Open Innovation 2.0 Yearbook 2013 - European Commission - Europa

38 O P E N I N N O V A T I O N 2 0 1 3
benefit from the opportunities of ICT-based technologies
and applications. Some of them illustrate
how cities are working with experimentation
infrastructures such as technology test beds and
Living Labs. They provide an overview of the current
situation and future planning and a roadmap
towards the development of smart or intelligent
urban systems. The following cases present lessons
learned that are of interest for current and future
stakeholders.
Barcelona pioneers the smart city concept with
various initiatives such as the 22@Barcelona District.
The Barcelona Smart City strategy aims to
provide an environment for generating smart ideas
in an open environment through fostering clusters
and open data or developing proper Living Labs
while directly involving citizens in the co-creation
process of products or services. The main driver of
the Barcelona Smart City is the fostering of competitiveness
in the city. Other drivers are to promote
innovation, create new channels of communication,
facilitate access to information both locally
and internationally, and improve the efficiency of
public services. Barcelona’s smart city knowledge
economy is built on an industrial network and clusters
creating a relationship space, social networks
between companies, institutions and the city hall
and citizens. This interaction of the citizens with
this area and companies creates a knowledge society.
The Barcelona Smart City concept is used as
a strategic tool to encompass modern urban production
factors in a common framework and foster
competitiveness in the city. The main Barcelona
Smart City model components are Smart Districts
(22@Barcelona District), Living Labs initiatives
(22@Urban Lab), infrastructure, new services for
the citizens, and open data. The city has created
more than 4 000 units of new housing at 25 % less
rental, 55 000 jobs with over 1 500 new companies,
and new institutions, mainly in information
and communication technologies and media industries.
It has 10 universities and 12 R & D centres.
The innovation strategy of the region of Helsinki
shows the way forward for collaboration that will
more efficiently harness the huge innovation potential
of the metropolitan area. Helsinki Region forms
a strong innovation-oriented cluster around mobile
technology, based on favourable factor determinants
such as high-quality research and education
institutes, a continuous demand for change and
innovative services, a highly competitive business
environment and, at the same time, strong innovation-driven
networks of businesses and governmental
actors. The prominent role of user-driven
and open innovation (Living Labs) underlines the
strength of the cluster. Actively supported by local
and regional government, as well as through governmental
funding for research, development and
innovation projects, Living Labs have been established
in and around Helsinki Region (e.g. Helsinki
Living Lab and Arabianranta Living Lab). Their functions
are diverse, but all are basing their activities
on the principles of user-driven innovation. There is
a strong tradition of Living Lab research in Finland
and various types of organisations — universities,
city or region-owned development agencies (Forum
Virium), companies and SMEs — have established
Living Labs in the Helsinki Region area. The municipalities
use Living Labs for economic development
and societal engagement in energy issues,
or service provision of healthcare for the elderly,
preventive care, or urban living. Several universities
of applied science conduct research in Living
Labs at the edge of science and practice. Companies,
such as Nokia and Philips, use Living Labs as
user-centred hubs for ideation and product development
and national research institutions use Living
Labs as platforms for innovation. These Living
Labs focus on bringing users with their knowledge,
ideas, and experiences together with the developers
of new services and products to increase the quality
and usability of the services and products created.
While the role of Living Labs is only a partial
aspect of Helsinki Smart City, it has a wide influence
because of its emphasis on openness, user
engagement and co-creation.
The ambition of Lisbon as a smart city is to improve
the city’s liveliness and quality of life, namely
through the active involvement of citizens in the
city’s governance model. The city strives to become
a pole of creativity and innovation with a prospering
atmosphere for entrepreneurs, and incubator
for new ideas and business models. The strategy
defined for Lisbon’s Smart City is based on three
pillars: building spaces (Co-Working spaces and
Fab Labs), fostering entrepreneurship (launching
of new business projects) and creating useful tools
(citizens can co-create new, economically valid projects
for the city). Nevertheless the achievements
of this strategy so far have been very positive with
the creation of the Lisbon Start-Up, the launch of
the Fab Lab initiative and public and private Co-
Working centres. At the urban management level
the strong effort in the improvement of the public
transport system and the collection of real-time
data regarding energy use in public buildings and
services allowed the optimisation of infrastructures
and the definition of intervention priorities.
Finally, user’s involvement in the city’s governance
model has been successfully achieved with the Participatory
Budgeting Initiative. Citizens are eager to