We currently have 27 Effective Members, 142 Adherent Members, 11 Accepted to Grow and 4 Innovation Partner.
The European Network of Living Labs iVZW (ENoLL) is the international, non-profit, independent association of certified Living Labs. Living Labs are real-life test and experimentation environments that foster co-creation and open innovation among the main actors of the Quadruple Helix Model, namely – Citizens, Government, Industry, Academia.
ENoLL focuses on facilitating knowledge exchange, joint actions, and project partnerships among its historically labelled +480 members, advocating for and promoting EU policies, promoting Living Labs and enabling their implementation worldwide.
To be the leading organisation empowering the global development of Living Labs as enablers of impactful open innovation ecosystems where everyone can co-create and innovate via cross border & cross sectoral collaboration in an inclusive way.
To be an Ambassador of the values of co-creation and open innovation, to provide value to its members and external stakeholders by offering them opportunities to develop their capacities & knowledge in order to strengthen them in developing and scaling-up impactful innovative products & services and expanding their own value to their own stakeholders.
The governance of the Association is described in the Statutes and structured around three bodies: i) the General Assembly (Statutes, Art. 12-16) is responsible for all key decision-making; ii) the Board of the Association (Art. 17-24) is responsible for the strategy of the organisation. iii) The Secretariat (Statutes, Art. 17) is responsible of the management of the Association. The office, operating under the Secretariat and the Director, is responsible of the Association day-to-day operations.
The Annual Report provides an overview of the activities carried out by the Secretariat over the course of the year. It includes information on the development and composition of the ENoLL membership, as well as updates on initiatives, projects, and services delivered by the Association.
Inception and Vision
ENoLL is born under the Finnish Presidency of the Council of the European Union. Founded in November as a bold new approach to boost European competitiveness, it sets out to co-create innovation with users at its heart.
A Promising Start
ENoLL embarks on its journey with the 1st Wave of Membership. In this inaugural phase, 17 Living Labs across 15 EU countries join the Network as the concept of “labelling” kicks off, laying the foundation for future collaboration.
Growing Together
Under a dynamic Slovenian Presidency, ENoLL launches the 2nd Wave of Membership. The Network welcomes 31 new members, demonstrating early success in uniting a vibrant community across Europe while beginning to reach beyond its borders.
Momentum Builds
As the 3rd Wave of Membership takes off under the Swedish Presidency, 68 new Living Labs come on board. This exciting phase marks a significant boost in scale and sets the stage for even broader international engagement.
Expansion & Legitimacy
In Ghent, during the 4th Wave of Membership launch under the Belgian Presidency, 92 new members are added, growing the Network to over 200 Labs. ENoLL also becomes a legal entity. This year sees global expansion and the start of innovative initiatives like the GNSS Living Lab Prize and the 1st ENoLL Living Lab Summer School in Paris.
Strengthening the Network
ENoLL reaches 274 members with the addition of 62 new members, and its administration is fortified with the opening of a dedicated office in Brussels. New collaborations emerge as Living Labs from across the globe, spanning Australia to Asia, join the Network. The 2nd ENoLL Living Lab Summer School takes place in Barcelona.
Embracing Diversity
The 7th Wave of Membership welcomes 45 new members. This year, non-European participation grows significantly, and Finland hosts the 3rd ENoLL Living Lab Summer School, reinforcing ENoLL’s commitment to innovation across borders.
Collaborative Partnerships
24 new members join the Network as ENoLL teams up with Manchester City Council to host the 4th ENoLL Living Lab Summer School. A key Memorandum of Understanding is signed with France Living Labs, opening new avenues for collaboration in the European innovation landscape.
Celebrating Innovation
The 8th Wave of Membership brings new energy with the introduction of 26 additional members. Amsterdam sets the stage for the 1st edition of OpenLivingLab Days, while the inaugural Francophone Living Labs session, led by the French network, adds a unique cultural perspective.
Crossing New Frontiers
The Network continues its steady growth with a welcoming of 24 new members during the 9th Wave of Membership. Istanbul plays host to the 2nd edition of OpenLivingLab Days, proving once again that innovation knows no borders.
Award-Winning Achievements
With the launch of the 10th Wave of Membership, 18 new members join. ENoLL receives the Innovation Luminary Award. Montreal adds its flavour to the journey as it hosts the 3rd OpenLivingLab Days, showcasing the network’s leap into international recognition.
Global Partnerships and New Programs
The 11th Wave of Membership brings in 13 new members, accompanied by a strategic Memorandum of Understanding with Future Centre Alliance Japan. In Krakow, the 4th edition of OpenLivingLab Days unfolds alongside the launch of the exciting Learning Lab Programme.
Convergence in Geneva
11 new members join the Network as the vibrant spirit of innovation shines in Geneva during the 5th edition of OpenLivingLab Days. A Memorandum of Understanding with the Australian Living Lab Innovation Network (ALLIN) underscores ENoLL’s growing global influence.
Scaling Up and Deepening Engagement
The Network grows with 18 new members as Greece’s Thessaloniki hosts the 6th OpenLivingLab Days, a hub of activity featuring a scaling-up challenge with the European Commission. Multiple workshops and new Action-Oriented Task Forces energize the community, further cementing ENoLL’s dynamic role in innovation.
Digital Adaptation Amid Change
Despite the global COVID-19 pandemic, 10 new members join the Network. ENoLL pioneers its very 1st DigitalLivingLab Days, welcoming 327 participants online. A Memorandum of Understanding with Korea’s Local Information Research & Development Institute reflects the network’s agile adaptation to the digital era.
Digital Adaptation Amid Change
ENoLL welcomes 19 new members as a fresh chapter begins with a new Secretariat. Joint Working Groups with the European Commission, focusing on Digital for Sustainability and Regulatory Learning, drive forward new collaborative efforts.
We keep our flagship event online, hosting the 2nd edition of the DigitalLivingLab Days.
15 new members join ENoLL as we celebrate our 15th anniversary.
Celebrating 15 Years of Innovation
Turin becomes the host for the 7th edition of OpenLivingLab Days. Throughout the year, ENoLL participated in numerous international events: among them ISPIM in Copenhagen, UNHabitat in Katowice, and the Science Summit at the UN General Assembly in New York, reinforcing its global presence and commitment to open and user-driven innovation.
ENoLL continues its steady growth with 20 new members.
A Vibrant Gathering in Barcelona
The 8th edition of OLLD in Barcelona brings together the global Living Lab community to share ideas and innovation. Beyond OLLD, ENoLL strengthened its worldwide presence through a series of high-level events, including the Greece Summit in Thessaloniki, the Canada Summit in Montreal, and dedicated sessions and field visits at the Science Summit during the UN General Assembly in New York.
14 new members join ENoLL as innovation finds a new home in Timisoara, for the 9th edition of OLLD.
A New Landmark in Timisoara
The year was also marked by several key initiatives: the ENoLL Infodays in Athens and Trieste, the 1st Health and Wellbeing Living Lab Symposium in February, and ENoLL’s continued global engagement through its active presence at the Science Summit during the UN General Assembly in September.
We’re looking for passionate, driven individuals to join the European Network of Living Labs! Be part of a dynamic team dedicated to advancing innovation and collaboration worldwide. Explore opportunities to make an impact in open innovation and sustainable development with us.
Living Labs are open innovation ecosystems in real-life environments based on a systematic user co-creation approach that integrates research and innovation activities in communities and/or multi-stakeholder environments, placing citizens and/or end-users at the centre of the innovation process.
The concept ‘Living Lab’ is used for the organisation that innovates according to these principles, but also refers to the innovation projects that follow these guidelines and also links with specific activities, methods and tools within these innovation projects. Therefore, a distinction can be made between a Living Lab organization, a Living Lab project and Living Lab activities, methods and tools (meso, miso, macro).
Living Labs as real-life test and experimentation environments, foster co-creation and open innovation among the main actors of the Quadruple Helix Model, namely:
While there had been “accidental mentions” of the term living lab before, the actual birth of the concept is ascribed to MIT’s Prof William (Bill) Mitchell, who used it to refer to a purpose-built lab where the routine activities and interactions of everyday home life can be observed, recorded for later analysis and experimentally manipulated, and where volunteer research participants individually live in, treating it as a temporary home. These labs had an initial focus on testing and adapting new technologies based on their fit with the daily home environment. In the MIT PlaceLab, a 1,000-square foot “living laboratory”, with all facilities of a regular home, users are observed, logged and tracked with all sorts of devices, allowing to record their habits, activities and routines. Strong importance is placed on the technical infrastructure allowing the data gathering.
The concept has evolved over the years and now one of they key elements of a living lab experiment or test is that users are studied or involved in their everyday habitats instead of recreating a natural context in a laboratory setting.
Read more about this in our publication: Living Lab origins, developments, and future perspectives
The European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL) is the international federation of Living Labs in Europe and worldwide. Founded in November 2006 under the auspices of the Finnish European Presidency, the network has grown in ‘waves’ up to this day.
Directly, as well as through its active members, ENoLL provides co-creation, user engagement, test and experimentation facilities targeting innovation in many different domains such as energy, media, mobility, healthcare, agrifood, etc. As such, ENoLL is well placed to act as a platform for best practice exchange, learning and support, and living lab international project development.
The ENoLL international non-profit association, as the legal representative entity of the network, is headquartered in Brussels, at the heart of Europe.
ENoLL counts today with 172 active members worldwide (500+ historically recognized Living Labs over 18 years), spread across 40 countries and 5 continents.
Public and private organisations from across the world actively committed to engaging and empowering users and citizens to take part in sustainable innovation processes are invited to apply for membership of the European Network of Living Labs
If you represent a Living Lab, private company, university, research department, regional authority or other government organisation, you may contact us for a discussion on how to join as a Living Lab Member or Living Lab Innovation Partner with the objective to become sustainably engaged in Living Lab development and operations.
There are four different memberships with ENoLL: Accepted to Grow member, Adherent member, Effective member and Innovation Partners.
Applications to become a member can be submitted any time. This process, dating back to 2006, has today resulted in more than 500 historically recognised ENoLL Living Labs.
By being a member you become part of an international community of Living Labs that cooperate on research tracks, projects, acquisition and more. You can meet and talk to organisations from all over Europe and beyond, and the network is there to ease the process of knowing each other and collaboration through communications, events, Working Groups etc.
Applications for membership can be submitted by any legal entity from any country in the world that is or hosts (on a behalf of a partnership) a Living Lab. This organisation will have to prove its capacity to operate as a Living Lab and/or act as an innovation service provider through the living lab methodology and/or develop its operations towards Living Labs. All proposals are assessed by a panel of experts selected from within the ENoLL community in a peer-led review process.
You can only become an Accepted to Grow or Adherent Member after applying via our evaluation process. It is not possible to apply for membership without participating in the evaluation process.
It is however possible to become an Innovation Partner at any point during the year. Please contact us on info@enoll.org if this is of interest to you.
For more information, please see our Labelling and Certification process.
If you want to become an Effective member or an Innovation Partner of ENoLL there is an annual membership fee. Introduced back in 2011 the annual membership fee is 5.000 €.
If your Living Lab is Accepted to Grow there is a 1 year membership fee of €600 (this includes the cost for re-evaluation at the end of that period)
If your Living Lab is accepted as an Adherent Member there is a 3 year membership fee of €2100. After 3 years a re-evaluation is mandatory, this cost is already included in the 3 year membership fee.
For more information see here.
Following the initial workshop on the European Network of Living Labs governance, which took place in Brussels in October 2007, one need emerged as the main result: an ENoLL Association should be founded, financed from membership fees, offering networking services and platforms for internal and external cooperation and policy making.
In February 2010 ENoLL became a legal entity by establishing an International Non-Profit Association under Belgian Law. The ENoLL aisbl (in French) / ENoLL ivzw (in Dutch) is a horizontal organisation, whose mission has been to support the evolution and the wide uptake of the Living Lab paradigm throughout Europe and worldwide.
The association adopts an open structure, with a core of fee-paying members and partners supplemented by more informal networks of policy-makers and individual users/enthusiasts.
The Association comprises Effective, Adherent, Accepted to Grow and Innovation Partner members, but only effective members enjoy all the rights provided by the bylaws:
The association is managed by a Council appointed by the General Assembly. Only the Effective members can vote at the General Assembly, while Innovation Partners and Adherent members can take part and be a candidate of the Council with certain restrictions.
The General Assembly has all powers allowing the realisation of the objects as well as of the activities of the association. All members are invited to attend the Assembly.
The ENoLL Secretariat is based in Brussels, Belgium and has offices (visiting address) at the Welkin & Meraki building at Avenue des Arts 6, 1210 Brussels.
OpenLivingLab Days is the annual summit of the worldwide Living Lab community, formally the ENoLL Summer School. The annual 3/4 day event includes interactive sessions, workshops, lively discussion panels with excursions and off-site visits with the aim of giving the participants a wider insight about models, theories and technologies related to Living Labs. Participants have the opportunity to gain hands-on experience from the leading experts on the subject and to network with other Living Lab enthusiasts.
The event is hosted annually in either August or September and always in collaboration with a host Living Lab from our network.
Digital Living Lab Days:
Due to the global pandemic the 2020 and 2021 editions were held digitally in the form of Digital Living Lab Days.
Attracting more than 400 participants, OpenLivingLab Days / Digital Living Lab Days attracts a wide audience from across the world which includes:
We look forward to welcoming you at one of our upcoming events.
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