OpenLivingLab Days 2017 brings together both academics and managers from fields of innovation and fields applying Living Labs and Living Laboratories to explore the benefits Living Labs provide for a variety of stakeholders. The 5th edition of the Living Lab Research Day at the OpenLivingLab Days conference is an opportunity for researchers and practitioners to:

• Bring together a state-of-the-art review of Living Lab concepts and their usage
• Strengthen Living Labs as an area of innovation
• Assess new trends, current challenges and developments of Living Labs
• Co-create new disruptive innovation models
• Establish strong connections with other emerging disciplines

Tracks

Please submit your paper only in one of the three tracks below:

Track 1 Reflecting on, and in, research and practice in Living Lab processes

Track Chair: PhD Anna Ståhlbröst, associate professor at Luleå University of Technology (Sweden) and research director of Botnia Living Lab and PhD Marita Holst, General Manager at Botnia Living Lab

This track expects papers reflecting on the Living Labs concept and processes, and how it has grown and matured during the last fifteen years. We invite papers reflecting on research and practice in processes such as, need-finding, co-creation, design, as well as real-world tests and evaluations. In addition, we expect articles reviewing how the concept of Living Lab emerged and how this is reflected in current research practices. Issues and questions might include (but are not limited to) the following:

·         In what way do current Living Lab practices support reflection and learning from practice to support innovation and research?

·         How is reflective practice and research framed, developed and conducted in innovation processes conducted in Living Labs?

·         In what ways does reflective practice contribute to the innovation process in Living Labs?

·         How do reflective practices in research and innovation activities (e.g., interpretive, participatory, critical, mixed method) inform Living Lab theory and practice?

Track 2 Living Labs versus other forms of collective and collaborative innovation

Track Chairs: Seppo Leminen D.Sc. (Econ.), D.Sc. (Tech.), Principal Lecturer at Laurea University of Applied Sciences (Finland) and Artur Serra, i2cat deputy director (Spain)

Living Labs are emerging phenomena and living labs are platforms that bring together all the relevant parties for innovation co-creation. Living labs provide an interesting and growing option. There is more and more diversity in terms of topics covered and approaches taken in living labs practice as well as research (cf. Bergvall-Kåreborn et al., 2015; Dell’Era & Landoni, 2014; Dutilleul et al., 2010; Edvardsson et al., 2012; Femeniás &, Hagbert, 2013; Guimont, & Lapointe, 2016; Hakkarainen & Hyysalo, 2016; Leminen, 2015; Leminen & Westerlund, 2016, Leminen et al., 2012, 2015, 2016; Nyström et al., 2014; Rits et al., 2015; Schuurman et al., 2016; Ståhlbröst & Lassinantti, 2015; Veeckman et al., 2013). They are physical regions or virtual realities where stakeholders from public-private-people partnerships (4Ps) of firms, public agencies, universities, institutes, and users meet. All are collaborating to create, prototype, validate and test new technologies, services, products, and systems in real-life contexts (Westerlund & Leminen, 2011). In living labs users are the ones shaping innovation in their own real-life environments, whereas in traditional innovation networks the insights of users are captured and interpreted by experts (Almirall, 2009). Similar to other forms of open innovation, living labs are dynamic, but they are more formally structured and less boundless than other open innovation networks. There is little research on living labs and their relation to other form of collective and collaborative innovation and collaborative innovation including maker spaces, hacker spaces, Fab Labs, co-creation spaces, innovation spaces and tech Innovation ecosystems.

Track 3 Open Innovation and User Innovation in Living Labs for SME/business support, healthcare and urban & regional development

Track Chair: dr. Dimitri Schuurman, imec Team lead user research (Belgium), co-lead of ENoLL Special Interest Group on Research and Future of Living Labs

Innovation has shifted from a closed single-inventor perspective towards a multi-actor process that deals with the search and combination of distributed sources of knowledge, a phenomenon referred to as distributed innovation. Living Labs as Quadruple-Helix organizations aimed at multi-stakeholder innovation with active user involvement, are organizations that cope with this distributed nature of innovation. To study Living Labs, Open Innovation allows to analyze knowledge and technology transfers, emphasizing the value generated for an actor engaging in these type of  transfers, mostly resulting in a company-centric perspective (Chesbrough, 2003; West & Bogers, 2013). The User Innovation literature looks at the contribution of end-users to the innovation process and to the circumstances and user characteristics that influence the innovative capacity of end-users, resulting mostly in a user-centric perspective (von Hippel, 1976, 2009). Within this track, we welcome papers that explore the links and intersections of both paradigms in Living Labs. We specifically welcome papers on Living Lab based Open and User innovation applied to specific application domains:

o               1. SME/business support – “Living-Labs-as-a-Service”

o               2. Healthcare

o               3. urban and regional development

Double-Blind Peer Review

The 2017 ENoLL Call for Papers makes use of a double-blind peer review, which means that both the reviewer and author identities are concealed from the reviewers, and vice versa, throughout the review process. 

To facilitate this task, we ask all authors to send us 2 files when submitting:

1. Title file: This needs to include title, authors’ names and affiliations, main author’s contact details (e-mail address and telephone), short biographies
2. Blinded paper: this includes only the actual article without any name and affiliation, no identifiers (not even in figures), no acknowledgments, no references to funding sources. Citations of papers published by the Author need to be as follows ‘[Anonymous, 2007]’. Also, kindly remove any identifier from file names and make sure document properties are also anonymized.

Format for full papers for OpenLivingLab Days

–               Please submit your paper in .doc (Word Document) format.

–               Follow guidelines overviewed above for double blind peer review

–               Indicate if your submission has been previously published elsewhere. This is to ensure that we do not infringe upon another publisher’s copyright policy.

–               Include a 1-paragraph abstract that provides the key messages you will be presenting in the paper

–               Include 4-6 keywords relating to the theme or topics covered by the paper

–               Provide a 2-3 paragraph conclusion that summarizes the article’s main points and leaves the reader with the most important messages

–               Include a short biography of the author(s) & photo in the Title file (see above)

–               The paper length should be between 2000 and 5000 words maximum

–               References should be made according to APA-style and included at the end of the paper in alphabetical order

–               All papers must be submitted in English

Submission 

Please submit your full final paper to info@enoll.org with “Paper Submission for OpenLL17” as email subject by the EXTENDED DEADLINE of 5^st of May 2017 (FRIDAY) EoB.

Submitted papers will be peer-reviewed by referees assigned by the Scientific Steering Committee for acceptance or rejection. The Scientific Steering Committee is chaired by Professor Pieter Ballon, Director Living Living Labs at iMinds, Belgium, & International Secretary of the European Network of Living Labs. Papers submitted to OpenLivingLab Days 2017 will be evaluated on their appropriateness of theme for the conference, scientific quality, innovativeness and the final recommendation of the Scientific Steering Committee.

By submitting your paper, you are hereby authorizing ENoLL to publish your paper in the OpenLivingLab Days 2017 proceedings which will be part of the Research Day of OpenLivingLab Days in Krakow, Poland.

Accepted contributions will be published in the proceedings of OpenLivingLab Days 2017 with an ISBN number. Additionally, the ENoLL Scientific Steering Committee will assess the option of inviting best papers submitted to OpenLivingLab Days 2017 for publication in a peer-review journal.

Schedule

Interested authors should note the following timetable of deadlines for the conference:

If you have further questions regarding this call for papers or OpenLivingLab Days 2017 please do not hesitate to contact the ENoLL Office info@enoll.org

 Veli-Pekka Niitamo Prize

The Veli-Pekka Niitamo Prize for best academic contribution for OpenLivingLab Days has been established in memory of Veli-Pekka ‘Vellu’ Niitamo, the Father of the Living Lab movement, long standing member of the ENoLL Council and one of the founding members of the ENoLL Association.

This prize will be given the best paper presented at the Research Day of OpenLivingLab Days.

Veli-Pekka Niitamo was a member of ENoLL Council for many years and as one of the founding members of the association, contributing actively to ENoLL meetings and policy work. He passed away in December 2012 and this prize has been set up in memory of the great work he did and the contributions he made.