As we are moving full speed ahead into summer 2023, it’s time for the team at the European Network of Living Labs to take a step back and assess what we have achieved in the past months. We supported our community of Living Labs enthusiasts in their quest to increase their knowledge of open innovation and the creation of effective communities, not losing sight of things to come.

And to quote a master learner, Albert Einstein, “Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it”.  We truly believe that more than in any other context, mastering Living Labs requires passion and a long journey of practice and learning by doing/failing, without ever forgetting about the basics.

For this, and thousands of other reasons, the ENoLL team never stops and strives to create the most complete learning offer. An offer that is designed for any kind of student interested in the Living Lab exciting and challenging concept!

In the lines below we tried to pack all the different learning initiatives developed by the ENoLL team, both online and onsite, in the first half of 2023.

The following post will be dedicated to presenting the upcoming learning opportunities you can enroll in as of today, until the end of the year!

Do not miss this opportunity and be part of our community!

A view of past ENoLL training initiatives

ENoLL onsite training opportunities

In the past months we have delivered a series of onsite training courses in Europe, to help ambitious institutions set up and correctly manage their own Living Labs.

In the month of February 2023, we initiated our series of onsite training with 3 modules of lessons within the “Open Innovation and Youth Entrepreneurship in the Mediterranean Agrifood Sector Master” in Bari (Italy), organised by CIHEAM and University of Bari. The aim of the lessons was to support 16 international students in acquiring the relevant knowledge on co-creation processes in Living Labs, governance, and business models of a Living Lab. The course, held in 1 day, included 4 lessons and 4 hands-on sessions.

The second onsite training was held at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow (Poland), in March 2023, where we offered a 3-day course of 6 frontal lessons and 4 interactive hands-on sessions with 15 participants. This was a particularly good occasion for the Jagiellonian University to build up their “Campus Living Lab”, from the idea set-up to the identification of their potential services and solutions to be deployed for their targeted stakeholders. Through a series of methods, tools, and canvases, ENoLL supported this lively community to identify a set of streams of open innovation to be implemented via the “Campus Living Lab”.

This is what Beata Jalocha, Associate Professor at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków/Campus Living Lab lead said about this training: “Our team had a unique opportunity to work on the strategy of the newly created Campus Living Lab under the supervision of ENoLL experts. With their support, we developed the principles of governance model and focused on the vision of long-term lab activities. We could also reflect on the strategic areas of our competences. This allows us to implement, step by step, activities that will help us to manage our Living Lab in a thoughtful, sustainable way”.

The third onsite training was organised by ENoLL in Rotterdam, in April 2023, to support the management and operation of the Hogeschool Inholland Urban Leisure and Tourism Living Lab. The ENoLL team successfully delivered a 2.5-day training to 13 participants by holding 8 frontal lessons and 4 hands-on sessions. The main objective of the training was to provide the Inholland team with the necessary tools and methods to advance the Living Lab coordination and get the necessary knowledge to apply for the ENoLL Labelling and Certification process.

On top of these onsite training initiatives, the ENoLL team has participated in 2 online events.

ENoLL online training initiatives

The first opportunity was the EMIC Workshop organised by Future Center Alliance Japan: “Evaluation Model for Innovation Centers/Places“. During this inspiring session, ENoLL Living Lab members had the opportunity to exchange knowledge with FCAJ about their initiatives, experiences, and results on innovation ecosystems. Although the members were from different geographical spaces and fields perspectives, the objectives were similar, to discover ways in which the quadruple helix co-creation approach facilitates the resolution of complex social challenges.

Special thanks to all the ENoLL members who participated, and shared their experiences, and knowledge with FCAJ: Josep Maria Salanova Grau, Bror Salmelin, Omer Onur, Paata J. Kervalishvili, Fiona Zimmermann, Despoina Petsani, Rosa Almeida, Teemu Santonen, Stefan Laxness, Konstantinidou Maria.

With great pleasure, we are delighted to announce that the workshop gave us the opportunity to renew the MoU with FCAJ.

The second event was held within the “Mediterranean Innovation Agrifood Week”, hosted by CIHEAM Bari, where Dr. Francesca Spagnoli, Head of Capacity Building and Research at ENoLL, had the opportunity to present “The Living Labs as an open innovation ecosystem.”  The audience learned about how to engage stakeholders in Living Labs and develop successful governance and business models. A series of case studies from the ENoLL community were presented: Digital Gastronomy Lab (LABe – bcc innovation in the Basque culinary center) in Spain, ILVO Living Lab in Belgium, and the MEDIL Living Lab from CIHEAM in Italy. Moreover, a hands-on session on business modelling of Living Labs was organised.

Virtual Learning Labs 2023- Spring Edition

2023 was also the year of renewing our Capacity Building offer for the Virtual Learning Lab series. The Virtual Learning Lab brings together a community of participants and experts in exchanging knowledge on the key elements of Living Labs. A course that will fast-track learning through lectures and interactive sessions, a case study approach connecting theory to practice, as well as hands-on assignments to apply the learnings. In Spring 2023, ENoLL organised a 9-week Virtual Learning Lab program, which included the following lessons:

• Living Lab Basics, Long-term Vision & Openness of Innovation Processes
• Stakeholder Engagement Methodologies & Tools
• Implementation & Strategic Plans of Living Labs
• Governance Models for Living Labs
• Business Models, Funding & IPRs of Living Labs
• Experimentation and Co-creation in the Living Lab Environment
• How to Successfully Promote and Communicate Value and Activities of Living Labs Over Time
• Mentoring Session on Project Work
• Coaching Session on Final Project Work

In this edition, for the first time, the attendees had the opportunity to work together, split into groups, in weekly exercises, and on a common “Living Lab mapping canvas” provided by ENoLL, on a series of case studies conceived by our trainers. Moreover, at the end of the course, the participants experienced 2 additional sessions: a Mentoring Session, to work one-on-one with one of the ENoLL trainers; and a Coaching Session, where they shared each project with other participants and received final feedback from two of our trainers. This experience has been recognized by the Virtual Learning Lab attendees as a wonderful opportunity to really come out of the sessions with practical knowledge on how to build their own Living Lab. At the end of the course, the participants got either a “Certificate of Attendance”, or a “Certificate of Competence”, based on the exercises successfully completed.

The Spring edition of the Virtual Learning Lab 2023 was attended by 33 participants from 19 countries spanning from 3 different continents, as shown in detail in the picture below.

Read what Youssef Yammine, Cleantech Specialist at Berytech Innovation Park (Lebanon) said about the Virtual Learning Lab 2023 Spring Edition experience: “Attending the Living Lab training with ENoLL was an absolute delight! The insightful sessions, the exercises, the trainer’s knowledge and expertise and the online collaborative atmosphere made it a transformative experience. Grateful for the valuable knowledge gained. Throughout the training, I gained valuable knowledge and practical skills that have greatly enriched my understanding of the Living Lab concept and had the opportunity to connect with like-minded people from different backgrounds, expertise and regions having the same purpose: learn and launch the concept of Living Labs in their projects. The interactive nature of the sessions and the opportunity to collaborate with fellow participants made the learning process enjoyable and engaging”.