Analysis of the Smart City Lab Living Laboratory

Within the framework of the project “Smart City Lab”, the Institute of Baltic Studies carried out an analysis aimed at describing the business processes and services of a living laboratory in detail, identifying opportunities for involving different user groups and segments in the living laboratory, planning for sustainable development.

In a living laboratory test environment to be created, Smart City Lab’s strategy is to provide fast and efficient access to a large number of end users, including specific samples. These can be, for example, different demographic characteristics and combinations thereof, people from a particular field / profession / community, people using certain types of technology, etc. The live lab offers a variety of services ranging from simple questioning (quick feedback on a sample of questions) to extensive development work (test users participate as assessors in one or more stages of the process, from product concept to prototype → ready solution). In addition to “person on the street” feedback, it is also possible to involve technically competent testers. Testing takes place in the user’s normal living or operating environment and in a live lab virtual environment. All in all, the Smart City Lab Living Lab is a unique environment for end-user engagement and user-centric product development in Estonia.

The analysis was funded by the ERDF Cluster Development Program from the European Regional Development Fund.