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Living labs

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Find the right model to build a successful Living Lab

At the heart of open innovation, Alcimed supports its clients in setting up and developing Living Labs. We help you define your strategy, your service offering, and the most appropriate operational and partnership model according to the realities of your ecosystem.

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    The challenges related to living labs

    True innovation laboratories, Living Labs are designed for collective experimentation, evaluation and development of new solutions in real-life environments. Because of their experimental nature, setting up efficient Living Labs is not without challenges. Alcimed identifies three of the main ones:

    The French ecosystem is teeming with innovation structures in the healthcare sector, and in particular Living Labs. It is necessary to adopt a unique positioning that is consistent with the strengths of the territory and has a high potential for experimentation. This reinforces the need to determine a clear goal, missions, activities, and objectives when designing the tool.

    How do we differentiate ourselves? How do we become a vector of attractiveness on its territory?

    Establishing an open innovation lab in the territory requires aligning themes and activities with other active structures in the region. These include not only the Living Labs, but also all the other structures that support innovation: SATT, incubators, etc. Establishing the legitimacy of the laboratory’s positioning in the territory is an essential step to strengthen its role as a coordination leader.

    How do we bring together stakeholders and get them involved in the innovation ecosystem of the territory?

    In order to prevent its ecosystem from slowing down, an open innovation lab must rely on a tangible and sustainable operating model. This implies defining a sustainable funding model, stabilized management, mastery of research and innovation processes and Living Lab methodologies, as well as a flexible organization. This living laboratory must also be able to effectively mobilize a network of partners, in order to be able to experiment in real situations.

    How do we develop a model and make its activities sustainable?

      Tell us about your uncharted territory

      You have a project and want to discuss it with our explorers, write us!

      One of our explorers will contact you shortly.


      How we support you in your projects related to living labs

      Alcimed has supported the design of Living Labs projects as well as the repositioning of already mature Living Labs. Our team relies on its ability to design the most appropriate tool possible (high added value strategy and a clear and coherent offer coupled with an efficient operating model), as well as its knowledge of the realities of the “life” of this type of tool. We also have the capacity to mobilize a network of experts in this type of process and source international feedback.

      The stakeholders we support in this process are often local authorities (groups of municipalities, agglomerations, regions, etc.), but our team also supports other public and private players (associations, federations, start-ups, etc.).

      Examples of recent projects carried out for our clients in living labs

      • Setting up a Living Lab for a hospital focused on health and independence (aging, preventing falls, etc.)

        As part of a Living Lab project for a hospital, our team carried out a benchmark and exploratory interviews to take stock of the needs of the ecosystem in the region, as well as the key success factors and pitfalls to be avoided.

        Our teams provided help in defining and consolidating the Living Lab project: positioning; ambition and roadmap; legal, financial, organizational, and partnership arrangements; points of differentiation and complementarity with existing initiatives.

        Finally, we supported the construction of the Living Lab offer and the animation of the ecosystem and communication to federate around the project.

      • Assessing the opportunity to create a Living Lab in the structuring of a Silver Economy sector for a metropolitan area

        Alcimed supported the metropolitan area of Nice in the structuring of an economic sector in digital health by assessing the interest of the Silver Economy and the opportunity to create a “Gérontopôle” (gerontology pole) and a Living Lab.

        The latter was therefore part of a more global reflection to identify levers to improve the welfare and well-being of the elderly while contributing to economic development and support for innovation and experimentation within the metropolitan area.

      • Preparations and deployment of a Sport Santé Living Lab

        Following an in-depth market study, Alcimed advised stakeholders from a territory in Eastern France gathered around an open innovation living lab, helping them to define a high added value offer in the creation of a Living Lab.

        The support of our team focused mainly on defining the operating model of the Living Lab, including an economic modeling of the tool and the predefinition of its resource requirements and its mode of operation within the ecosystem.

      • Assessment and strategic repositioning of a leading French Living Lab in health and independence

        Alcimed worked on redefining the Agreement on Objectives and Means of a leading Living Lab in France in the field of health and independence with the aim of facilitating and and making its missions more fluid.

        This support made it possible to prioritize the strategic areas of action of the Living Lab, identify high added value projects, review governance, and build a monitoring strategy to “reassure” investors while maintaining some flexibility.

      • Support for a French higher education establishment in opening up its living lab to the surrounding socio-economic world

        Alcimed supported a French higher education establishment in its efforts to open up its living lab to the socio-economic world.

        To help our client meet this challenge, we explored 17 initiatives in France and abroad by other living-labs that had also decided to offer a more open model. The aim of the study was to identify for each initiative the opportunities, risks, obstacles and key success factors of such openness, and to question, during various workshops with the project leaders, the main key points to be retained for the establishment being supported. We also co-constructed several scenarios with our client’s team to imagine how the living-lab could be opened up to its ecosystem.

        At the end of the project, the facility was able to draw up its own roadmap for establishing partnerships and driving the most appropriate opening strategy for its living lab and its surrounding ecosystem (companies, private players, users, funders, etc.).

      • Co-construction of a "living-lab" format stand

        An organization involved in health care issues wanted to present its activities to the players in its ecosystem in an innovative way at a trade show dedicated to healthcare issues.

        To this end, our team proposed to this organization to co-construct, in liaison with the person in charge of the stand at the show, an ephemeral living-lab concept. The idea was to draw up a set of specifications covering all the methodological and logistical aspects required to set up the space on the stand.

        This approach enabled our customer to share its activity with its users in the form of an illustrated and interactive “user path”.

      You have a project?

        Tell us about your uncharted territory

        You have a project and want to discuss it with our explorers, write us!

        One of our explorers will contact you shortly.


        To go further

        Founded in 1993, Alcimed is an innovation and new business consulting firm, specializing in innovation driven sectors: life sciences (healthcare, biotech, agrifood), energy, environment, mobility, chemicals, materials, cosmetics, aeronautics, space and defence.

        Our purpose? Helping both private and public decision-makers explore and develop their uncharted territories: new technologies, new offers, new geographies, possible futures, and new ways to innovate.

        Located across eight offices around the world (France, Europe, Singapore and the United States), our team is made up of 220 highly-qualified, multicultural and passionate explorers, with a blended science/technology and business culture.

        Our dream? To build a team of 1,000 explorers, to design tomorrow’s world hand in hand with our clients.

        A Living Lab is a system of consultation, open innovation, and co-creation, bringing together public actors, private actors, companies, associations, research laboratories, communities, and users, in order to collectively develop and evaluate innovative solutions in technology, organization and services bringing new solutions for communities and society. The Living Lab certification can be awarded by the ENOLL association (European Network of Living Labs).

        A third place is a physical space that is neither a home nor a workspace, where citizens meet to collaborate on a variety of issues.

        A living-lab, on the other hand, is a physical or virtual space designed to foster innovation through collaboration. More specifically, a living-lab is an innovation methodology that aims to bring together users and professionals (public or private players) from the same sector, so that they can collectively imagine innovative and appropriate solutions to an identified issue in a specific field.