State-of-the-art in utilizing Living Labs approach to user-centric ICT innovation – Automotive, Rural, eEngineering and Renewable Energy LLs in Hungary

The Finnish Presidency will launch a European Network of Living Labs on November 21, 2006. This is the first step towards a New European Innovation System (EIS). There is an urgent need to improve European-wide aspiration for innovation towards job creation and growth. There is also an urgent need to undergo European-wide, national and regional institutional, structural and financial changes that facilitate the focused and innovation-based growth for global competitiveness of Europe (Report of the Hampton Court Group Chaired by Esko Aho, January 21, 2006). Mr. Matti Vanhanen, Prime Minister of Finland, emphasizes that the European Network of Living Labs is a concrete action for putting Lisbon strategy in real life. A European Network of Living Labs is a collaboration of Public Private Partnership (PPP) where firms, public authorities and people work together with creating, prototyping, validating and testing new services, businesses, markets and technologies in real-life contexts, such as cities, city regions, rural areas and collaborative virtual networks between public and private players. The real-life and everyday life contexts will both stimulate and challenge research and development as public authorities and citizens will not only participate in, but also contribute to the whole innovation process. Europe should find its unique and strong positioning in global competition through ICT by activating the private, public and civic sectors to participate in research, development and innovation. From a market and industry creation perspective the Living Labs offer a research and innovation platform over different social and cultural systems, crossregionally and cross-nationally. A European Network of Living Labs is large-scale experimentation platforms for new services, business and technology, and market and industry creation within ICT. There are already many existing real-life test beds in Europe that will serve as building blocks for a future Living Labs concept. However, this new approach to research for innovation is a huge challenge for research methodologies, innovation process management, public-private partnership models, IPR’s, open source practices, development of new leadership, governance and financial instruments. The complexity increases remarkably with the international nature of a European Network of Living Labs. This is why the EU Commission (Information Society and Media Directorate, New Collaborative Working Environments unit) has allocated € 40 Million from the 5th call of the 6th Framework Programme for piloting a European Network of Living Labs. The project portfolio includes 12 Living Labs sites in Europe, China, India and Brazil. The projects will identify, prototype, validate and test new ICT services and technologies in process engineering, creative knowledge work and rural and remote areas in Europe. It will also exploit how this new way of innovation facilitates new reference architecture and technology platform development. The project portfolio is industry driven with participation of most major European and global corporate players, though there is clear public, private, civic collaboration throughout. In Hungary we plan to establish three Living Labs in the next three years, an Automotive,a Rural and an e-Engineering Living Labs, as the active participants in three IPs (Collaboration@Rural, CoSpaces, ECOSPACE) and one CA ( CoreLabs), approved about 1.5 M EU support for 30 months in the Call5 of EU FP6 IST program, related to Collaborative Working Environments (CWE).