Living labs
Over the past decade, Living Labs have emerged as platforms for multi-stakeholder collaboration in the context of transitions towards sustainable systems. Especially in cases that require the collaborative development of co-benefits in the context of conflicting interests, living labs have the ability to foster mutual understanding and catalyse socio-technological innovation that accommodate co-benefits.
Living Labs (LLs) are defined as “settings for experimentation and testing of ‘solutions’ to sustainability challenges in collaboration with various actors”. According to this, Living Labs are user-centred environments where stakeholders from various sectors – such as academia, industry, government, and civil society – converge to share knowledge, co-create solutions, and explore innovative alternatives. The multitude of perspectives, expertise, and resources brought together by participants are fundamental to fostering innovation and scale up innovation and businesses.
Living labs in DOMINO
In DOMINO, the role of living labs is to engage relevant societal stakeholders in the development of six case food studies and to ensure the creation of co-benefits to the four FOOD2030 priorities. There are 4 main goals:
- To set living labs activities for a multi-actor co-creation around the plant-based Fermented Food prototypes.
- To assess consumers’, citizens’, and producers’ perception and acceptance of Fermented Foods and awareness regarding health and sustainability aspects.
- To describe the market and innovation potential for Fermented Foods.
- To test the project’s Fermented Food prototypes within the dynamic, interactive living labs.
