ITECH - Living Lab
We aim to assist in the design of socially responsible innovation. We employ the Living Labs methodology developed at the American MIT. Living Labs is an open workspace on innovation, which allows for familiarising with the expectations of target audiences, and for audience participation in the creation process of innovative products.
Living Labs deploys two different processes. The first of the two is a project combining people with decision-making processes. It is a form of civic consultation, except citizens have the right of co-decision and cooperation with political decisionmakers and experts on matters of policy, regulation, and solutions that are of relevance to their community. And finally, Living Labs facilitates the collective design of technologies accounting for diverse interests (from engineers and creators to beneficiaries and citizens). With the assistance of a series of workshops, involving participants under this process, Living Labs can test and optimise technology innovations prior to final implementation.
Through ITECH-Living Labs, we support the creation of innovative solutions.
We organise workshops, for which we invite businesses, researchers, and consumers, to jointly work on new technologies. ITECH-Living Lab focuses on the responsible design of innovation in partnership with society, which not only procures for technical needs, but also implementing out of ideas resulting from civic participation and sustainable development. Living Labs facilitates conditions for the collaboration of various stakeholders to contribute to technological innovation, which secures societal acceptance.
We deploy the Design Thinking method and the User Experience approach, based on tools used for collaboration on European projects underpinned by responsible research and development. Conducted under the framework of ITECH – Living Labs, the process on procuring innovations will follow these stages: 1) Empathising (understanding the perspectives of the end user), 2) Experience mapping (creating target user profiles), 3) Generating ideas (creative workshops), 4) Prototyping (creating initial usability tests), 5) Testing (creating initial solutions to user tests). This process is adjusted to a given client and their specific requirements. From each process initiated at Living Labs, a report is made on the implementation course attached with concrete recommendations.
Living Labs makes possible:
- getting to know and adjusting products to the needs of users,
- fast prototyping and testing of the functionality of new products,
- quick improvements upon existing solutions.
- implementation of responsible innovative ideas through the inclusion of diverse perspectives.
Our offer includes:
- quantifiable and qualifiable social studies (opinion polls, focus groups, analytical evaluations).
- designing and implementing facilitatory processes, including public consultations.
- co-supporting research and development activities in product optimisation (workshops with end users, usability tests)
- creating substantive contributions to grant applications around public responsibility in science and technology
