OpenLivingLab Days

OpenLivingLab Days 2018 3.5

More than 300 participants from 32 countries attended the 9th international gathering of the Living Lab community – the OpenLivingLab Days. The conference took place between 22-24 August in Geneva, Switzerland. It was co-organised by ENoLL, Genève Lab (hosted by Republique et Canton de Geneve), Energy Living Lab of Haute école spécialisée de Suisse occidentale (HES-SO) and Université de Genève – Mobile Communications and Computing for Quality of Life Living Lab. Under the theme “Living Labs and Sustainable Development Goals: From Theory to Practice” the event demonstrated the importance of Living Labs with regards to the role of citizens, open innovation and in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Keynote speech was given by Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and the Director General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Michael Møller Taking advantage of the location of the conference, participants had a chance to visit local innovation communities such as CERN – IdeaSquare, Pangloss lab, SDG Solution Space, Impact Hub, Addict Lab, Hospital of Geneva and the Red Cross Museum. High level speakers from the United Nations, the European Institutions as well as local and regional governments discussed policy developments. The conference also had a strong academic backbone as 35 research and innovation papers on the topic of Living Labs were presented to the participants.

OpenLivingLab Days highlights Best Research and Innovation Paper Award Veli-Pekka Niitamo awards were given to two papers out of 35 that were presented. Award for best research paper went to Dimitri Schuurman, Aron-Levi Herregodts, Annabel Georges and Olivier Rits for their paper on “Innovation Management in Living Lab projects: the Innovatrix Framework”. The Award for best Innovation Paper went to Tuija Hirvikoski, Kaisla Saastamoinen and and Mikael Uitto for their paper titled “International Innovation Sprint Bridging the Sustainability Gap between Metropolitan Core and Peripheries”. SDG cities challenge The SDGs – Cities Challenge was a special opportunity, particularly tailored for cities and urban actors, to share, discover, debate and create their responses to the Sustainable Development Goals. The workshop aimed at transferring knowledge across different programmes that cities are working on, looking for solutions to their individual and common challenges. Municipalities and City-oriented projects and programmes part of the “SDGs – Cities Challenge” were given the opportunity to connect their ongoing work, challenges, and future vision with the expert base that forms the ENoLL network. 29 workshops Goal of workshops for OLLD18 was to see how Living Labs and could contribute to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals proposed by the United Nation, partner of the event.

“It is absolutely critical to recognize that the SDGs are not just and agenda for the United Nations or the governments. They are much more than that. They have become, and are, a universal framework, a global roadmap that applies to all facets of society, to all people and institutions, to all regions of the world and to every single individual”

Michael Møller Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and the Director General of the United Nations Office at Geneva “Living Labs are a growing phenomenon. The movement is expanding across Europe and the World. For Universities, major challenge is to reach the society and Living Labs have become important instruments involving users at every stage of research, development and innovation process. Their success can also be attributed to ENoLL”

Dr Luciana Vaccaro Rector - HES-SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland “I am delighted to welcome you in Geneva on behalf of the Geneva government and its president Pierre Maudet. Geneva is acting as an international campus for innovation. It is strongly investing in innovation, sustainability and entrepreneurship for the canton’s future but as well for the world prosperity”

Nicholas Niggli Republic and State of Geneva’s Director General for Economic Development, Research and Innovation