CO-LLABS

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Contacts

Roberto Santoro
Project Coordinator (email)
ESoCE-NET, Rome, Italy

Hans Schaffers
Scientific Coordinator (email)
ESoCE-NET, Netherlands

Events

10-11 March 2008, Helsinki: CO-LLABS workshop on Living Labs Pilots in European Cities

6 April 2008, Brussels: CO-LLABS kick-off meeting

7-8 April 2008, Slovenian Living Labs Event European Network of Living Labs event, Brussels, Belgium. On the 7th afternoon, CO-LLABS organises a workshop on Setting up Wide Scale Living labs Pilots.

23-25 June 2008, Lisbon: Living Labs at the ICE 2008 conference

25-27 november 2008, Lyon: Living Labs at the ICT 2008 event

Documents

CO-LLABS Project Summary

CO-LLABS Pilots Development Framework

Links

1 News from CO-LLABS
2 Objectives of the CO-LLABS Thematic Network
3 Activities and outcomes foreseen in the Thematic Network
4 Consortium and Partner Network
5 Expected impact of the CO-LLABS project
6 Consortium Overview
7 Join CO-LLABS! Supporting Partners Overview

[edit] News from CO-LLABS

On 6th April 2008, CO-LLABS had a successful kick-off meeting in Brussels. The key results of this meeting was an elaborate discussion and brainstorm on the workplan, in particular the first year. Emphasis was on the process of Living labs pilots development, the collection of Living labs best practices, and on network building activities and workshops. Project officer Jean-Pierre Euzen stressed the relation of CO-LLABS' objectives and planned conferences at European level, in particular upcoming ICT 2008 in Lyon, November 2008. CO-LLABS will support Living labs to present themselves at the Lyon event and we also will organise networking sessions.

The day after, 7th April, the Living labs ENoLL and Open Innovation Interactive Day was taking place, also in Brussels. About 200 people participated to this event which was organised by ENoLL, ESoCE-Net and Free University Brussels in close collaboration with the European Commission. During this event, sevarl parallel workshops have been organised by CO-LLABS. One parallel workshop was on setting up wide-scale Living labs pilots. About 70 people participated to this workshop. Seven groups were formed which discussed about potential Living labs pilots. Another paralel workshop was on Living labs network services, governance and sustainablility. Available presentations can be found at the Library Living Labs Open Interactive Day, 7th April 2008.

For the next months, our priority is in preparing the pilots development, collecting and disseminating living Labs best practices, starting up the Living labs policy support activities (both regionally focused on SME innovation and at European level), and preparing for ICT 2008.

To facilitate community exchanges we have opened the CO-LLABS Community Blog, see access under "links".

[edit] Objectives of the CO-LLABS Thematic Network

CO-LLABS stands for: "Community-Based Living Labs to Enhance SMEs Innovation in Europe". It is a Thematic Network in the ICT-PSP program (CIP) under theme 4.1 Sharing Experience on ICT Initatives for SMEs. CO-LLABS starts 1st of April 2008 and has a 28 month project duration until 31 July 2010.

The over-all objective of the CO-LLABS Thematic Network is to achieve a European-wide adoption of ICT-based Living lab services and practices to allow SMEs to improve their innovation capabilities and processes and become part of “open innovation” environments. Thus, this proposal addresses Work Programme Objective 4.1b “to improve the capacity of businesses and in particular SMEs to benefit from ICT-based innovations in their products and services”.

To that end CO-LLABS Thematic Network brings together a selection of Europe’s most advanced Living Labs on the one hand and regional SME-innovation oriented organisations on the other to exchange practices of LL support services, and identify and develop specific pilots in domains such as e-health, e-business and e-inclusion. The work will be grounded in thorough understanding of current Living labs practices and experiences and strengthened by creating better insight in successful business models of future SME-oriented Living labs. The Thematic Network will support interaction with policy makers at regional, national and European level to establish consensus on the Living labs approach as a cornerstone of European innovation policies, in particular at the regional and cross-regional level.

The underlying motivation is that Living Labs provide services to SMEs that would otherwise not be available to them. Focus is on how SMEs and their business partners can be involved in Living Labs in the best way in order to collaborate in open innovation, and on sharing experience among Living Labs initiatives and beyond as regards SME involvement in co-creation of Living labs practices.

[edit] Activities and outcomes foreseen in the Thematic Network

The foreseen activities and outcomes in the CO-LLABS thematic network include the following:

Best practices on how Living Labs and Experience research services are supporting SMEs innovation: identification, evaluation and exchange of such practices within and across European regions.
Pilots development of SME-oriented Living Lab initiatives in domains of e-business, e-inclusion, e-health, and stimulating the collaboration among Living Labs, innovation agencies and business stakeholders to develop these pilots.
Living labs business models and governance structures development for networks of Living labs supporting SMEs.
Network mobilisation, exploitation and dissemination to create an active community stimulating SMEs for open innovation and exchange experience in how to use the living labs concept for SME innovation.
Policy initiative development to stimulate Living labs, Innovation Agencies and Research organisations to work with SMEs on open innovation.
Elaboration of a joint action plan to establish self-sustainable pilots and ensure viability of the CO-LLABS network after its formal project duration.

[edit] Consortium and Partner Network

The CO-LLABS consortium brings together a synergetic combination of:

Reputed research organisations devoted to ICT-based innovation and used to working with business. Their role is to, in close collaboration with Living labs and SME organisations, analyse and exchange practices, develop ideas for Living labs services, and generate ideas for LL pilots;
Advanced Living Labs across Europe. Their role is to exchange and validate concrete experiences of SME innovation practices and services to offer to SMEs for open innovation;
Experienced SME Innovation Organisations and agencies. These organisations will establish the communication and exchange with SMEs in their region and country and enable cross-country collaboration.

The CO-LLABS consortium covers 20 partners from 13 countries, including 3 New Member States. It is grounded strongly in collaboration between Living labs, Research organisations and Agencies stimulating SME innovation in these countries. All, rooted in regions, have a strong interest in cross-border innovation.

The CO-LLABS consortium is supported by 14 Support Partners (Innovation Agencies, Living Labs and Authorities), who are already closely working with the listed CO-LLABS Consortium partners in their country or region, and who have offered to strengthen the CO-LLABS impact. Additionally, CO-LLABS is supported by 15 Living Labs from the second wave of the European Network of Living Labs. Expected impact of the Thematic Network: The CO-LLABs Thematic Network aims to achieve a European-wide adoption of IC-based living labs services and practices to allow SMEs to improve their innovation capabilities and processes. To that end CO-LLABS Thematic Network brings together a selection of Europe’s most advanced Living Labs on the one hand and regional SME-innovation oriented organisations on the other to identify and develop specific pilots in domains such as e-health, e-business and e-inclusion.

CO-LLABS key partners have built up a close relationship with the ENoLL (European Network of Living Labs, www.openlivinglabs.eu) and the Living Labs Open Innovation Community (AMI@Work Family of Communities, which has 2000 members, www.ami-communities.eu). ESoCE-Net, coordinating CO-LLABS, is chairing the AMI@Work Family of Communities. This will enable CO-LLABS to build up and expand its Community Network very soon and very effectively. The CO-LLABS Community Network initially consists of the core CO-LLABS consortium partners, the CO-LLABS Support Partners, and the interested parties from ENoLL and AMI@Work.

[edit] Expected impact of the CO-LLABS project

Expected impacts can be identified at the level of individual Living Labs and at the level of the Network of Living Labs operating in a co-ordinated and synergic fashion. Major expected impacts of the Thematic Network of Living Labs are the following:

The CO-LLABS Thematic network results will enable public authorities and major stakeholders in the EU to implement mutually interoperable Living Labs systems, thereby providing an innovation platform to European Industry, and economy of scale for Living Lab services
Improved competitiveness of European businesses and particular SMEs by providing them with the tools to access the innovation services at a regional and European scale
Development of markets for innovative ICT solutions and services for supporting the Innovation and the Open Innovation process
Identification of large scale pilots demonstrating the Living Lab approach and the synergy, scalability offered by the European network

CO-LLABS addresses the needs of SMEs through the formation of regional clusters of Living labs, SME-oriented Innovation Agencies and research organisations. The SME-oriented Innovation Agencies will establish - and be responsible for - the relation with SMEs in their region. CO-LLABS does not work directly with individual SMEs, but Innovation Agencies and also Living Labs will do so. COLLABS will not itself establish Living Labs, it investigates how local and regional partners can work together in order to improve the regional innovation system and support SMEs. In doing so, SMEs will benefit from the project in multiple ways, in particular:

Pilots will be developed to initiate and validate open innovation, where SMEs can participate. Pilots will demonstrate strategies how SMEs can participate in Living Labs.
Policy initiatives will be developed to stimulate Living labs, innovation agencies and research organizations to work together with SMEs on open innovation.
Business models will be explored governing collaboration between Living labs, SMEs and research organizations. This will benefit the provision of services to SMEs by Living labs in an indirect way.

The significant Living labs movement which has been growing in the last year since the launch of the European Network of Living Lab by the Finnish Presidency, on November 20 2006, provides a reasonable assurance of reaching the expected impacts. In particular there has been an involvement of the Portuguese European Presidency, accepting 32 new Living Labs during the Second Wave Living Labs event, held in Brussels on October 17, 2007. And there is already a plan for a 3rd wave of new Living Labs accessing the network during the spring 2008 in Slovenia. The momentum is significant and the CO-LLABS network results can sustain the expectations by identifying and preparing for large scale pilots demonstrating the Living Lab approach and the synergy, scalability offered by the European network. Pilot cases will have a strong potential of actually involving large number of users and also some distinct potential for SMEs, as co-creators, providers of innovative solutions and as main beneficiaries of the innovation.