The Helsinki Living Lab is on the forefront of how research and innovation is now carried out. Gone are the days of people dressed in white lab coats toiling silently alone in a cold stainless steel room. Innovation today is much more likely to come from a dynamic change of ideas shared among many people who all have different needs and points of view.

The basic concept of a Living Lab is to bring together every stakeholder in an innovation. In this manner everyone who needs to be involved is brought together for the entire process. Stakeholders might include a university who researched a new invention, a private company hoping to profit from the new product, the public sector which needs to build infrastructure, and of course the consumer.

The Living Lab concept was originally developed by Professor William J. Mitchell of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His proposed research methods focused on the user in real environments. Helsinki Living Lab therefore uses real world testing in an authentic environment. This process helps ensure that the emerging technologies, products or services are fully developed before they reach the market.

David J. Cord - HT