Seven countries in the Nordic-Baltic region have joined in an initiative named LILAN (Living Labs in the North) financed by NORDFORSK. The objective of this initiative is to establish Nordic-Baltic cooperation and a joint R&D project funding programme within the field of living labs.
LILAN wants to enhance innovation by empowering users. LILAN will also increase the competiveness of organizations and improve people’s quality of life. This is done through funding of R&D projects involving people in everyday situations together with a structured setting of openly collaborating developing companies, researchers and public authorities.
Companies of today meet the challenge to be globally competitive and at the same time face the trends of individualization. Industry urge for new business models and innovation methods to stay successful. Correspondingly, citizens are facing an information society, where options are overwhelming and their choices influence not only their own wellbeing, but also the state of the planet.
To face the challenge, one way is the development of new products and/or services, secured on a wider market and offering solutions that meet people’s needs and play along with a desirable behavior. The LILAN initiative is convinced that there exist some characteristics in the Nordic- Baltic region on which one may build such development.
Living Lab Definition
Living Labs is an organized set of methods and stakeholder, hich focus on user involvement, user-centric rsearch methodology for sensing, prototyping and validating solutions in evolving real life contexts.
Impact and Benefits
Living Labs integrate the user into the development process ensuring highly reliable market evaluation.
Reduction of Technology and Business Risks
Good for SME and start-ups, since they can share resources without so much venture capital. Large companies have access to a broader base of ideas.
Some Important Characteristics
- People’s positive attitude towards participating and sharing experiences.
- High adaption of new technologies.
- Strong design traditions, especially functional.
- Strong R&D support from government and tradition of democracy and equality.
- High educational level of people.
Living Labs: Main Elements
- Cooperation and Participation – an essential mix of stakeholders. Public and private and research. Stakeholder from a value chain.
- Openness
- Technology – that provide opportunities.
- User involvement – methods and experiences.
- Research involvement – and market research feedback.
Why Network of Labs Cross Borders
The object of Living labs across Europe or Living-Lab. Net project is to develope a multi disciplinary research and testing platform in the Nordic region. The concentration is on the immediate environment for the users point of view. Living-Lab research and development platform is open and shared by multidisciplinary research organizations and industry. The European Network of Living Labs-ENoLL comprises of 52 different existing or emerging Living Labs which have committed to exchange experiences and develop ways to collaborate. The aim is to enable netbased services for user driven research, development and innovation.
Why Living Lab?
The Living Lab concept originates from MIT, Boston, MediaLab and School of Architecture and city planning. The Living Lab is a forum for research and innovation applied for development of new products, services and contents. It employs working methods to integrate users throughout the development process and recognises the needs of users and working conditions of service providers. The nature of the Living Lab is openness and neutrality in respect to technology or business models. This approach calls for public involvement not only in funding but also for new means of governance, leadership, management, and organizing.
Partners are:
- Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems (VINNOVA) Coordinator
- Danish Council for Strategic Research (DASTI)
- Finnish Innovation Fund (SITRA)
- The Icelandic Centre for Research (RANNIS)
- Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (LIAA)
- Information Society Development Committee, Lithuania (ISDC)
- The Research Council of Norway (RCN)
