is to promoteresearch and innovation inadvanced Internet technology. The i2CAT model aims to makeInternet research and innovationaccessible to the whole of societythrough collaboration between the publicsector, businesses and research groupswithin universities and the educationalworld.i2CAT promotes the deployment ofservices and wideband applicationsfrom both public and private researchand innovation communities. The aim is to encouragetelecommunication and state operatorsas well as businesses to makeinfrastructures and experimentalservices available.


Mobile City Bremen Living Labcombines research, development, testing andmarketing of mobileproducts and services in a mobile cluster;thanks to targetedsponsorship and thededicated cooperation ofnumerous companies, universities and researchinstitutes, Bremen hasbecome a premium address for mobilesolutions;


Mobile City Bremen…The key elements of Mobile City Bremen are the Mobile ResearchCenter, the Mobile Solution Platform operated by the MobileSolution Group, and the Mobile Test Market. Point of entry is the Mobile Solution Center on the universitycampus. At the Mobile Research Center, more than 100 academics from thefields of information technology, communication engineering, design andmedia constitute a high-quality interdisciplinary research network for themobile future. The Mobile Solution Platform helps to make a success of mobileapplications more quickly. This open system platform adapts content to theusers’ various mobile devices and provides access to a multitude of users. Additionally, the city of Bremen is firmly established as an idealtesting environment for product launches and acceptance tests.


Rural Living Lab (RLL) – Gödöllő, HungaryServices:

Infrastructure andaccess points: Alternative mobile, satellite and wirelessapplicationsBusinessapplications suited torural SMEs: low costand easy to usesolutions, opensoftware and peer-to-peer platforms, Trading, ERP, SCM,…


Rural Living Lab…ServicesE-communities: knowledge and information management(semantic and content-based techniques), personalizedcontent and research technologies to support self-organisedcommunities (such as farmers and their organizations), building and enabling human relationships. Interfaces which will be critical for take-up: multi-lingual, multi-modal and adaptive, natural language interaction, visualisation technologies, …GIS (Geographic Information Systems) for characterisationof spatial entities to deliver position related services andassessment of rural development. Rural-related sectors (healthcare, tourism, agriculture), Food industry, requirement for selective technologydevelopment.


Manchester EastServe Living LabThe loss of heavy industry andmanufacturing in EastManchester has seen itspopulation decline from100,000+ to less than 30,000 people;LL aims to ensure that localpeople can develop the skillsto participate fully in theemerging informationsociety and to be able to takeadvantage of the new trainingand employment opportunitiesbecoming available through thetake-up of ICTs by smallbusinesses and socialenterprises


Manchester EastServe…The portal web site www.eastside.com is designedspecifically for the local community and provides access tolocal services and news about the area.The EastServe site delivers information and interactiveservices from the City Council, national governmentdepartments, the Police and local community networks. In spite of the concentration of low incomes, unemploymentand poverty in the area broadband take-up has now reached20% compared to 15% city-wide. Over 40 per cent of residents have now had basic ICT trainingbecause of EastServe, more than double the rate of most areasin the City. Plans are underway to expand the Eastservenetwork to cover 4500 homes in the area and eventualexpansion to 50,000 over the next three years is also beingconsidered in a new city wide digital inclusion initiative.


Thessaloniki Living Lablocated in the greater Metropolitan area ofThessaloniki; expected to build on the strengths of itsstakeholders, namely mobile services, interoperability, industrial informatics, eHealth / Home Care, the semantic Web, e.t.c.It is also expected to create synergies betweenthe ICT focused stakeholders and the more“traditional” industrial and service companiesof Thessaloniki which is one of the largest industrialand commercial centres of Greece and the greatersouth-east European region.


RENER LL – Renewable EnergiesSustainable Community - Lisbon

RENER LL aims to foster the development of a localcommunity by developing the smart grid conceptassociated with new renewable energytechnologies; RENER LL's mission is to induce the appropriatecontext, in a local community, to allow the researchand development, the test, implementation andvalidation of new energy technologies and solutions. In order to achieve this mission, RENER LL will actboth as a test bed and a demo site, putting a special emphasis in the smart grid concept as a way offostering the development and integrating multipletechnologies.


Thank you for your attention!

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European Concept of Living Lab