Living Labs are real-life test and experimentation environments that foster co-creation and open innovation among the main actors, citizens, government, industry and academia (https://enoll.org). They can be defined as an open innovation ecosystem, in which user-driven innovation is the co-creation process for new services, products and societal infrastructures. Starting with product design, the Living Lab concept and methodlogy has extended to other domanis, such as sowftware development and agricutlure.
In the agroecologal conext, Living Labs adopt a transdisciplinary approach which involves farmers, processors, researchers, citizens and other stakeholders in the co-design, monitoring and evaluation of agricultural practices and technologies in working landscapes. Interest in Living Labs has increased, since they have become an instrument of the European Commission’s Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation System (AKIS), to improve the effectiveness and early adoption of agricultural innovations.
Living Labs in the LiveSeeding project
In the LiveSeeding project, a network of 17 Living Labs on organic seed and plant breeding constitutes the real-life setting and forum where the project’s tasks and activities take place, involving a wide range of actors of the organic plant breeding, seed production and food value chain. The 17 Living Labs covers several crops, mainly classified in two groups, vegetable (7) and arable crops (10). The appropriate methods in participatory co-creation processes in the organic seed and breeding sector are adapted to the specific contexts, agroecosystems, and value chains of each Living Lab.
During the first 18 months of the LiveSeeding project, the consortium with the facilitation of Rete Semi Rurali, established a common methodology to collective manage, describe and monitor the progress of each Living Lab. To this end, appropriate indicators and descriptors were defined during co-creation workshops, where each Living Lab also clearly established the main objective of their group, key factors of success, and lock ins affecting the development of organic seeds and breeding.
Living labs in LiveSeeding involve either “advanced” with established and experimented networks or “emerging” with new groups where different actors gather in a collective organization with a common goal. An example of advanced Lving Lab, is the ÖMKi On-Farm Living Lab, which was accredited as an official “living laboratory” becoming a member of the European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL) in 2020. They work ranges from organic variety trials to participatory plant breeding, involving a wide range of actors including farmers, millers, bakers, seed suppliers, plant breeders and civil society.
On the other hand, the network of organic rice producers from Northern Italy is an “emerging” Living Lab. Its main goal is to develop rice Organic Heterogeneous Material, able to adapt to organic management and increase resilience to climate change. With the facilitation of Rete Semi Rurali, the organic rice farmers extended the collaborative activities to researchers, citizens, consumers an organic rice miller and an organic seed company, bringing on the Italian market for the first time rice derived from a dynamic population.
