PROLIDA – a Living Lab of Carinthia University of Applied Science admitted as an ENoLL certified Living Lab
The European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL) is an international non-profit association that aims to promote and enhance user driven innovation eco systems, more precisely the Living Lab concept. According to Joelle Mastelic, council member of ENoLL,
“A Living Lab is an innovation intermediary, which orchestrates an ecosystem of actors in a specific region. Its goal is to co-design product and services, in an iterative way, with key stakeholders in a public private people partnership and in a real-life setting. One of the outcomes of this co-design process is the co-creation of social value (benefit). To achieve its objectives, the Living Lab mobilizes existing innovation tools and methods or develop new ones”. (Mastelic, 2019)
ENoLL has more than 150 active members (certified Living Labs) all over the world and acts as a platform for best practice exchange, learning and support, and Living Lab international project development.
At Carinthia University of Applied Sciences, research and innovation processes in the fields of “Active & Assisted Living” (AAL) and “Active & Healthy Ageing” (AHA) have been conducted based on the Living Lab concept over the last years. Our Living Lab, labelled PROLIDA (Professional Living, Innovation and Development Lab for an Ageing Society) has been increasingly advanced and became integral component of our research processes in the participative development, multi-perspective (real-life) evaluation and longterm-anchoring of innovations in the market.
In early 2019, the research team behind PROLIDA took the next step and applied for a membership at ENoLL. In a very intensive and valuable process, with support of our long-standing cooperation and project partner and thanks to recommendations and consulting from other certified Living Labs all over Europe, like our Mentor within the COOP4HEALTHCARE project Hanna-Greta Puurtinen, we consolidated all our experiences, best practices and knowledge in the membership application. We are very pleased that we fulfilled all criteria and that now, PROLIDA is an ENoLL certified Living Lab.
In September 2019, at the Open Living Lab Days in Thessaloniki, in Greece, after some inspiring days of networking, knowledge exchange, panel discussions and hands-on workshops with leading experts, all 19 new members have been welcomed. The membership certificate has been handed out to Daniela Krainer, representative of the PROLIDA team, during a festive ceremony.
Herewith, we achieved an important step in further professionalization in conducting research and initiate innovation processes for “Ageing Well” in a digital world. Our methods, tools and concepts are implemented and further advances in our current research projects like COOP4HEALTHCARE, to activate and implement pilot projects that addresses the challenges of improving the provision of services in the health sector.
Photo Credits: ©Yannis Tsouflidis
For more information about PROLIDA, visit www.prolida.at
