Living labs are strong instruments that support healthy communities, cities and regions in their transition towards a resilient and sustainable future based on open and inclusive innovation. As orchestrators of open innovation environments, Living Labs involve all stakeholders to tackle real-life problems and co-create concrete, long-term impacts which can be scaled-up. Here we invite contributions on Living Lab research best practice.The Living Lab model as an emerging practice focusing on open innovation has particular resonance in contexts that have the wellbeing and quality of life at their heart with a focus on the role of technologies supporting this aim. Living lab networks, such as the European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL), have a global presence and provide a collaborative approach in bringing together stakeholders to explore and design technological solutions addressing real-world challenges. A critical difference to other forms of innovation or technology incubation is that the living lab approach centers the design and evaluation of these innovations directly with citizens and users so they can shape the innovation to their real-life environments based on needs and expectations with real impact on their quality of life and wellbeing.
At present, the potential has not been fully recognized in our understanding of the extent of living lab approaches in the design and development of solutions to solve complex problems in our society and scale them within large ecosystems (e.g. public health, aged care, smart cities, rural areas, transportation and social structures) in sustainable ways through emerging technologies.
The aim of this Research Topic is to raise the awareness and opportunities of current international research and practice in the intersection of living lab models and digital public health and well-being across communities, cities and regions.
In this Research Topic, we particularly welcome research articles that explore the following sub-themes:
· Case studies of the real-world application of living lab approaches to human’ aspects of innovation with multiple stakeholder groups (e.g. services, information products, education, policy, methods); ‘
· Digital innovations co-designed, co-produced, or co-created with users and stakeholders sustainable products and services (e.g. public health and aged care, connecting regions, green transformation, and teaching tools or platforms);
· Challenges and barriers to adoption of living lab approaches in society (e.g. lack of methods, workforce skills, resourcing, governance structures and borders).
Living labs are strong instruments that support healthy communities, cities and regions in their transition towards a resilient and sustainable future based on open and inclusive innovation. As orchestrators of open innovation environments, Living Labs involve all stakeholders to tackle real-life problems and co-create concrete, long-term impacts which can be scaled-up. Here we invite contributions on Living Lab research best practice.The Living Lab model as an emerging practice focusing on open innovation has particular resonance in contexts that have the wellbeing and quality of life at their heart with a focus on the role of technologies supporting this aim. Living lab networks, such as the European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL), have a global presence and provide a collaborative approach in bringing together stakeholders to explore and design technological solutions addressing real-world challenges. A critical difference to other forms of innovation or technology incubation is that the living lab approach centers the design and evaluation of these innovations directly with citizens and users so they can shape the innovation to their real-life environments based on needs and expectations with real impact on their quality of life and wellbeing.
At present, the potential has not been fully recognized in our understanding of the extent of living lab approaches in the design and development of solutions to solve complex problems in our society and scale them within large ecosystems (e.g. public health, aged care, smart cities, rural areas, transportation and social structures) in sustainable ways through emerging technologies.
The aim of this Research Topic is to raise the awareness and opportunities of current international research and practice in the intersection of living lab models and digital public health and well-being across communities, cities and regions.
In this Research Topic, we particularly welcome research articles that explore the following sub-themes:
· Case studies of the real-world application of living lab approaches to human’ aspects of innovation with multiple stakeholder groups (e.g. services, information products, education, policy, methods); ‘
· Digital innovations co-designed, co-produced, or co-created with users and stakeholders sustainable products and services (e.g. public health and aged care, connecting regions, green transformation, and teaching tools or platforms);
· Challenges and barriers to adoption of living lab approaches in society (e.g. lack of methods, workforce skills, resourcing, governance structures and borders).
