EUKN - European Urban Knowledge Network

Living Labs Europe

Introduction

Living Labs Europe opens up the potentials of innovative mobile applications and technologies to European citizens, companies, researchers and investors for the purpose of pioneering mobile applications for European end-users and markets, enhance Attractiveness for visitors, residents, business and to provide a European platform for collaboration and opening innovative markets.

Description

Across Europe, cities and regions gain comparative advantages by swiftly advancing their infrastructure for transportation and telecommunications. Cities that become nodes in cross-border networks attract business firms and investors, tourists and other visitors. More and more, “hub cities” are becoming significant transaction points for global flows of goods, services, people and ideas. They gain advantage not only for themselves but for the surrounding region and for other such coupled cities.

A Living Lab is a city area which operates a full-scale urban laboratory and proving ground for inventing, prototyping and marketing new mobile technology applications. A Living Lab includes interactive testing, but is managed as an innovation environment well beyond the test bed functions.

As a city-based innovation resource the Living Lab can take advantage of the pools of creative talent, the affluence of socio-cultural diversity, and the unpredictability of inventiveness and imagination in the urban setting.

Participants

The city regions of Barcelona, Budapest, Catalunya, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Istanbul, London, Lund, Malmö, Matarò, Øresund, Oslo, Salzburg, Sant Cugat, Sophia-Antipolis, Stockholm, Stuttgart, Tallinn, Torino and Västervik participate in the Living Labs.

Objectives

For European cities, the Living Lab is an instrument to construct internationally competitive advantages, attract inward investments and manage the city brand. Through Public-Private Partnerships cities promote innovative services to their citizens, visitors and enterprises. Through Living Labs Europe, even small communities have successfully pioneered innovative mobile solutions that inspire the European marketplace, gaining growth and international visibility.

Products

Living Labs across Europe are already actively supporting cities and stakeholder communities as they shape new offerings, such as:

mStudent: Universities linked to Living Labs are now equipped to offer students an interactive, mobile dialogue via a dedicated platform for communication services, where messages related to education and student life are communicated momentarily via the mobile phone.
mDoctor: The “mobile doctor” has managed to leave most of the paper work behind. When out on call the “mobile doctor” uses a PDA (personal digital assistant) or a mobile phone to access medical files and update the pharmacy information in real time.
mTourist: information and interactive services are important elements in all place marketing.
mTeacher: Language training has emerged as an attractive mobile service generated by the Livings Labs.
mGovernment: A civil servant responsible for social welfare can update and even reorganise service provision via an instant search for vacancies.
mMarketing: A new service infrastructure is under development to turn urban furniture like bus-stops into interactive wireless marketing and communications channels. Living Labs are integrating such mMarketing infrastructures with mGovernment, mTourist and mStudent services.

Contact info

Living Labs Europe, Copenhagen Office
Prof. Jan Annerstedt, tel. +45 3071 1761

Links

Living labs Europe

Document type

network

Themes

Urban Policy > Economy knowledge & employment

Keywords

Research & innovation