The Digital Urban Systems & Solutions for Transitions Working Group (WG) aims to address the challenges faced by cities in establishing and maintaining effective, inclusive and dynamic urban ecosystems. Its primary objective is to strengthen ENoLL’s presence in the urban innovation landscape as a supportive partner for urban ecosystems. This entails leveraging its living lab methodology and expertise to initiate, maintain, and scale up innovative solutions aimed at addressing societal challenges through living labs. The prominent position of ENoLL within the Living-in.EU movement serves as an additional catalyst for the WG’s endeavours.
The WG is committed to identifying the needs of its members engaged in urban innovation across various themes and developing the necessary support and support structures to foster innovation that addresses key urban challenges, in direct communication with local communities. The WG will ensure alignment in content with other thematic WGs such as mobility, energy, social innovations, while avoiding overlap.
The WG sets out to achieve a strengthened role for ENoLL as a dynamic network that shapes the future of urban innovation. This is achieved by proactively responding to urban challenges through the Living Lab approach, fostering stakeholder engagement, and co-creating innovative solutions across various domains. A key focus of the WG is to transform successful outcomes of living lab projects into sustainable and scalable solutions. These solutions aim to enhance the ecosystem of urban innovation, providing long-term benefits and fostering continuous improvement in urban environments. By bridging the gap between experimental success and practical implementation, the WG ensures that innovative practices can be adopted widely, driving progress and sustainability in urban development.
Considering the crucial role of citizen-centric approaches in our digital age, it’s essential to integrate these principles into urban design and implementation. As cities seek solutions for their digital transformation, the WG is ideally positioned to promote its members and their innovations through informative and skill-building sessions. Additionally, the WG will facilitate connections between living lab experts and urban organisations—authorities, private entities, NGOs, and more—enhancing collaboration and expertise in urban innovation.
Through collaborative efforts within the DUSST Working Group, ENoLL members can exchange insights on common challenges, share best practices and co-create innovative solutions. This collaboration not only facilitates the seamless integration of Living Labs into the policy-making process in urban contexts but also enables the scaling up successful innovations.