At the heart of INNOVADE is the recognition that digital democracy cannot be engineered from the top down. Instead, it must be co-created with the people it serves — citizens, public authorities, CSOs, and researchers alike. That’s why Living Labs are a natural choice: they offer a practical, inclusive, and ethical approach to innovation.
INNOVADE Living Labs
What Are Living Labs?
Living Labs are real-life, real-time environments where innovation is developed with, not just for, users. They bring together diverse actors — citizens, governments, businesses, and researchers — to collaboratively design, prototype, and test new solutions under everyday conditions.
INNOVADE’s Living Labs at a Glance
INNOVADE’s Living Labs are where research becomes practical, real-world solutions. Each lab follows three phases: planning and preparation (about six months ahead), engagement and implementation (about two weeks ahead), where participants test ideas and help improve them, and finally analysis and reporting (within 2 months). This process brings together researchers, citizens, public officials, civil society groups, and technical and legal experts. The goal is to make sure the project’s results — like the Digital Democracy App, the Grading Toolkit, the Knowledge Base, and the governance and procurement toolkits — are useful, inclusive, and ready for real-life application. The Living Labs are closely connected to the project's major results and play a central role in shaping them.
Living labs provide a practical and dynamic approach to innovation, ensuring that new solutions are not only technically feasible but also socially acceptable and economically viable.
INNOVADE’S
LIVING LABS
Preface by detailing the three phases of implementation of LLs (see methodology), including approximate times. Highlighting the various parts of each phase, using a table format similar to the one below. Follow up with timeline below. (Interactive, with each phase being clickable and expanding/redirecting to show more detail/results regarding said LL using descriptions in pages 27-32 of the methodology. For dedicated LL1 page, show pictures/videos and figures produced during Kickoff LL. Use elements from D1.3 to complement each LL page)
INNOVADE's Living Lab Principles
Each Living Lab in INNOVADE adheres to these principles:
- Real-Life Environments: everyday settings rather than controlled environments, under realistic conditions
- User-Centric: everyday settings rather than controlled environments, under realistic conditions
- Co-Creation: everyday settings rather than controlled environments, under realistic conditions
- Public-Private-People Partnerships (4Ps): everyday settings rather than controlled environments, under realistic conditions
- Iterative Process: everyday settings rather than controlled environments, under realistic conditions
- Sustainability and Scalability: everyday settings rather than controlled environments, under realistic conditions
INNOVADE's Living Lab Methodology
The INNOVADE Living Lab methodology is structured around a five-phase innovation journey designed to ensure that solutions for digital democracy are grounded in real-world needs, co-created with diverse stakeholders, and continuously refined through feedback. These five categories — Understanding, Framing, Ideating, Evaluating, and Testing — serve as a scaffold for developing inclusive, effective, and ethical digital tools and practices. This phased approach guides participants from uncovering root issues to shaping viable, scalable solutions through hands-on experimentation and participatory design.
Apply critical and analytical thinking excersise to deconstruct problems and extract insights.
Techniques
- Journey Map
- Stakeholder Map
- Empathy Map
Clearly outline the situation/problem to facilitate effective testing and resolution.
Techniques
- Service Map
- Futures Wheel
- Backcasting
- Mind Map
Encourage participants to come up with lots of ideas, then refine and develop the best.
Techniques
- Mind Map
- Storyboard
- Round Robin
- Futures Wheel
- Backstanding
Access the viability and potential impact of proposed ideas to ensure they are robust and feasible.
Techniques
- SWOT Analysis
- Heart, Head, Hand
- Rose, Thorn, Bud
- World Cafe
Gathering feedback on the prototypes and access effectiveness in real-world scenarios.
Techniques
- Storyboard
- Service Map
These phases are not strictly linear but are revisited iteratively to adapt to insights and evolving conditions.
The project’s methodology was specifically designed to reflect democratic pluralism by involving individuals with diverse levels of digital access and a broad spectrum of political perspectives. It addresses regulatory challenges through rigorous legal and ethical compliance, led by ICT Legal, ensuring adherence to EU standards on data protection and AI governance. At its core, the methodology emphasises trust and usability, embedding human-centred and inclusive design practices through the collaboration of partners such as Fundación Cibervoluntarios, Hybrid Core, and DFKI. It also functions as a feedback engine, enabling continuous refinement of the Digital Democracy App and related policy tools based on iterative insights gathered through real-life testing and stakeholder engagement.