L I V I N G L A B S F O R EU 2 0 2 0 : T H E R E G I O N A L P E RS P E C T I V E

PR OPOS AL F OR INTR ODU CIN G A TR ANS VER SAL , U S ER- DR IVEN INNOVAT ION APP R OACH INTO TH E 2014 - 2020 S TR AT EGIC GU I DE L INES

Version 0.1, 26.04.2011 Contact: PanosGeorgopoulos, Project Leader MedLab: Mediterranean Living Lab for Territorial Innovation (ERDF TC MED 1G-MED08-280): panos@rcm.gr This note aims to propose a White Paper to be developed within the MedLab project, linking issues of EU 2020, Living Labs, and Regional Cohesi on Policy. The invitation is open to interested parties at the regional level and within the Living Lab community but also to those in the key EU institutions called upon to act on the recommendations: the Committee of Regions, the European Commission, and the Council (through up-coming EU Presidencies). The structure of the proposed White Paper would be as follows: 1. Problem (generating and governing the radical transformations of EU 2020through regional innovation) 2. Policy Context (EU 2020, Digital Agenda, E uropean Innovation Partnerships, EIT/KICs,, Cluster policy and Smart Specialisation, FP8 PPPs etc. etc.) 3. Living Labs (introduction, description of ENoLL, LL examples, TC projects e.g. MedLab, CentraLab, etc.) 4. Solution (vision of transversal user-driven co-creation driving regional innovation) 5. Recommendations (short and medium term action points) The following text is a first memo developing some of the key concepts we wish to explore.

"Europe 2020 is about what we need to do today and tomorrow to get the EU economy back on track. The crisis has exposed fundamental issues and unsustainable trends that we can not ignore any longer. Europe has a growth deficit which is putting our future at risk. We must decisively tackle our weaknesses and exploit our many strengths. We need to build a new economic model based on knowledge, low-carbon economy and high employment levels. This battle requires mobilisation of all actors across Europe." President Barroso presenting the Europe 2020 Strategy.

THE INNOVATION CHALLENGE

Innovation is at the heart of the Europe 2020 strategy . The Innovation Union flagship initiative aims to help us do much better at turning our research into new and better services and products . A key approach is through the new European Innovation Partnerships, a new way ofbringing together public and private actorsat EU, national and regional level to tackle the big challenges we face such as climate change, energy and food security, health and an ageing population. Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) will play a key role in achieving these objectives, as underlined in the Digital Agenda flagship initiative which aims to create a Single Digital Market in the EU and take

advantage of ICT to better meet the global challenges, such as the transformation to a low carbon and resource-efficient economy and the creation of more and better jobs . While the vision is clear, the real questions remain: how can we make this happen, what methods can bring about such innovation and the paradigm shifts required, and how can we effectively involve citizens, small businesses and local authorities? The key challenge for the Structural Funds in the upcoming 2014-2020 programming period will be to mobilise the resources and collective creativity of Europe s regions to implement EU 2020 from the ground up, but in order to do so the questions raised need answers.

THE LIVING LAB APPROACH

The Living Lab approach, promoted by the European Commission since the constitution of the European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL) through the Finnish Presidency s Helsinki Manifesto of 2006, constitutes an important response to this challenge. The 274 Living Labs that make up ENoLL demonstrate how ICT can provoke and support territorial innovation and transformational behaviour changes. How? Simply by bringing ICT research and development out of the laboratory and into the real world to engage citizens, businesses, and local authorities if co-creative innovation processes. Driving uptake of Living Labs are the clear benefits for the ICT sector, such as improved time to market and lower risk and increased returns on investment, and the method is spreading beyond Europe to Living Lab networks in Brazil, China, Africa, etc. In recent years, however, the approach has also been explored as a tool for regional development, engaging local actors in deep innovation processes across a broad range of sectors, from agriculture and fishing to coastal zone management. This has been the object of the ERDF TC MED project MedLab Mediterranean Living Lab for Territorial Innovation which has in turn led to the development a regional Living Lab network in Andalusia, the birth of a macro-regional Living Lab GECT for the Mediterranean basin, and transfer of best practice to Central Europe in the just-started CentraLab project.These territorially-driven Living Labs complement the more technical regional and national networks of Living Labs initiated primarily in the Northern European countries.

LIVING LABS FOR REGIONAL POLICY

Living Labs thus represent a practical and feasible method for attaining the kind of user -driven innovation processes called for in EU 2020. Its integration in regional development policies can bring specific benefits directly related to the emergent EU policy context, for example in the following areas:
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Living Labs have demonstrated their relevance in a broad range of policy domains, in particular those highlighted in the EU 2020 flagship strategies; this includes specific areas such as health and well-being, ageing, and energy efficiency where behaviour transformations play a key role, but also areas such as environmental management, waste treatment, and transportation that involve a broad range of actors in a public-private mix. A key element of the Living Lab approach is the construction of local partnerships that involve public authorities, industry and small businesses, and associations and NGOs together with the ICT research agents (universities, researchcentres, industry, etc.). The structure of these partnerships bears a striking resemblance to the European Innovation Partnerships proposed as a key implementation tool for EU 2020. Through this mechanism of aggregation of actors, regional Living Labs are able to articulate territorial capital and highlight the resources that are present in a region and committed to open innovation processes. This introduces a mechanism of bottom-up smart specialization whereby regional priorities can be determined by the willingness of local actors to join forces.

Living Labs are organically scaleable: regional Living Lab systems are generally built through the aggregation and inter-connection of local initiatives, and projects such as MedLab and CentraLab demonstrate the capacity of such networks to generate national as well as interregional and cross-border networks. This naturally emergent multi-level governance system responds well to the need for bottom-up dialogue with top-down EU policy. The macro-regional Living Labs developed in the MedLab project and designed for transfer to CentraLab suggest a bottom-up reply to the new trend for defining Macro-Regions within the Structural Funds, in which thematic macro-regional structures can be defined within a logic of variable geometries according to the challenge to be faced.

THE LIVING LAB PPP PROCESS

In a workshop promoted by ENoLL (the European Network of Living Labs) at the Future Internet Week in Ghent (December 2010) a proposal for a Living Lab PPP to be part of the 8 th Framework Programme was launched, with an invitation from the European Commission to take forward the consensus and constituency-building process. Central to this proposal is the strong involvement of cities, regions and other constituencies the end users of a full-scale Living Lab programme in the definition and implementation of the LL PPP. While the LL PPP as it currently stands foresees specific areas for technology research, methodological research, and educational programmes, the heart of the initiative consists of large scale pilots to be launched in relation to on-going policy initiatives. Such initiatives, in order to go beyond the typically circumscribed pilots of technology-driven projects, need at least in part to be real, full-scale actions in a range of fields transport, health, energy, rural development, etc. that by definition are independently funded and carried out by independent teams with independent work pl ans. Coordination between an LL PPP pilot project and such real -world initiatives will thus be based on a concept of loose coupling , whereby cooperation with differently funded initiatives is based on genuine added value and reciprocal self-interest. If the bulk of the work is adequately funded from the two sides e.g. platform development through FP8 funding and an energy infrastructure through ERDF funding collaboration is possible with minimum additional funding of coordination activities . The mechanism for doing so needshowever to be defined a priori,requiring collaboration in the planning stage between those defining the LL PPP and those defining the instruments and criteria for, inter alia, the Structural Funds in the 2014 -2020 period.

RECOMMENDATIONS
1. The Living Lab approach should be integrated transversally across all sectors of the Structural Funds for the 2014-2020 programming period, as a means of introducing user-driven innovation into every activity funded by the ERDF and thus making substan tial progress towards the objectives of EU 2020. 2. The European Commission DG Regio should engage in the open process for the definition of the proposed Living Lab PPP, in order to define the steps necessary for ERDF -funded initiatives to be open to future loose coupling with FP8 projects. 3. In these final years of the 2000-2013 programming period, experimental actions should be taken to experiment the loose coupling concept and the mechanisms required. This could take place by linking on-going ERDF projects, either in specific regions or through Territorial Cooperation, with on-going projects with a Living Lab component in CIP ICT PSP or FP7. A working group coordinated by ENoLL could then analyse the outcomes, make specific recommendations to DG Regio, and build the appropriate mechanisms into the future Living Lab PPP.

[Territorial Pacts as per the Markkula documents) [Pre-commercial procurement]