Date & Time
1 October 2026, 11:00 – 12:30
Room
Galapagos
Chaired by
Nele De Witte
Scientific Coordinator, LiCalab Living and Care Lab
Nele De Witte
Scientific Coordinator, LiCalab Living and Care LabDr. Nele De Witte works at Thomas More University of Applied Sciences in Belgium. She is the scientific coordinator of LiCalab Living and Care Lab, where she is committed to the scientific valorization of living lab methodologies and supports the design of high-quality user research. Nele De Witte is also a senior researcher in the research group People and Well-being, with specialization in digital mental health and attitudes towards technology in healthcare. Additionally, she coordinates the course on Digital Psychology. She holds a PhD in Psychology from Ghent University and has authored scientific publications on innovation in healthcare and digital mental health (implementation), contributing to both academic knowledge and practical applications in healthcare.
Type of Session
Research Session
Description
Following a rigorous evaluation process, the OLLD26 evaluation committee has accepted the research papers for this year’s conference. All accepted papers engage with the conference theme, “Living Labs Impacts and Values for a Changing World,” and have been classified into five sub-tracks:
- Track 1: Living Labs for Grand Societal Challenges
- Track 2: Living Labs for Policies, Governance, Collaboration, and Innovation Ecosystems
- Track 3: Living Labs for Inclusive Soci(et)al Engagement
- Track 4: Living Labs for Business and Emerging Technology
- Track 5: Living Labs Operations, Methods, Tools, and Impact
Papers selected by the Evaluation Committee
- Values in motion: Longitudinal Living Lab co-creation and implementation-oriented ecosystem reflection in dementia care
- Bridging the digital divide: E-inclusion and technology adoption in healthcare Living Labs
- Beyond consultation: co-creating social inclusion with unaccompanied migrant children through Living Labs
- Participatory ecosystem mapping as a Living Lab intervention: Building the Lithuanian national Living Lab ecosystem
- The Value of Rural – The case study and evaluation of “Smart Landsbygd”, and an argument for more rural living labs
- Designing soil literacy activities in Living Labs: A six-step approach tested across three use cases
Values in motion: Longitudinal Living Lab co-creation and implementation-oriented ecosystem reflection in dementia care
Abstract:
Designing AI-supported innovation for dementia care is a relational and context-sensitive process shaped by lived experiences, care realities, and future implementation conditions. While Living Labs and participatory methodologies are increasingly used in health innovation, less is known about how longitudinal co-creation evolves across iterative cycles in dementia care.
This paper presents methodological learning from AI4HOPE, a Horizon Europe project (Grant Agreement No. 101136769) developing AI-supported interventions for emotional wellbeing and person-centred care planning, including support targeting distress and anxiety and a digital Advance Care Planning toolkit. Across six European pilot ecosystems, a four-sprint longitudinal Living Lab process involved people with mild dementia, caregivers, healthcare professionals, researchers, technical developers and representative organisations. Methodological learning derived from structured pilot reporting, facilitator reflections, retrospective discussions and cross-pilot comparison shows how co-creation evolved from needs and values exploration toward engagement with tangible prototypes and implementation-oriented ecosystem reflection. Values were revisited as technologies and care contexts evolved, while shared methods required adaptation to cognitive, relational, cultural and organisational realities.
The findings suggest that the contribution of longitudinal co-creation lies not in iteration alone, but in enabling situated value negotiation, adaptive methodological coherence and anticipatory reflection on the conditions needed for AI-supported interventions to fit meaningfully within dementia care.
Rosa Almeida
EU R&I Projects Coordinator, Fundación INTRAS
Rosa Almeida
EU R&I Projects Coordinator, Fundación INTRASRosa Almeida is a gerontologist, EU R&I Projects Coordinator at Fundación INTRAS and Participatory Design Manager of MINDLab, Fundación INTRAS’ Living Lab and a full member of ENoLL. With over 14 years of experience in health and social innovation, her work focuses on Living Lab methodologies, participatory and value-sensitive design, and the meaningful involvement of people with lived experience in research and innovation. She coordinates and contributes to European R&I projects in dementia, mental health, ageing and digital health, with a particular interest in translating co-creation into context-sensitive and implementable innovation. She also serves as a member of the ENoLL Board of Directors.
Bridging the digital divide: E-inclusion and technology adoption in healthcare Living Labs
Abstract:
Living Labs provide a unique opportunity and enable us to study the complex and specific processes involved when implementing healthcare technology in real-world contexts. Although the participatory and experimental nature of Living Labs is well established, limited research has explored the complex interplay between e-inclusion processes at the individual and the organisational level in such contexts.
This study examines technology adoption and the role of e-inclusion in the context of health technology development in Living Labs using a mixed‑methods research design. This research combines quantitative survey data (n=125) based on the Technology Acceptance (TAM) and the System Usability Scale (SUS), with qualitative in-depth interviews (n=10) to analyse how digital competences, perceived agency, organisational culture, and e‑inclusion challenges influence adoption readiness and how this evolves and develops further throughout the Living Lab process. This study will lead to the development of an explanatory model that integrates dynamic capabilities, absorptive capacity, and e‑inclusion as key determinants of sustainable digital transformation in healthcare organisations.
By reframing adoption as a systemic and participatory process, this research contributes to understanding how Living Labs can encourage critical, inclusive, and contextually embedded innovation in healthcare organisations.
Margot Verhelst
PhD Researcher, imec-mict-UGent
Margot Verhelst
PhD Researcher, imec-mict-UGentMargot Verhelst researches how digital technologies can promote social inclusion and well-being by developing and assessing accessible, inclusive innovative products and services that empower diverse communities.
Beyond consultation: co-creating social inclusion with unaccompanied migrant children through Living Labs
Abstract:
Unaccompanied migrant children are frequently positioned as subjects of protection and institutional management, while their knowledge and participation in policy design remain limited.
This Research in Progress paper examines the potential of child-centred Living Labs to support meaningful participation and co-creation with unaccompanied migrant children in Europe. Developed within the PATH2EU project funded by the European Union, the study combines Photovoice and Policy Lab methodologies within a participatory and transnational research design implemented in reception and support centres in Belgium, Italy, and Spain. The paper presents preliminary findings from an Italian pilot involving seven unaccompanied boys aged 13–17, conducted to test and refine the proposed approach. Findings illustrate how participants used visual and narrative methods to articulate experiences of migration, social inclusion, structural and social barriers, and future aspirations, particularly around education and employment. The subsequent Policy Lab enabled participants to collectively interpret these experiences and formulate a policy response addressing prejudice towards unaccompanied migrant children.
The findings suggest that combining Photovoice and Policy Lab within Living Lab environments can connect children’s experiential knowledge with collective deliberation and potential influence, while highlighting the importance of addressing adultism, power asymmetries, and the ethical conditions required for meaningful participation.
Juan Eduardo Ortiz López
Researcher, Comillas Pontifical University
Juan Eduardo Ortiz López
Researcher, Comillas Pontifical UniversityJuan Eduardo Ortiz López is a researcher in child migration at Comillas Pontifical University (Spain). He holds a PhD in Education from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, awarded the Extraordinary Doctoral Award. He is the Principal Investigator of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) PATH2EU project, which examines the educational pathways and inclusion of unaccompanied migrant children in Europe. His research focuses on unaccompanied migrant children, refugee education, educational inclusion, and children’s participation, using visual and participatory methodologies to inform research, policy, and practice.
Participatory ecosystem mapping as a Living Lab intervention: Building the Lithuanian national Living Lab ecosystem
Abstract:
Between January and May 2025, Lithuania conducted its first national participatory mapping of emerging Living Labs across health, education, agriculture, forestry, urban sustainability, regional development, and bioeconomy sectors. Developed in preparation for the conference “Living Labs: Opening Innovation Ecosystems for Co-creation and Impact” and the Lithuanian National Network of Living Labs, the initiative addressed fragmentation, limited visibility, and weak coordination among Living Lab initiatives. The process combined desk research, structured contribution templates, stakeholder consultations, and collaborative validation of cases. Unlike conventional mapping exercises, it treated mapping as a Living Lab intervention: stakeholders co-produced ecosystem knowledge, reflected on common challenges, and initiated new connections during the process.
The initiative generated the first shared national overview of Lithuanian Living Labs, increased visibility of locally embedded initiatives, supported the formation of a collective ecosystem identity, and contributed to the establishment of the Lithuanian National Network of Living Labs. The presentation offers practical lessons on how participatory ecosystem mapping can strengthen inclusive societal engagement, Quadruple Helix collaboration, and transferable national Living Lab ecosystem-building.
Rita Lankauskienė
Head, LIRA Lab
Rita Lankauskienė
Head, LIRA LabDr. Rita Lankauskienė is a Principal Research Fellow and Head of the LIRA Lab at the Institute of Economics and Rural Development, Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences, and Founder and President of the National Network of Living Labs in Lithuania. She holds a PhD in Social Sciences (Management and Administration). Her research focuses on sustainable regional and rural development, social innovation, innovative business models, collaboration and networking, circular bioeconomy, and smart specialisation. She has extensive experience in European research and innovation projects, including Horizon Europe, Horizon 2020 and INTERREG initiatives, and serves as an expert for the European Commission and the Lithuanian Research Council. Her work particularly explores collaborative and Living Lab approaches to innovation, stakeholder engagement, co-creation and sustainable development.
The Value of Rural – The case study and evaluation of “Smart Landsbygd”, and an argument for more rural living labs
Abstract:
Broad collaborations are needed to tackle society’s wicked grand challenges, yet rural perspectives are underrepresented in the data from Living Labs. Simultaneously, there is an overall lack of openly available data attesting to the effectiveness of living lab methodologies.
This paper aims to help fill these gaps by presenting evaluation data from the “Living lab for autonomous rural transport” (called “Smart Landsbygd”) in Tavelsjö-Rödå in the north of Sweden. Smart Landsbygd is an active living lab, bringing together 19 (now over 70) partner organisations from across several sectors, for inclusive dialogues, needs analyses, service design, and demonstration development, with the aim of finding innovative solutions to the issues associated with rural transport and logistics. It has amassed a total project portfolio budget of just under €20 million towards demonstrations of improved rural logistics and personal transport solutions. The evaluation data was achieved using several evaluation frameworks, is presented in case-study format, and places particular emphasis on the identified advantages of rural living labs for both internal functioning and effectiveness from a socio-technical change perspective.
The findings suggest that a rural focus could improve a living lab’s capacity to tackle various grand societal challenges.
Mårten Edberg
Master of Science in Environmental Planning and Urban Design
Mårten Edberg
Master of Science in Environmental Planning and Urban DesignMårten Edberg holds a Master of Science in Environmental Planning and Urban Design and has a background in regional development and infrastructure. He has worked as an infrastructure strategist at Region Västerbotten, where he was responsible for strategic infrastructure initiatives and contributed to policy development at regional, national and EU level. He is also actively involved in Tavelsjö ByaNät, a community-owned fibre network serving more than 100 villages in northern Sweden. Within Smart Landsbygd Living Lab, Mårten has been responsible for the design and practical implementation of a volunteer-based transport pilot, working closely with local residents and organisations. His experience spans policy, infrastructure, planning, local development and hands-on implementation, giving him a broad perspective on how new mobility, connectivity and service solutions can be developed, tested and translated into lasting value for rural communities.
Niccolas Albiz
Industrial engineer, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH)
Niccolas Albiz
Industrial engineer, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH)Niccolas has a background as an industrial engineer from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Sweden where he's worked and lectured on the topics of energy systems, industrial engineering, sustainability, and leadership. His focus is now more practical on how to steer innovation towards actual societal and sustainable benefit, with a starting point in socio-technical change theory and strategic sustainable development. Together with a large suite of organisations, he is part of the Living Lab known as "Smart Landsbygd” in the North of Sweden, which focuses on solutions for autonomous mobility and connectivity in rural areas.
Designing soil literacy activities in Living Labs: A six-step approach tested across three use cases
Abstract:
Soil degradation remains a major challenge across Europe, while soil literacy among citizens and key stakeholder groups is often insufficient to support long-term soil stewardship. The EU Mission “A Soil Deal for Europe” positions Living Labs as vehicles to connect citizens, practitioners and policymakers to soil health action. Within iCOSHELLs, six regional Living Labs develop practical soil literacy activities as part of their engagement work.
This research-in-progress paper addresses a practical gap: despite established participation frameworks, Living Lab teams often lack repeatable, theory-informed support to design low-threshold soil literacy activities efficiently and to align them with explicit participation goals. Building on participation theory (notably Reed et al., 2018) and citizen engagement research, we propose and operationalise a six-step design approach to plan activities at entry participation levels, where the primary aims are awareness raising, sense-making and initial feedback. The steps cover overall design, relevance, participation mechanisms, power/moderation, scalar fit, and resources.
Methodologically, we combine a literature-informed synthesis with empirical testing across three Living Lab use cases (Bulgaria, Sweden, Italy). Data collection includes qualitative organiser interviews, expert interviews, and structured self-assessments focusing on process quality and early engagement signals. The paper reports first insights from early implementations and outlines next steps while acknowledging limitations.
Jannik Schüürmann
Project Manager, Collaborating Centre on Sustainable Consumption and Production (CSCP)
Jannik Schüürmann
Project Manager, Collaborating Centre on Sustainable Consumption and Production (CSCP)Jannik Schüürmann is a Project Manager at the Collaborating Centre on Sustainable Consumption and Production (CSCP), where he works in the Sustainable Lifestyles team. His work focuses on the design and governance of Living Labs, co-creation methodologies, citizen engagement, and the application of behavioural science to sustainability transitions. Within several Horizon Europe projects, including iCOSHELLs, LIKE-A-PRO, HORT2THEFUTURE, and CARE, he has contributed to the development of participatory methodologies, behaviour change interventions, and capacity-building approaches. His current work in iCOSHELLs focuses among co-creation processes, on strengthening soil literacy through practical, theory-informed methods that support Living Labs in designing and implementing effective citizen engagement activities.