ACSELL

Mega trends like ageing populations and digitalisation are transforming different areas of our lives, our work and our economies, ranging from new needs, new products and services to new organizational forms and business models.  Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are also affected by these changes and consequently need to acquire new skills and cross-industry knowledge in order to remain competitive. So-called open innovation ecosystems and user-centered approaches (e.g., living labs) can make an important contribution by using external know-how cooperatively in order to align new products and services with the needs of customers and thus significantly accelerating innovation processes. 
Especially SMEs are affected by poorly designed regulatory frameworks and lack the resources or capacities to deal with these dynamic and increasingly complex market conditions. The ACSELL project thus focusses on creating favorable (innovation) policies and framework conditions for SMEs. 

What are Living Labs?

Living Labs (LLs) are defined as user-centred, open innovation ecosystems based on systematic user co-creation approach, integrating research and innovation processes in real life communities and settings. LLs are both practice-driven organisations that facilitate and foster open, collaborative innovation, as well as real-life environments or arenas where both open innovation and user innovation processes can be studied and subject to experiments and where new solutions are developed. LLs operate as intermediaries among citizens, research organisations, companied, cities and regions for joint value co-creation, rapid prototyping or validation to scale up innovation and businesses. LLs have common elements but multiple different implementations.                                                                           Definition by European Network of Living Labs (ENOLL)