Living Lab is a concept that gained prominence in the last decades in relation with the shift from closed innovation towards open innovation process. The Living Lab approach assumes active involvement of users from the early stages of research, development and innovation processes. Actors will openly contribute to finding novel solutions based on their social and cultural experiences and to the benefit of all.

Living Labs are the central premise of SustainIT project as they will provide the framework for various stakeholders to work together for the identification of the ICT barriers and for co-creating the conceptual solutions to improve the adoption of animal health and welfare related ICT, data valorisation and removal of obstacles. 

Living Labs are set up in all four participating countries. The stakeholders included into the SustainIT Living Labs will include farmers, ICT developers, technology providers, veterinarians, processing industry, retailers, consumers, policy makers, researchers, and innovation brokers. Through the Living Lab process, multiple actors are able to learn together, observe and understand the behaviour and challenges to the other value chain stakeholders and work together to co-create the solutions that will benefit all stakeholders. 

The SustainIT project views Living Labs as a tool as well as an outcome. The Living Labs will enable development and implementation of different research tools to deal with the different research questions in the project, as well as will create an effective linkage between all relevant stakeholders and activities and will develop further as an evolving ecosystem.  

The SustainIT Living Labs will be set up through following activities:

• Elaboration of the concept, methodology and documentation procedures.
• Training and coaching the Living Lab leaders in thinking in new ways, networking, managing non-linear knowledge flows, change and innovations.
• Setting up the Living Labs as the frame and integrating the other activities into it.
• Carrying out regular meetings with stakeholders throughout the project for both identification of problems and for finding solution.
• Integrating the research flow from individual countries into for transnational learning and sharing experience at the project level.