Living labs as instruments for business and social innovation in rural areas

This paper presents results of the living labs methodology as applied to rural development. Within the C@R project, seven living labs have been launched in various regions in Europe and South-Africa. A collaborative platform has been developed to support rural communities´ collaboration. The architecture of this platform is based on open service oriented architecture and allows for reusing and sharing services and applications. The paper demonstrates the validation and use of this platform, integrating various tools for various user communities, in different living labs settings. A common methodology has been designed to support the living labs launch, operation, experimentation and monitoring process. The paper presents results and evaluation of the living labs methodology. Particular focus is on the impacts of the living labs approach on the innovation process and on rural development in the different rural settings.