The living labs report is the main output of the inventory of urban mobility living labs in the Pan-European region conducted by LuxMobility and Breda University of Applied Sciences and funded by the EIT Urban Mobility in 2020. The aim of this public report is to provide the wider transport community with an understanding of the potential of successfully ran living labs and their essential contribution to the transformation of the current urban mobility system.
This report will help the urban mobility innovation community to better understand the scope of the mobility living labs movement in Europe, the shapes and forms of these labs, their added value for the mobility transition, and the barriers and opportunities they are facing. The in-depth analysis presented in this report focuses on the following topics:
- origin;
- duration;
- main topics addressed;
- key owners and stakeholders involved;
- relation to policy initiatives;
- real-life environment characteristics;
- co-creation and end-user involvement;
- operational structure;
- business models;
- kind of activities facilitated;
- key challenges; and
- areas of support needed.
Since 2006 the concept of the living lab is recognised by the European Commission as a key tool for open innovation. Living labs have spread over Europe in various waves, first focusing on new ICT tools but later also extending to other fields, such as sustainable energy, healthcare, safety, and mobility. Nowadays, newspapers are full of news items on living labs, promoting networks of living labs recently created, and covering European projects that organise their activities within the living labs set-up. The present report illustrates that operational set up, local urban mobility strategies, as well as the goals of the main key stakeholders have led in practice to a large variety of urban mobility living labs in Europe.
The key elements of living labs – active user involvement, multiple-stakeholder platform for innovation in real-life contexts, multi-method, and co-creation approach – are completely aligned with EIT Urban Mobility’s vision and mission. This mission covers improving people’s quality of life by creating more liveable urban spaces through innovation and transformation in urban mobility, decarbonising transport and making Europe’s economy and the transport sector more competitive. Therefore, living labs are a key strategic instrument within the EIT Urban Mobility to boost the uptake of innovative sustainable urban mobility solutions and accelerating the transition to scale by engaging directly with the citizens and the local community, and all stakeholders in a real-life environment.
