Aims of the Living Labs Summer School

The Living Labs Summer School seeks to create a guidebook, to act as a source of reference for living labs researchers and practitioners. The summer school aims to:

• -> Map the domain of living labs innovation, e.g. their enabling potential for open innovation and crowd sourcing
• -> Explore the intellectual contours of living labs as a domain of practice and research
• -> Build bridges between the many disciplines in which living labs are rooted, and establish links between different and often divergent paradigms
• -> Challenge the dichotomies between theoretical and applied living labs development, and identify the mutual benefits of a closer link between practice and research
• -> Collect and disseminate original experiences and insights from practitioners and students
• -> Build and strengthen international networks
• -> Contribute to the development of Living Labs theory

Who Should Attend

The Summer School is aimed at practitioners (those who are involved developing and or running Living Labs), researchers at Masters and Ph.D. level with an research interest into Living Labs research and policy makers (national or regional level). Contributions from academics, governmental officials and practitioners are invited. Submission will not be required for them, however, unless they want to present their work. The number of participants and paper/poster presentations will be limited to create a stimulating environment and encourage interactive sessions.

Benefits of Attending

Participants will gain insight into Living Labs models, theories, technologies, learning models, and emerging and existing themes in the Living Labs community of thinking and practice. Research students will have the opportunity to discuss their work with other researchers, academics and practitioners in Living Labs. They will be able to position and validate their work in the context of European Living Labs research and ensure the practical and theoretical usefulness of their results. The pace and depth of the sessions will be adjusted to match the participants’ needs and interests.

Past experience shows that Summer School events create an intellectually and socially stimulating environment, and result in active networking long after the summer is over.