Coventry City becomes a UK ‘Living Lab’
Coventry University, in partnership with Coventry City Council, has officially been awarded ‘Living Labs’ status by the Brussels-based European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL).
The Coventry organisations’ membership of ENoLL will see the University’s Technology Park become a real-life test and experimentation environment for low carbon innovations, strengthening the city’s and the University’s existing green agenda.
Aims
It is anticipated that the Living Labs branding will help attract investment in the area from both the UK and abroad, potentially creating new jobs as companies seek to trial their eco-friendly concepts and products in a new and purpose-built environment, and then export those ideas to the international community via ENoLL.
Living Labs have been characterised by the European Commission as Public-Private-People Partnerships (PPPP) for open innovation. They aim to encourage four main activities related to the emerging low carbon economy:
- Co-creation: users and producers working together to come up with new ideas
- Exploration: discovering emerging usages, behaviours and market opportunities in the region
- Experimentation: setting up ‘live’ scenarios within communities of users
- Evaluation: assessing these new concepts, products and services according to socio-economic criteria
A low carbon city
The plans represent a boost to Coventry’s ambitions to become a genuine low carbon city by 2020, increasing the scope for the development and introduction of renewable and environmental technologies in the region.
In particular, the awarding of the Living Labs status significantly strengthens Coventry University’s applied research activities, with its programmes on the advancement of low carbon vehicles and low impact buildings set to benefit the most.
The Technology Park has already made its mark on the low carbon map by installing one of the only hydrogen fuelling stations in the country, which Microcab – the University’s spin-off zero-emission car company – uses to power its brand new fleet of fuel cell vehicles for the £25 million Coventry and Birmingham Low Emission Demonstrators (CABLED) trial.
Both Coventry University and Coventry City Council believe the Technology Park’s new Living Lab will play a key role in enhancing Coventry’s presence on the global low carbon scene.
John Latham, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Business Development at Coventry University, said:
The success of Coventry University and Coventry City Council in securing ENoLL membership and being awarded European Living Labs status underlines both organisations’ commitment to helping to grow Britain’s green economy.
This is one of many exciting opportunities emerging through the UK’s low carbon revolution, and one which we aim to take advantage of to position Coventry as a leader in the field.
To learn more about the European Network of Living Labs, please visit www.openlivinglabs.eu.
For more information on the Living Labs concept, please contact Catherine Louch, Business Development Officer, Strategic Relationships by email on: c.louch@coventry.ac.uk and by telephone on ++44 7974 984222