What are Living Labs? They are innovative test beds in cities for various solutions. They cover a real area, place or district(s) in a city and provide on a practical place to test out new approaches such as nature-based solutions.

OpenLivingLab Days (OLLD) is the annual global gathering of Living Labs organized by the European Network of Living Labs. This year, the event will be held in Turin, Italy with the theme "The city as a Lab, but now for real!" Re-working open innovation environments for inclusive, green and digital transition through emerging technologies "between 20-23 September.

Over 400 innovators from Europe and around the world are expected to join the annual global Living Labs event! Turin is one of the proGIreg Living Labs and the city will showcase the innovative nature-based solutions implemented in the project in this exciting event. Participants will have a chance to visit these sites, see the agenda for the visit below:

Study Visit 2 – The “green line”
Length of tour: 3 hours and 15 minutes (9:00 am – 12:15 pm/ 2:00 pm – 5:15 pm). 

Let’s discover nature-based solutions (NBS) and the Torino’s food route in the suburban district of Mirafiori through the sites of European projects proGireg and FUSILLI, which use nature and innovative Living Labs for urban and food system regeneration.  

The stops include Orti generali, a place that regenerated the Cascina Piemonte area through the creation of 160 urban gardens of different sizes, the planting of more than 330 trees and continues to involve citizens in several initiatives, including the monitoring of biodiversity. 

Some key speakers in the overall event are Jeff Cherry, Managing General Partner at Conscious Venture Partners, and Gianluca Galletto, Urban Innovation Expert and former Chairs Office, MD Tech & Innovation Parterships at NYC Housings Authority. Find out more in the event program.

Some of the interesting panels taking place, organised by the city of Turin:

• The House of Emergency Technology in Italy and Beyond, showcasing the first results of the Turin CTE NEXT project in comparison with other Italian Emerging Technology Houses, describing how emerging technologies and 5G can be used in the service of citizenship.
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  Scaling up, scaling out and scaling deep for social innovation, examines the role of public authorities and the third sector in social innovation. Next, we will explore the replicability of social innovation systems (scaling out) and delve into the roots of social innovation (scaling deep).
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  Urban Testing models in Europe and Beyond, the session will analyse how Living Labs are a unique tool for promoting innovation in a holistic and inclusive way. Along with Torino, Living Labs from Eindhoven, Nantes, Nagoya and Medellin will showcase their best practices.
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  Living Labs as enablers of the transformation of European cities toward climate neutrality, produced in collaboration with the City of Turin and the Energy Center in Turin, Italy, the panel aims to analyse how Living Labs can help achieve climate neutrality by 2030. The reflection will take place in the context defined by the EU Mission "Climate Neutral and Smart Cities" and the related goal of having the first 100 climate neutral cities by 2030, among them Turin.
  Explore more information on the event here.

Learn more about the event here.