ENoLL is active in many different areas of work to strengthen the impact that Living Labs can generate. As a project partner we are focusing on Living Lab development, capacity building and scaling-up of solutions and services.
Please discover the projects we are involved in here below.
If you have questions about one of our projects or would like to collaborate on project proposals, do not hesitate to contact us via projects@enoll.org
Projects
- Smart Cities
- Future Internet
- Education
- Design
- Cross-border, Cross-sector Collaboration
- Creative Industries
- Climate
- Big Data
Active projects
REWAISE –REsilient WAter Innovation for Smart Economy – will create a new “smart water ecosystem”, integrating an intelligent digital framework for decentralised water services and decision-making, involving all relevant stakeholders to embrace the true value of water, reducing freshwater and energy use, and recovering nutrients and materials. The results will be a carbon-free, sustainable hydrological cycle in line with the concept of a resilient circular economy.
New business niches will be created, incentivizing water-related investments, and accelerating SME growth, by linking users with specific water needs, incorporating life cycle and cost assessments, and collective action in new governance frameworks for smart value creation and high social returns.
By incorporating paradigm shifts from a linear Roman heritage to a new circular, water-smart economy, REWAISE reveals the full Value of Water for Europe, considering 3 key components of the economic and societal value generated by integral water cycles:
• Value in Water: is accomplished by extracting and putting to beneficial use dissolved substances such as nutrients, minerals, chemicals and metals, as well as organic matter and energy, embedded in raw and used water streams.
• Value from Water: encompasses the economic activities inherent to the water cycle, related products and services that generate benefits and jobs, directly or in other sectors that depend on water, such as energy and transportation,
• Value through Water: the societal, health and well-being functions of water, which will be enhanced by inter-linking users, regulators, water operators and other stakeholders in electricity and chemicals markets through a digital platform that optimizes decision making and business opportunities through socio-economics-based coordination between them, while minimizing emissions , risks and vulnerability.
WATER-MINING – Next generation water-smart management systems: large scale demonstrations for a circular economy and society -, is a research and innovation project that develops energy-efficient technologies for treating wastewater from urban and industrial areas and from desalination, whilst promoting the extraction of valuable products from the residues generated during the process.
Water-Mining combines water management services with the improvement of renewable resources such as mining water. It is envisaged that the value-added end products will offer supplies of regional resources to increase economic growth. The project examines different designs proposed for urban wastewater treatment and seawater desalination and innovative service-based business models aiming to improve the engagement of private and public stakeholders.
The European Agroecology Living Lab and Research Infrastructure Network
Project description
A sustainable, ecological approach in farming is today a solution in front of the growing challenges of climate change, depleted natural resources, shrinking biodiversity, and reduced soil quality. Agroecology can address these challenges, reinforcing the resilience of farming systems. Existing instruments offered by open innovation arrangements can serve this goal, particularly living labs (LL) and research infrastructures (RIs). For this reason, the EU-funded ALL-Ready project will develop AgroEcoLLNet, a new framework for the future European network of LLs and RIs. The project will lay the groundwork and prepare the necessary prerequisites and activities. Testing will verify and improve the project’s outcomes, which will be communicated widely in Europe. The implementation plan will be tested and integrated into the validated framework of AgroEcoLLNet.
Project aim
Today, agricultural systems are facing multiple challenges, including climate change, loss of biodiversity, dwindling resources, degradation of soil and water quality. Agroecology can strengthen the sustainability and resilience of farming systems and thus contribute to addressing these challenges. Based on the premise that Open Innovation Arrangements (OIAs) and in particular Living Labs (LL) and Research Infrastructures (RIs) are instruments that have a large potential to contribute to amplifying agroecology in Europe, the main aim of ALL-Ready (this project) is to prepare a framework for a future European network of LLs and RIs (to be called “AgroEcoLLNet”) that will enable the transition towards agroecology throughout Europe.
Project approach and principles
It will rely on a highly participatory and inclusive approach and on experimentation in real-life situations and thus itself uses a living lab approach. An underpinning principle of the project is strong stakeholder engagement, which has begun in the preparation of this proposal.
Implementation plan
The project has 3 phases: an initial preparatory phase in which the vision, scope, and mission for the Network are defined and the criteria for inclusion in the Network of LLs and RIs as well as other forms of OIAs are defined. This will enable the mapping of current and emerging LLs, RIs, and OIAs across Europe and their characteristics, highlighting best cases. In a second phase, different prerequisites/ activities for the future Network will be prepared ‘(sustainability, including funding, governance, capacity building, data, and knowledge management). Plans for each of these will be constructed with stakeholders and then tested in a small-scale pilot network and then refined to match needs. Finally, the outcomes of the work will be communicated widely throughout Europe by a variety of mechanisms. One of the final outcomes of the project will be a pilot-tested Implementation Plan for implementing the validated framework of AgroEcoLLNet, within Horizon Europe.
Find more information about the project here
- https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101000349
- https://ec.europa.eu/info/research-and-innovation/research-area/agriculture-forestry-and-rural-areas/partnership-agroecology_en
METABUILDING LABS creates an EU Construction Open Innovation Testbed (OITB) that brings together a wide network of Testing facilities & Innovative services to propel novel building envelope technologies forward. The entryway to the OITB community and its services will be the METABUILDING platform that puts in one stop shop diverse information and business opportunities to its users.
METABUILDING LABS is a five-year Horizon 2020 EU-funded project whose main objectives are to unlock the innovation potential, improve competitiveness and boost market impact of the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the European construction sector. For that reason, an Open Innovation Digital Platform will serve as a Single-Entry Point, giving access to a powerful innovation ecosystem, including more than 100 testing facilities across 12 European countries.
A large consortium of 40 partners have joined forces to provide the construction sector with an easy access to a wide network of high-value testing facilities (laboratories, test benches, pilot buildings and living labs) allowing stakeholders to develop and test innovative systems and solutions for next generation buildings. These testing facilities will be provided by: Research & Technology Organisations (RTOs), Living Labs and Social Housing Buildings.
The METABUILDING LABS network of testing facilities will extend across the following countries: AUSTRIA · BELGIUM · FRANCE · GERMANY · HUNGARY · IRELAND · ITALY · LUXEMBOURG · POLAND · SPAIN · SWEDEN · TURKEY
METABUILDING LABS project reaches out to SMEs and provides them with access to Open Innovation Testbeds (OITB) as part of a wider innovation support ecosystem, which will be of high value and tailored to their needs. Some SMEs, representing the main targeted stakeholder group, form part of the project consortium to collaborate in the specification and development of the OITB and its services, and to “test drive” their innovations. The OITB will help to accelerate SME innovation and allow SMEs to become competitive against big industry players.
The metabuilding.com platform will serve as a virtual and ubiquitous Single-Entry Point to innovation support and services to the European construction ecosystem in general, and particularly to the Innovation testbed services, which are being developed within the METABUILDING LABS project.
Find out more about the platform: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6ReHacdsiA
ENoLL role in the project: ENoLL is leading a task related with the needs assessment of pilot sites and technology providers, as well as the adaptation of the Living Lab methodology to METABUILDING LABS. Additionally, ENoLL is supporting the co-definition of Living Lab needs for the matchmaking module in the Metabuilding platform.
Contact person: Marta De Los Ríos White – marta.delosrioswhite@enoll.org
URBANOME aims at building a common EU Framework for evaluating comprehensively multi-sector policies in urban settings supporting the “Health in all Policies” approach of WHO. In this light the overall objective of URBANOME is to promote urban health, wellbeing and liveability, through systematically integrating health concerns in urban policies and the activities of urban citizens, on the basis of detailed and comprehensive evidence on environmental health determinants, the spatial distribution of these in the city, and the social distribution of their impact among different population groups, accounting for different life styles and behaviours. Integration of health concerns, environmental stressors and social equality in public and private activities help alleviate a wide range of contemporary urban challenges, specifically social cohesion and health inequality, and promote the transition of European cities to sustainable, climate proof, smart and inclusive urban economies.
URBANOME brings together the complete set of environmental, social, and functional features of a city in an integrative analytical framework that would facilitate the identification of the main determinants of urban health and wellbeing and support co-creation and testing of policies and precision interventions designed to improve urban health and wellbeing through Urban Living Labs.
The URBANOME approach will be applied through pilots built by the Urban Living Labs in Aarhus, Athens, Aberdeen, Madrid, Milan, Ljubljana, Stuttgart, Paris and Thessaloniki tackling various levels of environmental exposures, age-dependent susceptibility windows, inter-individual variability, gender differentiation of exposure, and socio-economic disparities. These will allow us to draw conclusions regarding the determinants of urban health and wellbeing that will be translated into evidence–based policy recommendations considering socio-economic and environmental factors leading to urban health inequalities.
ENoLL Members in the project:
Thess-AHALL
Möbius will contribute to a renewed and invigorated European book publishing sector by providing them with methods and tools to leverage the potential of prosumers in innovation processes and thus guaranteeing user-centric and user-driven perspectives in the design and delivery of new enriched media experiences.
ENoLL member imec is a partner in the project leading the task on “User-driven innovation framework for enriched publishing”.
ENoLL leads the “Open Tests and validation” task. ENoLL will activate its network of local Living Labs for widening the number of users and geographical coverage of the open pilot phase of the Möbius book
VITALISE opens up Living Lab Infrastructures as a means to facilitate and promote research activities in the Health and Wellbeing domain in Europe and beyond by enabling in-person Transnational Access to 17 Living Lab research infrastructures and by supporting remote digital access to datasets (Virtual Access) of rehabilitation, transitional care and everyday life activities through harmonized processes and common tools.
ENoLL coordinates the project with the aim of creating a large thematic Living Lab ecosystem of virtually interconnected research infrastructures in the Health and Wellbeing domain which will be made available to a wider research community. ENoLL is also in charge of implementing a Harmonization Framework for Health and Wellbeing Living Labs that will be self-sustainable beyond the project lifecycle and provide a wider, simplified, and more efficient access to Living Lab Infrastructures.
VITALISE contribution to the European Research Area is summarized in two basic points:
- impact user-centered knowledge and approaches to researchers in the Health and Wellbeing domain
- facilitate their work through harmonized procedures and e-infrastructures. Research conducted with Living Labs often yields unique knowledge that is otherwise difficult to achieve.
The aim of the oPEN Lab is to identify replicable, commercially viable solution packages enabling the achievement of positive energy neighbourhoods within existing urban contexts that are seamlessly integrated into the local energy system as an active micro-energy hub, and to test these technologies and package as an integrated solution at neighbourhood scale.
Over the duration of the project, oPEN Lab will focus on identifying and demonstrating replicable, commercially viable solution packages enabling to achieve positive energy buildings and neighbourhoods. Three open innovation living labs in the cities of Genk (Belgium), Pamplona (Spain) and Tartu (Estonia) will test combinations of different close-to-market ready technologies and services and study their performance as a unique operating system.
Contact person:
Francesca Spagnoli – francesca.spagnoli@enoll.org
Marta De Los Ríos White – marta.delosrioswhite@enoll.org
SCORE outlines a co-creation strategy, developed via a network of 10 Coastal City Living Labs (CCLLs), to rapidly, equitably and sustainably enhance coastal city climate resilience through an Ecosystem Based Approach (EBA) and sophisticated digital technologies. SCORE will establish an integrated coastal zone management framework for strengthening EBAs and smart coastal city policies, creating European leadership in coastal city climate change adaptation in line with The Paris Agreement. The project will involve citizen science in providing prototype coastal city early-warning systems and will enable smart, instant monitoring and control of climate resilience in European coastal cities through open, accessible spatial ‘digital twin’ tools.
The Coastal City Living Lab (CCLL) is a new concept that expands the Living Lab approach to coastal cities and settlements. SCORE is establishing a network of 10 coastal city ‘living labs’ that will involve citizens, scientists, policy makers and other stakeholders in providing prototype coastal city early-warning systems. These CCLLs will learn from each other in different frontrunner and follower roles, ensuring engagement, empowerment and learning throughout the process. The 10 cities that are part of the project are: Sligo and Dublin (Ireland), Oeiras (Portugal), Vilanova i la Geltrù and Benidorm (Spain), Oarsoaldea (Basque Country), Gdańsk (Poland), Piran (Slovenia), Samsun (Turkey), and Massa (Italy) – see the map.
SCORE will develop and deliver a new generation of tools and methodologies, as well as validated EBAs, to enhance citizen engagement, improve climate and erosion monitoring and projections, facilitate knowledge sharing and enable exploration of different mitigation actions and risks. EBAs cover the sustainable management, conservation, and restoration of ecosystems that can generate social, economic, and environmental benefits (e.g. restoration of forests, floodplains, wetlands, and peatlands; creation of wetland corridors; improvement of coastal protection infrastructure).
Through CCLLs and smart technologies, the project will not only prove the technical feasibility of EBAs in real life settings, but also demonstrate the socio-economic viability of EBA prototypes, thus accelerating their systematic adoption. Find out more in this video.
ENoLL role: ENoLL is mostly supporting the set-up of the CCLLs by creating a Methodology and Framework that can be implemented by all 10 cities, and to be replicated beyond the project.
Contact person: Marta De Los Ríos White – marta.delosrioswhite@enoll.org
The aim of the project Digital Transformation for Regions – DT4REGIONS project is to launch a European Platform for Regions to enable AI and Big Data collective solutions, namely a unique challenge-based innovation platform for the development of tools and services of public interest and to enhance public administration efficiency and effectiveness in user-centric services.
Led by Emilia-Romagna Region, the DT4REGIONS platform project will be based on the real needs of a network of regions supported by technical partners to make the platform a sound and effective environment for the development of the next era of AI and Big Data for the digital transformation of the public administration.
Specific objectives of the project are:
- Raise awareness and knowledge about AI and big data applications for public services within the PA and the regional ecosystem.
- Stimulate peer to peer knowledge sharing among regions.
- Increase and enlarge policy discussions on topics of specific public interest.
- Serve as a hub of a wide variety of data-related topics, such as open data, smart cities, digital skills.
- Foster innovation through practical exercises, including two hackathons, based on the concrete needs of public administrations and citizens.
Within this context, public administrations will be engaged in defining the platform services and will benefit from dedicated capacity building and mutual learning activities to make the best use of the platform itself. Regional innovation ecosystem actors will contribute to the identification of the platform functionalities and contents, as well as of the future of public services developed and delivered using AI and Big Data solutions.
Lack of knowledge and awareness of the importance of long-term soil health is a major driver of soil degradation affecting its capacity to provide ecosystem services. The ‘Soil Deal for Europe’ Mission proposes a novel approach to R&I for impact, based on Open Science and strong stakeholder and citizen engagement.
PREPSOIL will adopt a proactive approach to co-create with stakeholders, leveraging on both offline and online facilities, with the ultimate purpose of generating long-lasting interaction spaces. Furthermore, PREPSOIL will provide the first assessments and efforts towards an improved knowledge base and awareness level on soil health for multiple stakeholders. PREPSOIL’sweb portal is envisaged as the European “one-stop-shop” for all information, resources and digital engagement tools for the Mission stakeholders. It will offer an open-source workspace, including collaboration instruments, ready to be expanded to meet requirements from the Mission.This interaction and engagement strategy supports stocktaking and dialogue to understand how regional ‘soil needs’ assessment, supported by harmonised monitoring mechanisms, can lead to action in Living Labs (LLs) and Light Houses(LHs) for soil health. An ambitious ‘soil needs’ appraisal campaign will be carried out. In combination with other actions, it will provide direction and capacities for the future national soil health monitoring mechanisms, as well as mapping and preparing the implementation of regional LLs through model business plan guidance.
ENoLL Members in the project: Omki on-farm living lab
More information: https://prepsoil.eu/
ENoLL role: Leader of WP on “Knowledge transfer and co-creation in regional living labs” (WP4)
CommuniCity conducts many innovation pilots in many local communities, urban, peri-urban and rural, including two EU capitals, aiming to empower hard-to-reach and marginalized communities. It creates three cycles of increasing size, building on two dynamic networks of local administrations and living labs of all sizes.
CommuniCity devises an inclusive, community-driven, agile innovation and experimentation model. With this model it runs a large co-creation process, first involving local communities in the challenge definitions, then developing innovative solutions through open calls promoted at the European level as well as locally. It will create new insights into local community innovation processes as well as principles and models of how to scale these insights in inclusive and sustainable manners. In addition, CommuniCity will produce a large number of novel innovations anchored in the needs of the local communities, and an exemplary approach that is followed throughout Europe.
The aim is to push the frontier of community-driven innovation much deeper in society and to the margins of society so that the development and testing of novel innovations better serve the needs of the whole society, based on European values, in the world.
More info
Data Space For Smart and Sustainable Cities and Communities is a preparatory action for the creation of data space for smart communities as an enabler of the EU Green Deal and Sustainable Development Goals. The project aims to:
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Develop a multi-stakeholder data governance scheme by bringing together European cities and their local stakeholders to collaborate on use cases relevant to Green Deal objectives. This will be done through operational local data platforms, via a “data governance core group”.
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Create a blueprint for the European Data Space for Smart and Sustainable Cities and Communities (DS4SSCC).
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Bring a set of priority datasets into conformity with the new blueprint by delivering a catalogue of domains, use cases, and related data sets for DS4SSCC.
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Develop a roadmap and action plan towards a mature, connected pan-EU DS4SSCC.
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Shape and implement the data space on local, regional, national and EU levels, taking into account their different levels of maturity.
LIFE-BECKON (Boosting Energy Communities massive deployment by equipping local authorities with comprehensive technical assistance cooKboOk, integrated services and capacity buildiNg) stimulates and boosts the deployment of energy communities across Europe by developing and delivering comprehensive support mechanisms for public authorities, promoters and Local Action Groups to better equip them to facilitate the creation of energy communities, therefore answering to clear needs and known barriers.
The comprehensive support mechanism includes
- A Technical Assistance cookbook to enable the creation of Technical Assistance Offices,
- A Capacity Building program via a Train-the-Trainer approach to increase the expertise and knowledge of all stakeholders involved
- and integrated services via a One-Stop-Shop platform to facilitate access to information, tools and guides as well as matchmaking among actors along the value chain.
The support mechanism will be validated in 3 supramunicipal areas in Avila (Spain), Sofia (Bulgaria) and Copenhagen (Denmark) and replicated in 15 EU local authorities.
ENoLL role: Within the project, ENoLL will be in charge of WP2 Capacity Building via Train-the-Trainers, the objective is the training/mentoring for the development of skills and competencies in co-design and citizen-centred co-creation methodologies, to promote collaboration & mutual learning across sectors, citizens and stakeholders participating in the creation of local Energy Communities.
Contact person:
Francesca Spagnoli – francesca.spagnoli@enoll.org
Marta De Los Ríos White – marta.delosrioswhite@enoll.org
The main objective of NATI00NS is to facilitate the deployment of the EU Soil Mission across European regions during most of its first ‘induction and pilot’ phase (2021-2025). NATI00NS acts as a messenger of the Mission, raising awareness among national and regional stakeholders, providing access to quality-checked capacity-building materials and information, spurring the discussions on the best LL setups to address regional soil needs, and fostering early matchmaking for cross-regional LL clusters.
NATI00NS’ main outcomes will consist of supporting the formulation and submission of high-quality applications through a combination of European-wide events addressing cutting-edge topics related to the Soil Mission. These will be accomplished between 2023 and 2024.
NATI00NS will contribute to the Soil Missions goals and objectives by mobilising national groups of stakeholders as potential applicants for regional soil health LLs open calls funded by the Mission. Their main results will be reported back to provide policy recommendations.
The TRANSFORMER project considers entire regions as living laboratories, Transition Super-Labs, in which new ways of transformation towards a climate-neutral future can be developed, tested and implemented.
The TRANSFORMER is an H2020 project that works with four regions, the Ruhr Area, DE, Emilia Romagna, IT, Lower Silesia, PL and Western Macedonia, GR, on the transition from fossil-fuel-based to zero-carbon local economies. TRANSFORMER Super-Labs bring together all relevant stakeholders of a region: universities, municipalities, companies, and civil society organizations to work in new cooperation formats and design project ideas for transformation to long-term climate neutrality.
The project aims at developing a roadmap per region that will include milestones for implementation, financing and funding opportunities for other Super-Labs to be developed and replicated, to serve as the core of a regional climate neutrality concept.
TRANSFORMER will create a self-sustaining community of Super-Lab practitioners replicating the concept of Transition Super Labs further, with the aim to build a path towards climate neutrality.
More info
The overall aim of CATALISI is to help and support Higher Education Institutions to successfully implement a strategy and individual pathway for institutional transformation through the adoption of acceleration services. These are designed to facilitate and accelerate institutional transformations in the field of Research and Innovation which will strengthen European Universities collaborations and alliances as lighthouses of European values. CATALISI will analyse how the governance of Higher Education Institutions can be changed, considering the governance as a way in which societal and state actors intentionally interact in order to transform Science Technology and Innovation systems, by regulating issues of societal concern.
GILL, coordinated by ENoLL, the largest network of Living Labs (LL), will develop a pan-European collaboration and learning hub based on the LL principles to become the open innovation framework for all European actors for open gendered innovation. The GILL “LL” will co-create sustainable mechanisms to increase gender-responsive smart innovation and entrepreneurship (GRISE) by fixing practices and culture across the European ecosystems.GILL will focus on 4 macro-objectives: a) to enable the organisational and cultural changes, b) to enhance professional development, c) to increase the integration of gender and diversity into product design, technologies and innovation, and d) to allow gendered educational practices. In parallel, GILL actions will act along a matrix of horizontal spheres of innovation (individual & team, tools & methods, innovation & products, societal processes) and three vertical priorities(Health and resilience, Green & Digital transition).GILL will be implemented through an iterative co-creation approach structured on a four-phase cycle – understand,co-design, implement, evaluate – repeated twice to incorporate the feedback and evaluation results in fine-tuned and validated results. 15 Action-Oriented Experimentations in 8 European countries will develop new approaches to GRSIE, test, evaluate the changes, and thereby validate GILL’s outputs in real-life open ecosystems. Through this cycle, GILL will deliver a systemic review of barriers to GRSIE leading to the co-design of proven methodologies, services, and tools for GRSIE to be made available on a sustainable and easy-to-use platform. In line with the LL methodology, co-creation and open innovation will be fostered among the main actors of the QuadrupleHelix model – citizens, government, industry, and academia – who will be engaged all along the project through different participatory activities.
Go Li.EU supports the governance of the Living-in.EU community to build the European way of digitally transforming cities and communities. The project will engage a broad range of different stakeholders and will support the co-creation of an extensive variety of activities. It will aim to find synergies for adequate funding, tackle any legal gaps, contribute to technical alignment and interoperability across sectors and places, as well as helping cities to build capacity. The results of these activities will be measured and communicated, ensuring a higher level of visibility and impact for the benefit of all.
Concluded projects
The SPECIFI project aims at demonstrating the positive impacts of a European Creative Ring of Smart Cities and Regions, with real-life Future Internet (Fiber-to‐the‐Home and wireless) infrastructures. These scenarios include real-life users and in 5 certified Living Labs active in 3 smart cities and their surrounding regions.
ECIM is a flexible cloud-based solution designed to help support smart, liveable and connected cities by fostering and bringing together state of the art transportation services that make it easier for people and goods to move between destinations as quickly, cheaply and greenly as possible. ECIM facilitates cities & businesses to easily migrate services to the cloud & provides open cloud-based services to innovators.
CitySDK creates a toolkit to enable a more efficient utilization of the expertise and know-how of developer communities to be applied in city development. The toolkit comprises of open and interoperable digital service interfaces as well as processes and usability standards.
MyNeighbourhood aims at creating a new and ‘smarter’ conception of the ‘Smart City’ that focuses on people and their well being rather than just ICT infrastructures and dashboards. In so doing, MyNeighbourhood uses new technologies and user data to help recreate a lost sense of neighbourhood that is rooted in local place, common ties and personal interaction.
The SMARTiP project takes the experience developed by a wide range of existing user-driven, open innovation initiatives in Europe, particularly those developed through Living Labs, and applies this experience to the challenge of transforming public services by empowering ‘smart citizens’ who are able to use and co-produce innovative Internet-enabled services within emerging ‘smart’ cities. The aim is to enable to adoption of open platforms for the co-production of citizen-centric Internet-enabled services in five test-bed sites, Manchester, Gent, Cologne, Bologna and Oulu.
The European Platform for Intelligent Cities – EPIC – combines innovation ecosystem processes, fully researched and tested e-Government service applications and new cloud computing technologies to create the first truly scalable and flexible pan-European platform for innovative, user-driven public service delivery, along with a user Road Map.
The objective of PERIPHÈRIA is to deploy convergent Future Internet (FI) platforms and services for the promotion of sustainable lifestyles in and across emergent networks of “smart” peripheral cities in Europe, dynamic realities with a specific vocation for green creativity.
Synchronicity opens up a global IoT market where cities and businesses develop shared digital services to improve the lives of citizens and grow local economies. The SynchroniCity consortium brings together 39 partners with worldwide outreach. The project represents the first attempt to deliver a digital single market for IoT-enabled urban services in Europe and beyond – in 8 European cities and more worldwide – connecting 39 partners from 13 countries over 3 continents.
SynchroniCity Website: https://synchronicity-iot.eu/
SynchroniCity Open Call for SMEs
The SynchroniCity open call launched June 1st 17:00 CEST and closed on September 30th 17:00 CEST. Here you will find all the information about it. Announcement of results – end of November 2018.
AIM OF THE OPEN CALL
The purpose of this is to create a global market for human-centered IoT-enabled urban services which are interoperable, replicable and reusable across cities and across domains.
WHO IS IT FOR?
- Companies that can provide an IoT data-enabled application or a full stack solution. The application/solution must have been that have already demonstrated in a relevant environment. SMEs can apply alone or in a Pilot Group. Large businesses can only apply in a Pilot Group in partnership with at least one SME Lead Applicant. To find out more, download the documentation for SMEs and Large Businesses.
- Cities that will help create and sustain a global and agile market for IoT-enabled urban services. Cities can only apply in a Pilot Group in partnership with at least one SME Lead Applicant. To find out more, download the documentation for New Applicant Cities.
About
Building upon a mature European knowledge base, derived from initiatives such as OASC, FIWARE, EIP-SCC, FIRE, and including partners with leading roles in standardization bodies, e.g. IETSI, SF-SSCC, ITU, OMA, IETF, SynchroniCity will deliver a harmonized ecosystem for IoT-enabled smart city solutions where IoT device manufacturers, system integrators and solution providers can innovate and openly compete.
With an already emerging foundation, based on OASC Minimal Interoperability Mechanism (MIMs), SynchroniCity will establish a reference architecture model for the envisioned IoT-enabled city market place with identified interoperability points and interfaces and data models for different verticals. This will include tools for co-creation and integration of legacy platforms and IoT devices for urban services and enablers for data discovery, access and licensing lowering the barriers for participation on the market. SynchroniCity will pilot these foundations in the cities together with a set of citizen-centered services in three high-impact areas, showing the value to cities, businesses and citizens involved, linked directly to the global market.
SynchroniCity Mission
With a running start, SynchroniCity will serve as frontrunner initiative to inspire others to join the established ecosystem and contribute to the emerging market place. SynchroniCity takes an inclusive approach to growing the ecosystem by inviting businesses and cities to join through an open call, allowing them to participate on the pioneering market place enabling a second wave of successful pilots. They will strengthen the ecosystem by creating a positive ripple effect throughout Europe, and globally, to establish a momentum and critical mass for a strong European presence in a global digital single market of IoTenabled urban services.
ENoLL’s role
ENoLL is leading communications both at internal and external level for the whole project, which includes organisation of international events and networking activities of smart cities worldwide.
ENoLL Members participating in the project
Forum Virium Helsinki, Manchester Digital Innovation Living Lab, IoT Smart Santander Living Lab, Brainport Eindhoven, imec.livinglabs
CONCORD is the 5-year Coordination Action for facilitating and supporting the FIWARE- FIPPP programme.
CreatiFI is a project introducing FIWARE technologies to very large relevant communities of Creative Industries. CreatiFI aims to attract a large number of developers to participate in developing tools and services for creative communities. This initiative is developing a large amount of FIWARE prototypes and technically mature commercial viable FIWARE tools for the Creative Industries.
The FIspace project, which is one of the second-phase FI-PPP projects, aims at developing and validating novel Future-Internet-enabled solutions to address the pressing challenges arising in collaborative business networks, focusing on use cases from the Agri-Food and Transport & Logistics industries.
ACE is a project working on delivering targeted cross-border services to highly innovative entrepreneurs, start-ups and SMEs in the ICT sector in order to accelerate their growth. The ACE programme is supported by cross border finance experts and European innovation support networks EBN and ENOLL.
InnoMatNet is a project funded under the NMP (Nanosciences, nanotechnologies, materials and new production technologies) theme of the EU 7th Framework Programme, with the overall goal of promoting collaboration, knowledge transfer, and the creation of new alliances between materials researchers, designers in industry, and others involved in innovation.
About
TALIA -Territorial Appropriation of Leading-edge Innovation Actions, is a horizontal project promoting the development of social and creative clusters in the Mediterranean region to improve its policy impact in the innovation domain. TALIA will thus capture the insights coming from the most interesting experiences taking place in our territories, to support policy-makers who aim to effectively deploy a Mediterranean Model of creativity and social innovation.
https://social-and-creative.interreg-med.eu/
TALIA’s mission
Mediterranean peoples have long been known for their innate creativity and propensity towards social interaction. In European policy discourse, however, creativity and social innovation have only recently entered the narrative as key factors for success. This is finally giving legitimacy to the contribution of cultural and creative industries in driving economic development, together with the role of creativity in social innovation.
Creative industries, including a range of activities from the performing arts to advertising, are a specific priority in 2 National and 15 Regional Smart Specialisation Strategies of the MED space, and indirectly relevant to other priorities such as design-based manufacturing, services and tourism, which appear in quite a few more. Social innovation describes the entire process by which new responses (products, services and models) to social needs are developed in order to deliver better social outcomes, creating new social relations or modes of cooperation.
TALIA aims to promote trans-local innovation clusters for creative and social innovation by providing instruments that allow trans-national MED modular projects to connect with local innovation communities, starting from the regions of participating partners.
ENoLL’s Role
- Scale-out | ENoLL will be instrumental to mainstream results from the MED area to the rest of Europe.ENoLL’s main role will be to use its dissemination platform and event to reach out to different global innovation communities.
- Scale-up | ENoLL will be instrumental in establishing synergies at a project and policy level between the MED programme and other EU programmes. ENoLL will vehicle the TALIA message to Brussels and beyond, through its links to the Commission DGs (Connect, Growth, Region, etc.), the Committee of the Regions, as well as the World Bank.
- ENoLL will support the development of sustainable Quadruple Helix structures in the MED area.
- ENoLL will be part of the liason team for linking with the MED JTS and Axis 4 initiatives -Enhancing Mediterranean governance, to develop multilateral coordination frameworks and strengthening the existing ones in the Mediterranean for joint responses to common challenges.
ENoLL members involved
Consorcio Fernando de Los Rios
Project co-financed by the European Regional Development Funds
U4IoT (User engagement for Large Scale Pilots on the Internet of Things) combines complementary expertise encompassing social and economic sciences, communication, crowdsourcing, living labs, co-creative workshops, meetups and personal data protection to actively engage end-users and citizens in large-scale pilots.
Website: u4iot.eu
About U4IoT
U4IoT project (User Engagement for Large Scale Pilots in the Internet of Things) is a coordination and support action in IoT European Large-Scale Pilot programme with an objective to support end-user engagement and co-creation in the Large-Scale Pilot (LSP) projects’ design, deployment and assessment. The project combines multidisciplinary expertise from 9 partners from 5 European countries.
U4IoT supports specifically the 5 Large-Scale Pilot projects but also anyone interested in co-creation with publicly available tools for end-user engagement and adoption. These include online resources, privacy-compliant crowdsourcing tools, guidelines and an innovative privacy game for personal data protection risk assessment and awareness as well as online training modules. The partners also provide direct support to mobilize end-user engagement with co-creative workshops and meetups, training, Living Labs support, and an online pool of experts to address specific questions.
U4IoT analyses societal, ethical and ecological issues and adoption barriers related to the pilots with end-users and makes recommendations for tackling IoT adoption barriers and sustainability models for LSPs and future IoT pilots’ deployment in Europe. The further activities are supporting communication, knowledge-sharing and dissemination with an online portal and interactive knowledge base gathering the lessons learned, FAQ, tools, solutions and end-user feedback.
ENoLL’s role
ENoLL is leading the activities related to U4IoT online tools on end-user engagement as well as the Living Lab support provided by U4IoT. ENoLL also enhances actively the liaisons with IoT large-scale pilot projects and contributes to the other communicational activities, intended to attract larger public on end-user engagement issues and specifically U4IoT tools and support services.
ENoLL Members participating in the project
Luleå University of Technology / Botnia Living Lab
Europeana Creative enables & promotes greater re-use of cultural heritage resources by creative industries. Europeana Creative sets the stage for fascinating collaborations between content-providing cultural heritage institutions and creative industries stakeholders in the education, tourism, social networks and design sectors.
Design for Europe is a European initiative that aims to help people use design to accelerate innovation across Europe, boosting economic growth and job creation. An international consortium is building a web platform, set of case studies and programme of events to share the knowledge and skills to innovate in business, the public sector and policymaking.
The Integrating Design for All in Living Labs, or IDeALL project, which is financed by the Directorate General of Enterprise and Industry of the European Commission, aims to bring together the Living Lab community with the design community through Design for All.
JamToday aims to use game design principles not just to create useful and meaningful games, but also to explain and design the context (such as the classroom) where games can be effectively implemented. Each year, JamToday organises game jams in multiple locations focusing on a particular theme and each year a pan European conference will be organized around one of the main areas of application: improving ICT skills, adopting healthier lifestyles and supporting learning of mathematics.
PELARS is a project about learning and making. We are studying how people learn about science, technology and mathematics when they use their hands as well as their heads. We’re exploring real technologies (kits, electronics systems & sensor systems) and customised furniture both designed specifically for the classroom that help teachers and learners understand what’s going on when people do science and maths – innovative concepts derived from the constraints & inspiring practices of real teachers themselves.
Fusepool crosses borders to provide data for better product/ service development and research. Fusepool enriches data using common standards and tools for analysing and visualising data to get timely, context-aware and relevant information.
EUropean MArket for Climate Services – a European project on which ENoLL has been working on from November 2016 until October 2018 focused on an emerging but highly relevant topic of climate services. The project took off with an ambitious aim to identify constraints and enablers in the climate services market. It analysed market structures, drivers, obstacles and opportunities from scientific, legal, technical, ethical, socioeconomic and governance point of view. In this article we look back at EU-MACS’ highlights and outputs relevant for Living Labs.
What are climate services?
This term describes the transformation of climate-related data (obtained by climate scientists), to customised products which can better equip decision makers in climate-sensitive sectors and help them make an informed decision that will benefit the society. Customised products include:
- Projections
- Forecasts
- Information
- Trends
- Economic analysis
- Assessments
- Counselling on best practices
- Development and evaluation of solutions
ENoLL focused on the Urban Planning sector. Two significant outputs were produced which help identify the type of services and processes that should be provided for the planning of urban environments:
1. A Policy Brief on “Potential for climate services market enhancement and related innovation for urban planning”
2. Guidelines for developing & implementing Living Labs for Climate Services in urban planning
Potential for climate services market enhancement and related innovation for urban planning: Conclusions & Recommendations
- The key solution to overcome the barriers in climate service use is to co-design climate services together with end users.
- This should be supported by rigorous social network analysis and information needs elicitation to better understand information flows and needs at the user side.
- Co-designed climate services could account for the existing limits in the organization (e.g. municipality) information sharing process and could be adapted to the local institutional framework for urban planning.
- The experiments carried out in EU MACS demonstrated that a collaborative design, acquisition and use of climate services, involving institutional actors, citizens and private actors, is feasible and can resolve broad scoped information need.
- Most of the detected barriers to climate services use relate to adaptation policy making: Mitigation (i.e.reduction) is prioritised over adaptation;
- Short term policy cycles reduce the willingness to implement long term adaptation measures; the lack of tools for assessing the effectiveness of adaptation measures affects public awareness about the role of adaptation measures in reducing climate related risks.
Guidelines for developing & implementing Living Labs for Climate Services in urban planning
The set of guidelines developed throughout the EU-MACS project focus specifically on the context of the project and elements that were highlighted as important recommendations for the project stakeholders, rather than aiming to provide a comprehensive list. The five themes highlighted in these guidelines are:
- Quadruple helix stakeholder engagement:
- Placing the citizens at the centre of innovation
- Enhancing cross-disciplinary collaboration & communication
- Prototype & test
- Adapting to change
Guidelines for Living Labs in Climate Services
Through ENoLL’s involvement in the project, a set of guidelines were developed for the development of climate services by closely involving end-users and other stakeholders the Living Lab way. The guidelines for Living Labs in CS are published on the project website and feature ENoLL Living Lab methodologies such as panel management (imec Living Lab) and Framework for Agile Living Labs (imec Living Lab), and was supported by BIRD Living Lab
iSCAPE aims to develop and evaluate an integrated strategy for air pollution control in European cities grounded on evidence-based analysis. The project will develop the tools required to obtain an air pollution free/low carob society by addressing air quality and climate change concerns together through the application of new smart and sustainable technologies for integration into urban design and guidelines.
Download the iSCAPE Living Lab Guidebook for Cities fighting against air pollution
iSCAPE mission
iSCAPE tackles the problem of reducing air pollution impacts, focusing on the use of “Passive Control Systems” in urban spaces, on policy intervention and behavioural changes of citizens’ lifestyle. Projections and real-world physical interventions will be applied on the urban tissue in the selected cities assessed for future climate change scenarios and representative of different cultural & lifestyles in Europe.
ENoLL role
To support the implementation of the approach from different Living Labs to design and deploy a network of air quality and meteorological sensors (both stationary and mobile) and evaluate the benefits expected from the interventions on a neighborhood and city-wide scale, ranging from quantification of pollutant concentration to exposure.
The Smart Control of Air Pollution – Policy Briefs series summarises key outcomes of the iSCAPE project with a clear policy orientation, to provide practical information to EU local decision-makers and other urban stakeholders. They cover the following topics:
No. 1: Living Labs for air pollution control and prevention
No. 2: iSCAPE manifesto for citizen engagement in science and policy
No. 3: Effectiveness of travel behavioural change interventions
No. 4: Simulating change in urban air quality and climate conditions
No. 5: Urban strategies and interventions for planning healthier cities
No. 6: Improving air quality and climate with green infrastructure
No. 7: Air quality sensing and real time reporting in cities
No. 8: Introducing infrastructural passive control systems in cities
No. 9: Citizen Science: a collaborative approach to air pollution control
The Urban Nature Labs project will demonstrate innovation nature-based solutions in cities that are facing challenges of climate change and urbanisation. Through the project locally-attuned innovative water management systems will be co-create and demonstrated in the context of an integrated urban ecological approach: the Urban Nature Lab (UNaLab).
Website: http://unalab.eu/
ENoLL’s latest outputs
About UNALAB
Cities around the world are undergoing significant transformations and are facing substantial challenges in the form of urban densification and extreme weather conditions, due to climate change and the ongoing urbanisation. Nature-based solutions (NBS) present an approach to address urban challenges through working with nature, in order to achieve ecological and resilience objectives, while creating opportunities for social and economic innovation concurrently.
The UNaLab consortium is comprised of 28 partners from 10 cities across Europe and beyond, including municipalities, research, business and industry. The UNaLab partner cities commit to addressing climate and water related challenges within an innovative and citizen-driven paradigm. The UNaLab cities aim to develop smarter, more inclusive, more resilient and increasingly sustainable societies through innovative nature-based solutions
UNALAB mission
UNaLab’s three demonstration cities, Tampere, Eindhoven and Genova, will implement urban living lab demonstration areas within the cities. They will address identified urban climate and water related challenges by co-creating nature-based solutions with local stakeholders and end users, using an innovative systemic decision support tool. The project aims at using the feedback from the urban living lab demonstration areas to create a widely applicable toolbox consisting of user-friendly handbooks, models and instruments to guide cities across Europe in developing and implementing their own co-creative nature-based solutions.
The UNaLab project sets out to provide a framework for future upscaling of nature-based solutions in the demonstration cities, as well as replicate the solutions in seven replication cities. The European replication cities Cannes, Prague, Başakşehir, Castellón and Stavanger, as well as the non-European replication cities Buenos Aires and Hong Kong, will therefore work in collaboration with the demonstration cities to develop individual NBS roadmaps in a co-creation approach. The city Guangzhou and the Network of Brazilian Intelligent Cities will serve as observers and actively learn from the European NBS approach, which will enable the creation of a global NBS marketplace.
ENoLL’s role
ENoLL is leading a Work Package on co-creative tools and methods, with the help of UNALAB partners. To facilitate and develop trainings, ENoLL is engaging experts from the network.
Living Lab Series: Sign-up
Urban Living Lab Playground: The Game
By playing the game the participants learn:
1. What is an ULL and how does it function in a simulated real-life environment
2. How can a city employ an ULL to connect with the quadruple helix stakeholders, including citizens
3. Wide range of co-creation tools and methods that can be used to work together with the citizens
4. How does co-creation work when addressing complex urban challenges and developing NBS and PCS
5. How can the gamified approach facilitate shared understanding and storytelling

9 October 2019, 09WS498 – Urban Living Lab Playground The Co-Creation GamerBelgium – Brussels – October 2019r© EU/UE
ENoLL Members participating in the project
Botnia Living Lab, Basaksehir Living Lab, Espaitec, Brainport Eindhoven
SISCODE aims to understand co-creation as a bottom-up and design-driven phenomenon that is flourishing in Europe (in fab labs, Living Labs, social innovations, smart cities, communities and regions); to analyse favourable conditions that support its effective
introduction, scalability and replication; and to use this knowledge to cross-fertilise RRI practices and policies.
SISCODE mission is to run a European study to compare co-creation ecosystems and describe effective dynamics and outcomes of the integration of society in science and innovation; experiment with design as a new system of competences capable to support the development of implementable RRI and STI solutions and policies; and understand the transformations needed to embed co-creation in STI policy making, overcoming barriers and resistance to change and considering organisational transformation.
ENoLL’s role in SISCODE is to collaborate with the other networks in the project (international network of fab labs & European network of science centers and museums) in building a transnational system of co-creation laboratories to experiment with a design- driven approach to co-creation, drawing knowledge from real-life experimentations to foster cross-fertilisation of know-how, co-creation approaches, RRI practices and policies. The project started in May 2018. https://siscodeproject.eu/
About
The European Social Innovation Competition, launched in memory of Diogo Vasconcelos, is a challenge prize run by the European Commission across all European countries, now in its sixth year. The 2018 Competition is titled RE:THINK LOCAL and seeks to find the most innovative projects, products, services, business models and collaborations that empower young people to participate fully in a changing economy.
http://eusic.challenges.org/
EUSIC’18 mission
The competition calls for social innovations that are inspired by, make use of or address specific local characteristics creating opportunities for young people in the new economy, also known as the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’. New technologies have led to trends such as improved connectivity, automation, decentralised manufacturing and digitalization. However, the impact of these trends is uneven: some regions and communities benefit, whereas others experience job losses and deindustrialisation
New technologies and ways of working have the potential to revitalise regions facing problems. Innovative solutions can build resilience within communities, address their specific needs and generate sustainable economic activity and employment opportunities.
Young people must be involved, engaged and empowered to make the most of new opportunities and supported to develop the skills and capabilities to harness change. This happens on a local level. An opportunity exists to ensure young people are not only resilient but also equipped to shape and lead the new economy.
In particular, the competition was calling for proposals in the form of:
- Initiatives that use new technologies and ways of working to provide opportunities for marginalised youth within their local communities;
- Ideas that assist young people who wouldn’t otherwise have become innovators to create their own opportunities for smart, inclusive and sustainable employment in their local environment;
- Ideas co-created with young people to respond to specific requirements in their local community for skills, experiences and opportunities;
- Solutions to improve the quality of life and financial security of youth in irregular work
- Innovations that provide information, advice and guidance to young people so they can navigate their options in the new economy;
- Programmes that equip the next generation of workers with skills that allow young people to harness technological change.
ENoLL role
- Assessment of 250 entries and recommendation of judges from different countries for the selection of the semi-finalists.
- Selection of Local Mentors from Living Labs across Europe to support the semi-finalists through their development process and provide them with specialized assistance. We will deliver a workshop at the Academy on user-centred design. We will contribute to mapping the social innovation ecosystem in Europe to help connect semi-finalists with relevant support organisations.
- Contribution to the communications strategy and tested messaging documents to make sure they were culturally appropriate. We will use the digital toolkit to spread the word about the Competition through their communication channels (newsletters, social media, blogs etc). The toolkit will be shared with Living Labs across Europe and Horizon 2020 countries and will be actively promoted by 10 particular target countries each year.
- Identifying speakers and venues and participation at key events.
The team is led by BluSpecs in partnership with CIVITTA and the European Network of Living Labs.
These actors work together to support the Commission’s services in scaling up the Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition and in implementing the Digital Opportunity Traineeship.
The work is done around 4 pillars:
1.Digital Skills for all citizens
2.Digital Skills for the labour force
3.Digital Skills for ICT professionals
4.Digital Skills for Education
The DSCJ tender outcomes include:
- Scaling the Coalition & Stakeholder Engagement by doing a classification of stakeholders, Thematic group, management of Town hall meetings.
- Supporting and Stimulating Pledges by doing an analysis of pledges, Redevelopment of Pledge viewer , Stimulating pledges, Validating and monitoring pledges.
- Supporting Digital Opportunity Traineeships by doing a quality control and setting an Impact analysis.
- Communication Plan & Tools by periodic strategy development management of communication tools Campaign Management.
- Organisational Support by Supporting Coalition board meetings, Maintenance of databases, Support to Event administration.
The Social & Creative project structures the capitalisation of the results of the former TALIA horizontal project and of the ongoing and past modular projects dealing with creativity and social innovation, financed by the Interreg MED Programme 2014-2020. The project is structured on three main strands of action with the aim of building a shared sense of purpose within the MED Creative and Social Innovation community and promoting implementation and transferability of results through exemplary policy innovation trials.
Social&Creative aims to promote trans-local innovation clusters for creative and social innovation by providing instruments that allow trans-national MED modular projects to connect with local innovation communities, starting from the regions of participating partners. ENoLL’s role in the project is transferring the results, connecting stakeholders through working groups and developing policy recommendations.
Visit the InterregMED Social & Creative website: https://social-and-creative.interreg-med.eu/
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Project co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund