URBAN MANGEMENT IN EUROPE Zurich, 28/01/2009

1. The impact of Knowledge Society on citiesand for competitiveterritories: the example of the Living LabsFondation des Territoires de Demain URBAN MANGEMENT IN EUROPE Zurich, 28/01/2009

2. Knowledge Economy, Knowledge Territories:the concept of Living Lab Living Lab is a system for building future economy in which real-life user-centric research and innovation will be a normal co-creation technique for new products, services and societal infrastructure. A Living Lab offers services which enables the users to take active part in research and innovation.

3. Trentino as a Lab (TasLab) Trentino as a Lab is a cooperation cluster whose goal is to develop user-centric innovation and which involves all the three main innovation actors, namely research centers, enterprises and users. The main goal of Taslab is: • to create an advanced innovation infrastructure capable of responding to present and future user needs, not only from an ICT perspective but also from a cultural and social point of view. • to reduce the digital divide and at the same time to experiment new ICT solutions, with deep user involvement, all over the Trentino mountainous territory. • to develop an environment where the full innovation cycle, from basic research to market products • to develop partnerships with other territories in Europe and in the world, building on top of the existing national and international cooperation and partnerships of the Trentino actors; • to exploit the results of the previous activities towards a sustainable environment and development of the Trentino region.

4. Trentino (2) The TasLab initiative started in 2005, and its actors have a long history of involvement in user-centric and European R&D projects. Various testbeds and experimental facilities have been or are being built in the Trentino territory. The most noticeable consists of a four fiber network, entirely dedicated to research and experimentation, which covers all the Trentino Territory and population, for a total length of 800 Kilometers, plus the access wireless network. The researchcentersinvolved are the University of Trento, Fondazione Bruno Kessler, CNR and Laboratorio di Interoperabilitàed e-Government, Centro Ricerche Fiat, and various end-user organizationsincludingProvinciaAutonoma di Trento, Consorzio dei ComuniTrentini (Consortium of the Trentino Municipalities).

5. LivingLab Schwechat: user centric ICT developments under real life conditions LivingLab Schwechat is part of Schwechat’s Information Society Initiative eSchwechat.at. It focusses on rehabilitation and Ambient Assisted Living technologies as well as on modern urban and regional planning technologies. It’s open both to companies and research institutes. Schwechat’s municipal facilities represent a perfect context for trying out ICT 5developments. The small town structure, manageable population numbers and short distance to the municipality administration enable an effective environment for user centric product development. The Municipality’s commitment to deploy and demonstrate new technologies provides a good basis for a sustainable LivingLab. LivingLab Schwechat’s major stakeholders are the Municipality of Schwechat and CEIT Central European Institute of Technology.

6. Schwechat (2) Schwechat, a town with some 16.000 inhabitants but 20.000 workplaces lies directly south east of Vienna. It’s a modern industrial town home to several leading companies; e.g. OMV, Austrian Airlines or Vienna International Airport. Within eSchwechat.at the CEIT Central European Institute of Technology, CEIT ALANOVA and CEIT RALTEC were founded. CEIT RALTEC combines competence in ICT, assistive technologies and Ambient Assisted Living to support elderly people and those with special needs living independently at home. CEIT ALANOVA develops modern technologies for urban and regional planning, e.g. digital cities and GIS. With RISE Research Industrial Systems IT Engineering a further RTD facility was located here. In 2007 academia nova was founded running a technical high school for ICT as well as Dual Bachelor studies in ICT.

7. Schwechat (3) Thus new technologies are not only tested in Schwechat, but innovations are created here. The first projects of LivingLabSchwechat started in 2006 when CEIT RALTEC carried out a field trial of a wireless home monitoring and independently living support system for elderly persons. Exchange of best practices; common RTD projects; creating common services and sharing test facilities within the European Network of Living Labs. Investigation of user needs and preferences leading to system requirements; evaluation of pre-prototypes; evaluation of final prototypes including analyses of actual benefits for the users. LivingLabSchwechat offers its services for FP7 research consortia as well as for commercial RTD projects.

8. Graz: The EVOLARIS mobile Living Lab The host organisation evolaris next level Privatstiftung brings in the experience of 8 years of research in the field of web-based and mobile applications focusing at the same time on user as well as on business aspects. The evolaris Mobile Living Lab will improve the product development cycle of user-centred and socially acceptable mobile services for young people, especially those in education. The evolaris Mobile Living Lab acts as an innovation service provider by offering a “probe” for researching user needs and wants in the context of mobile services for young people and to co-create services. The key offerings are grouped around the design process of mobile services. The evolaris Mobile Living Lab can build upon the results of the evolaris research lab.

9. Graz (2) At the beginning of 2008, evolaris was awarded the status of a so-called K1 Centre within the Austrian COMET (Competence Centres for Excellent Technologies) Programme. The focus of this K1 Centre named “evolaris next level” is the prototypical development of mobile applications. The network of the evolaris Mobile Living Lab consist of: • Strong Austrian industry partners like AVL List, Mobilkom Austria, Raiffeisen Landesbank,… • Leading Austrian scientific partners like Joanneum Research GmbH, Salzburg Research Forschungsgesellchaft m.b.H., Graz University of Technology, University of Graz,… • Renowned international research partners like University of Maribor and the eLivingLab Slovenia: University of Trieste, University of Rijeka… • National and regional research promotion agencies.

10. Graz (3) Main benefits: • User driven approach while at the same time ensuring economic viability through systematic business model design • High acceptance of developed services in the target group through early involvement in the user experience design • Cost-effective development of mobile services as opposed to costly trial-and-error approaches

11. IBBTi-City in the Flemish cities of Hasselt and Leuven (Belgium) The interdisciplinary institute for BroadBand Technology (IBBT) is the research institute founded by the Government of Flanders, Belgium, focusing on applications of broadband technology. It converts the city of Hasselt and the city of Leuven into real-life test and experimentation environments for the applications of tomorrow. It is a unique Living Lab partnership based on the i-City Living Lab infrastructure and the IBBT scientific Living Lab expertise. This partnership has experience in large scale Living Lab facilitation and research.

12. Hasselt and Leuven (2) The i-City Living Lab setting is a large-scale laboratory for research into mobile applications. It is introducing concrete services to up to 4,000 test users, equipped with handheld devices in a wireless city and thus forms the blueprint of the future connected society. Also, tested applications can be included in the permanent showcase of the i-City Living Lab, where they are demonstrated to service providers worldwide. The i-City Living Lab infrastructure, as a public private co-operation, receives support from numerous business partners and government bodies. It is composed of 14 top-of-class research groups, and involves the entire Flemish media and ICT business community.

13. Hasselt and Leuven (3) IBBT frequently carries out multidisciplinary Living Lab research to facilitate the development and exploitation of broadband services. The research includes technological research on networks, devices and content, together with research on user practices, domestication, usability, adoption, business modelling and regulation. This will ensure that Flanders becomes a leading and internationally recognized player in the information society. It is based on the combination of IBBT’s strong R&D expertise and i-City’s state-of-the-art infrastructure. The IBBT-SMIT research group at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel is facilitating ethnographic research, using an innovative and multi-methodological approach.

14. Hasselt and Leuven (4) IBBT’s real-life research is given shape in ad hoc Living Labs as well as in the permanent Living Lab of i-City. In 2006, ad hoc Living Labs set up by the IBBT research groups included: • Living Lab testing an eReader device with e-ink technology with 200 dedicated newspaper readers. • Living Lab on mobile television services using a pilot DVB-H network. • Living Lab for interactive mobile medical monitoring. In the I-City environment, the partnership is currently developing and testing a mobile city guide, local news applications, and media sharing services.

15. Open Innovation Centre Brussels The Open Innovation Centre Brussels sets up test and experimentation platforms and performs Living Lab research. It is part of the research group based at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium, and makes use of a WiFi mesh pilot network in the heart of Brussels. The concept of the Open Innovation Centre Brussels is to explore and achieve policy and business goals related to ICT innovation using an iterative model of stakeholder co-design. The centre was established as a nucleus for open innovation activities and as a repository of relevant knowledge and expertise.

16. Brussels (2) It provides a platform for constructive technology assessment and for exploring societal and policy goals related to ICT innovation. The Open Innovation Centre Brussels uses both controlled and uncontrolled co-design settings. It works together with various partners including large and small business stakeholders, policy makers, and research partners including other groups at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, IBBT and TNO.

17. Open Innovation Centre Brussels (3) It performs research within and around these Living Labs, in the conceptual, experimentation and evaluation phase. The centre’s researchers have an extensive track record in policy support, business modelling and Living Lab research, including the development of interactive digital television applications and services. Other current Living Labs are in the field of e-tourism and electronic publishing. This is a pilot network intended to be enlarged to the entire Brussels region.

18. The Lahti Living Lab (Finland) The Lahti Living Lab promotes innovation in a challenging environment: Lahti has no university of its own and a low level of research input. The Lahti region has launched a network facilitating innovation policy, which aims at finding the seeds of innovations from the practice and daily life. To support the policy, resourcebased futures research and concrete tools like innovation sessions, innovation catchers, innovation links are developed. The special focus of the Lahti Living Lab is to develop and study innovativeness and productivity in the public sector. The main activity is to integrate the users into the innovation processes of public sector service development. For this purpose, the methods and tools are developed and studied. The methods of involving and activating the users vary, there are methods based on ICT but also on face-to-face communication. The Lahti Living Lab concept consists of different research and development projects, which all have a common nominator, i.e. the users as innovators.

19. The Lahti Living Lab (2) Lahti Living Lab is situated in the Päijät-Häme region in southern Finland. The region has app. 200 000 inhabitants, which makes the region large enough for piloting user-centered applications for the public services. The region also has favorable conditions and structures for the public sector development: a good example of public sector innovativeness is that the first public utility of social and health care in Finland was founded in the Päijät-Häme region. The variety of projects related to the restructuring of public services and management of innovativeness can be characterized as pilot activities in Finland.

20. The Lahti Living Lab (3) The Lahti Living Lab consists of different stakeholders and is coordinated by the Lappeenranta University of Technology, Lahti Unit. There are several ongoing research and development projects under the Living Lab concept. In these projects, the users are integrated into the development of public services. The ongoing projects concentrate for example on involving ageing people in generating ideas for a future welfare centre service concept. The innovation system based on network facilitating innovation policy in the region has also been recognized one of the third generation innovation systems in Europe.

21. Lunigiana Amica (Tuscany) Lunigiana Amica is a non-profit association that is currently joining small and micro businesses active in the rural district of Lunigiana, mainly from agro-industry and agro-tourism; local public administrations support the association financially with voluntary contributions. The membership is open to national and European academia, R&D centres and laboratories, financial institutions, public service providers, other Living Labs. LunigianaAmica meets the local demand with the national/international offer for quality knowledge resources, business innovation and financial services to rural enterprises, promoting and enabling the participation of its associates in innovative actions, pilot applications, research and demonstration projects, market development initiatives…

22. Lunigiana Amica (2) The main focus is on providing innovation opportunities and services of economic interest to local small and micro enterprises. Any technology and application is tested and in case of positive results, adopted and implemented into territorial businesses and more generally, households and public administrations : • a web service for territorial marketing and the electronic commerce of typical products , • a network of operators active in the arson prevention, monitoring and control, • an integrated portal for the creation of a “diffused accommodation” system.

23. TLL Sicily: Territorial Living Lab for the Sicilian Region TLL Sicily is the first instance of a concept called “Territorial Living Lab”, that integrally applies the LL approach to a territory and its citizens, its model of governance and its strategic plans for the future: in essence, it can be conceived of as a new model for regional development. The objective of a Territorial Living Lab (TLL) is to use ICT to develop innovative means of participatory strategic co-planning and territorial self-governance, under the assumption that citizen co-responsibility can finally generate models for sustainable spatial development. The three arenas of e-Democracy, e-Government services, and GIS-based tools for strategic planning and environmental monitoring have been well developed.

24. TLL Sicily (2) TLL Sicily integrates them within the Living Labs philosophy. As governance and territorial planning are multi-level processes, the TLL model involves the regional dimension in a role of strategic coordination while directly involving local authorities, citizen groups and ad hoc local partnerships in actual experimentation. In a complementary fashion, the technical platforms and services supporting the TLL are implemented by ad hoc partnerships between global actors and regional research bodies together with local service providers.

25. TLL Sicily (3) The end result is a significant step forward for the Living Lab model in that it applies the co-creation method to the higher level. It also constitutes a substantial innovation in spatial planning methods and practice, promising the development of a new model of governance for territorial competitiveness. TLL Sicily is organised as an open network headed by the Centro per la Ricerca Elettronica in Sicilia for the technical ICT dimension and the Regional Department of Planning as concerns the dimension of territorial governance.

26. TLL Sicily (4) Some examples: The municipalities of Bagheria, Monreale and Santa Flavia aim to set up eDemocracy platforms for decisions concerning planning and environmental issues. A consortium of mountain towns near the Etna volcano are applying rural Living Lab approaches to improve the competitiveness of local bio-agriculture and agri-tourism sectors. The regional MOTRIS initiative is negotiating with a range of local authorities for experimentation of a new model of “integrated relational tourism” and its related service platform. A Local Action Group created under the LEADER program in the Val d’Anapo is installing a wireless network for managing an extensive natural reserve including several municipalities.

27. Living Piemonte: regional Network of Living Labs Living Piemonte is the rising network of Regione Piemonte aiming at sustaining the transfer of research and development results into new products and services which could be appealing for the markets. The creation of this network is going to be one of the most important instruments for the regional innovation strategy in the following years: the potentials of broadband technology will be exploited at their best thanks to the intersection with innovation cluster policy and with programmes dedicated to the digital divide reduction and to the local development promotion. a. Innovation clusters Regione Piemonte is creating a network of 12 innovation clusters and living labs will be part of the general activity of these clusters, encouraging innovators to transform their ideas into marketable products.

28. Living Piemonte (3) b. Digital divideovercoming An important pilot project has been launched, aiming at transforming isolated mountainous areas into “digital territories”, promoting sustainability and digital convergence and identifying a model to overcome hard digital divide. The project has been carried out as a Living Lab: it launched an open-air lab to test a complete digitalization process in Orco and Soana Valleys in order to maximize the model’s transferability into other similar regional areas.

29. The Knowledge Workers Living Lab (Munich) The Knowledge Workers Living Lab has been launched in Munich with the support of University Bw Munich and local partners. The target users are “knowledge workers” and their new working environments, involving individuals, eProfessionals, community members as well as large companies and start-ups. Innovation and related R&D focus on “knowledge working practices” are supporting information and communication technologies and new management systems.

30. Munich (2) As Innovation Service Provider, the Knowledge Workers Living Lab supports the innovation lifecycle from definition and conduct of emerging solutions and projects up to the commercialization of their results. The testbed is offered to emerging usages and IT solution experiments with a strong engagement of the different stakeholders and associated key users. Organized as a PPP under the form of a non profit status, the KW LL is based on a mixed funding model with basic university funds, contract research, income from innovation projects and returns from successful creation of ventures.

31. Munich (3) The key offerings or solutions of the KW LL are: • Collaboration systems • Strategic eArchitectures/network management systems • Knowledge Workers productivity • Location-based services (experimenting new business applications of GALILEO-Satellite technology).

32. Munich (4) Thus the Knowledge Workers Living Lab is a joint initiative of 6 groups of stakeholders : • user communities of KW: EsoCE-NET, Swiss SPS Foundation, Wireless Leiden Community Network, projects such as ECOSPACE, COSPACES, COVES… • developers and technology providers: Siemens, Philips, IABG, Orange, Microsoft, Galileo… • Research and Academia: CeTIM, University Bw Munich, Fraunhofer, University Constance, Universiteit Leiden, the AlpAdria University Initiative Aladin… • regional governments and agencies: the Bavarian and Swiss government, ESA … • Innovation services, incubation and transfer agencies… • SMEs and start-ups…

33. Pisa Living Lab - Learning Lab The Learning Lab is a free association of creative people, founded in Pisa in 2007 to bring innovation from laboratories into everyone's and everyday life. His goal is to help citizens change their life and assume a creative and active attitude towards the challenges of a constantly evolving world. The Learning Lab is the place of aggregation where people coming from different backgrounds (University of Pisa, CNR, Sant'Anna, Scuola Normale Superiore and many high tech companies) collaborate to solve problems and invent new products.

34. Pisa (2) The Leaning Lab is the evolution and the point of convergence of various local researches and experiences in participative environments, collaborative problem solving and virtual communities. His winning ingredients are multidisciplinariety, collaboration integrated with meritocracy and knowledge sharing. Participants are considered not only as users, mere customers of products or clients of services. The two main Learning Lab activities are the resolution of existing problems and the development of radically new ideas, through a set of innovative methods and tools to guide creativity in problem solving sessions.

35. Pisa (3) The Leaning Lab collaborated with many local SMEs and has partnerships with national and transnational companies. More recently various collaborations with other Italian LLs and institutions have been launched. The Learning Lab offers an IT platform with a proprietary semantic engine for technical texts analysis. It has been used for patents clustering, search and comparison, for advanced problem solving and for fast processing of specifications. The group is also developing its own projects (the portal http://www.toscana4u.net on eTourism, the augmented reality for e-Inclusion and industrial applications). Finally the Leaning Lab plays an active role in high formation with a Master on “Innovation Engineering”.

36. EuroMedITI (Malta) : the Euro-Mediterranean Initiative for Technology & Innovation Living Lab The Euro-Mediterranean Initiative for Technology & Innovation Living Lab was launched in January 2007. Initiated by the Government of Malta as a platform for technology transfer in the Euro-Mediterranean region, LL EuroMedITI is a strategic innovation hub encouraging the development, customization and deployment of technologies within the Mediterranean Region. It directly addresses the objectives of the Lisbon Strategy - to develop European networks of innovation at a regional level, so as to increase knowledge and technology transfer and promote economic growth -. LL EuroMedITI is a critical support vehicle for both the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership and the Union for the Mediterranean. One of the objectives is to strengthen scientific research capacity by putting more emphasis on strategic projects of special relevance to the region, integrating R&D, technology transfer, training and other innovation-related activities.

37. Malta (2) The Living Lab EuroMedITI operates through REGIONAL networks of partners and customers, focused primarily on (Southern) Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Technology sector foci are determined by regional and national strategies and requirements (economic, educational, industrial, and research) and LL EuroMedITI continuously re-evaluates its sector focus as the strategies and requirements change. Both vertical sectors (e.g. ICT, renewable energy) and horizontal, cross-sectoral areas of activity (e.g. marine-focused software development) are considered. EuroMedITI is a Malta-Government owned, not-for-profit limited liability company and the shareholders are: the University of Malta; Malta Enterprise; Malta Council for Science and Technology; and the Malta Federation of Industry. EuroMedITI provides: regional intelligence; project management expertise; infrastructure and support; and its core expertise is supplemented by its network of experts.

38. Malta (3) Primary stakeholders include local and regional, formal and informal clusters; academic institutions; government entities; SMEs and NGOs. Key regional partners in the LL EuroMedITI network include Fraunhofer (Germany), VTT (Finland), the National Research Center (Egypt), the Council of Arab Economic Unity (Egypt) and the World Centre for New Thinking (Malta). EuroMedITI is constantly looking to grow and develop its regional network and new partners will be invited to join the network as the situation demands. The Valletta Forum (www.euromediti.com) is a annual Euro-Mediterranean Event on regional technology transfer. Its a platform for free and open dialogue, promoting plans of action that are inclusive of socio-economical, environmental, cultural, ethical, political and technological input and implications.

39. The Living Lab Malta (LLM) The concept of Living Lab Malta (LLM) has been developed and exploited on the base of the global project of SmartCity Malta (SCM). The operating organisation of LLM will be the Maltese Institute of Open Innovation and hosted by Smart City Malta. The institute has an active policy of developing partnerships in Malta and the Euro-Mediterrean area. At its core is the gateway between the different stakeholders with an interest in the development of sustainable cities. Through a number of structured processes, researchers from various universities, governmental organisations, industry decision makers and open community groups contribute to the project.

40. The Living Lab Malta (LLM) (2) SmartCity Malta is the first-of-its kind knowledge-based township in the southern part of Europe. A key component of its service offering includes the need to link high-value knowledge businesses, with IT enabled services to provide supporting transport/logistics/retail/public systems and networked virtual communities. Malta Living Lab will need to cater for improved urban design and structures, transport efficiency, sustainable development and concerns related to the environmental and climate change. Living Lab Malta is to extend the research and innovation of the cleaner technologies and low-carbon-emission energy at European level, and create a common environmental benefit, where the overall economic focus is more local and regional/city-based than global, with low-to-medium economic growth.

41. Madeira Living LabThe Living Lab for mobility and innovative IT services and technologies The Region of Madeira has two islands Madeira and Porto Santo, with an ideal size for testing socio-economic variables and for the adoption of new social behaviours in a confined environment driven by sustainable regional development. Madeira has a comprehensive telecommunications infrastructure, namely a high penetration of mobile communications (GSM and UMTS), being most of the population covered by Internet broadband access (ADSL and Cable) and a very active e-Inclusion Programme. Madeira is very demanding in terms of wireless communications due to the specific orography, high mountains and narrow valleys, making an excellent environment for testing new communications solutions and services. A platform integrating the existing communications and applications is under way (Optical ring, WIMAX, Wi Fi and Satellite). Madeira Living Lab has been applying and refining user-driven innovation methodologies from product to service design as well as to policy making.

42. Madeira (2) It has started with an extensive involvement of all the relevant stakeholders of the knowledge society at the time of creating the Framework Policy, operational programmes as well as action plans to implement the Information Society and the Innovation Culture. We believe that the European Living Labs Network is the strategy to drive an Innovative Europe allowing to create the value that will support our quality of life and well being. The integration of collaborative resources that may be distributed, the development of new services and the refinement of existing ones requires extensive testing and validation where users are an integral part of the Living Lab. This means both technology and human factors, including focusing on user devices and cross platform access on one end, and collecting, analyzing and taking into account feedback and experience from users, define the research challenges.

43. Madeira (3) Madeira Living Lab roadmap includes the following activities: • user involvement, • experience and sustainability, • social acceptance studies, • integration of new technologies and services, • technology and services assessment, • social shaping of technology, • analysis of social networks • underlying relationships and innovation diffusion.

44. S. JOÃO DA MADEIRA INDUSTRIAL LIVING LAB (SJM-ILL) S. João da Madeira (SJM) is a small council located in the Northern Region of Portugal, which is part of the Entre Douro e Vouga sub-region, located 40 km from Porto. SJM industrial council has one of the highest rates of enterprises per square meter at a national level. The target end users are the local SMEs of the shoe and automotive clusters and their customers. The SJM-ILL is a co-creative space for innovation focused on giving empowerment to the local business, industrial community end users, by providing them with a user-driven Living Lab environment supported by stronger technological, innovation capacity and user involvement.

45. S. JOÃO DA MADEIRA (2) The SJM-ILL will play a key role in the growth and development of, not only the local, but also the regional competitiveness, by establishing a dynamic model to support the innovation process of SMEs, involving all the main stakeholders of the innovation processes. This model is sustained by the real needs and requests of local enterprises and by the accumulated knowledge of the universities and R&D institutions with a wide experience in the specific sectors.

46. S. JOÃO DA MADEIRA (3) The user-driven methodology includes the following actions: • Identification of the industrial needs in the shoe and automotive sectors in terms of technology, products, services or processes • Establishment of the business model, the financial support mechanisms and respective teams for the projects management • Development of the innovation projects for specific enterprises. These projects include the phases of analysis (functional and technical), development, test and deployment • Development of financial support programmes to promote the creation of start up companies in the strategic sectors in the SJM-ILL • Promotion and dissemination of the innovation projects results • Gather and analyse the end user feedback on the projects outcome • Facilitate the creation of the required partnerships.

47. S. Joao da Madeira (4) With the implementation of this actions, SJM-ILL pretend to achieve the following objectives: • contribute to the territorial development in economical terms, qualification of human resources, innovation and entrepreneurial culture • support all the stakeholders of the network of strategic partnerships for the innovation boost within the industrial community • foster and sustain an innovation and entrepreneurial environment/culture among citizens, enterprises, R&D institutions, universities, and professional training institutes • support the development innovative technologies, products and services to the industrial community, using advanced knowledge, ICT and specific R&D • capture funding, at national and international level for the SJM-ILL.

48. Living Labs Minho Value creation through innovation for & by the people Living Labs Minho aims at enabling and promoting project that simultaneously contribute to: • product and service innovation; • technology transfer between research units and social and economic institutions; • innovation-based value and wealth creation within the Minho region; develop a culture of openness to innovation, an entrepreneurial attitude and a participative citizenship stance among Minho inhabitants, specially its youth; knowledge-driven regional development; extension of existing IT infrastructures with potential to attract new services and industries to the region.

49. Minho (2) Minho, the northwestern region of Portugal 1 million inhabitants, it is characterized by its youth , recognized as one of the youngest regions of Europe. Living Labs Minho is being led by University of Minho, through its School of Engineering and its research centres. The initiative is instrumental to the achievement of two goals defined by University of Minho: to establish itself as an university without walls; to lead Minho into a region of knowledge. Information technology is considered as a focus area for Living Labs Minho projects, irrespectively of the social or economic sector that might benefit from the products or services to be launched and experimented in Living Labs Minho.

50. Minho (3) Current projects address areas such as: health, commerce, public services and culture. Minho members: • research institutions (mainly research and development units associated to University of Minho) • local authorities (municipal authorities from Minho’s main cities); • associations of industry and commerce companies; • business units from several sectors with emphasis on information technology related business; • tourism promotion agencies. Local authorities have being promoting the involvement of other institutions, citizens associations and citizensindividually.