Challenges are common and global: The vital role of Living Labs in an inclusive and participatory approach in the UN 2.0
TIME
14:00 – 15:15
TRACKS
TRACK 2: Living Labs for Policies, Governance, collaboration and innovation ecosystems.
ORGANISER
Artur Serra, Chris Moscardi, Marta Martorell (i2Cat Foundation)
Target Audience
Policymakers and city representatives; Companies and entrepreneurs; Researchers and academics ; Living Lab representatives and practitioners.
Type of Session
Roundtable
DESCRIPTION
The UN is setting a new global agenda to address complex common challenges. However, it lacks a global instrument to tackle these issues effectively, as current innovation ecosystems are limited by regional and national boundaries. Open Living Labs (OLLS) can help generate a culture of collaboration between innovation ecosystems, advancing solutions to global challenges in areas like social innovation, digital rights, and transformative education. They promote inclusivity, international cooperation, and citizen participation, empowering local communities to address global issues.
Establishing a digital governance framework that encourages dialogue and cooperation is essential, with OLLS playing a pivotal role. Living Labs (LLs) can implement innovative solutions to achieve SDGs, especially in equality, digital inclusion, education, and environmental sustainability. They serve as environments for developing open, inclusive, and diverse models of Internet governance, engaging all stakeholders, including future generations, and fostering interdisciplinary learning approaches to solve real-world problems.
Agenda
Agenda to be confirmed soon.
SPEAKER BIOS
Martina Desole
Director ENoLL
Martina Desole
Director ENoLLMartina is currently the Director of ENoLL, the European Network of Living Labs where she promotes globally the Living Lab concept and methodology and the Network of our certified Members. She has been working in the field of science diplomacy and promotion of research and innovation, helping researchers and entrepreneurs to find a way to be funded by Europe for their ideas, and Europe to implement Cooperation policies in science and innovation with other Countries. She holds a master’s degree in international law and a Master in Global Environmental Policies. As project manager she coordinated and managed several international cooperation projects, focusing in the past years on Canada, India, South Africa and the US.
Artur Serra Hurtado
Deputy Director i2cat
Artur Serra Hurtado
Deputy Director i2catArtur Serra Hurtado is Deputy director of i2cat research center and Former Vicepresident of European Network of Living Labs. He is conducting now the research project Catalunya Collaboratory, based in the vision of universal innovation ecosystems. He is co-leading with Antonia Caro, the new Horizon Europe project INTEGER (2022-2024), integrating social innovation into the European Innovation Ecosystems in three European regions: Catalonia, Krakow and Hamburg. Currently he is the head of the ENoLL Action Oriented Task Force on Social Innovation, promoting the collaboration between the ENoLL and the European School of Social Innovation (ESSI) supporting a more human-centric innovation ecosystems. Finally, he is leading a cooperative project with FDSUT, Fondation pour le Dévelopement du Service Universel de Telecomunications de Senegal promoting the first national network of Living labs in this African country. 
Valentino Piana
Senior Academic Associate HES-SO, Coordinator of the ENoLL WG on Energy and Environment
Valentino Piana
Senior Academic Associate HES-SO, Coordinator of the ENoLL WG on Energy and EnvironmentValentino Piana is an economist and international consultant. Coordinator of the ENoLL Energy & Environment Working Group. Senior Academic Associate at the Institute of Energy and Environment of the University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland. KTT Manager and PI for the Sustainable Electrification task in the Sweet Lantern project putting Living labs at the forefront of the energy transition. IPCC Reviewer. Co-facilitator of the Swiss Social science & Humanities Energy Research Group (including https://www.linkedin.com/groups/14474405/). Author of "Innovative economics policies for climate change mitigation".
Silvia Fierăscu
Lecturer at the Department of Philosophy and Communication Sciences, Founder and Director of FabLab, Researcher at the Big Data Science Laboratory - West University of Timișoara
Silvia Fierăscu
Lecturer at the Department of Philosophy and Communication Sciences, Founder and Director of FabLab, Researcher at the Big Data Science Laboratory - West University of TimișoaraDr. Silvia Fierăscu is a Lecturer at the Department of Philosophy and Communication Sciences, the Founder and Director of FabLab - Social Fabrics Research Lab, and Researcher at the Big Data Science Laboratory, all at West University of Timișoara. She holds a PhD in Political Science with a specialization in Network Science from Central European University in Budapest, and she is Head of OrgMapper Academy at Maven7 Network Research Inc. Her research interests are on applications of network and data science to social science problems. Dr. Fierăscu work in various international, intersectoral and interdisciplinary projects, translating complex problems into solutions for organizational development, change management, public policy, and social impact.
Wim De Kinderen
Programme Director European Affairs Brainport Eindhoven EU Office
Wim De Kinderen
Programme Director European Affairs Brainport Eindhoven EU OfficeWim De Kinderen is employed within the Brainport Eindhoven EU Office in Brussels, representing the City of Eindhoven, Brainport Development and other economic stakeholders towards fellow regions and the European Institutions. In this role he is responsible for policy lobbying, networking/communication and project development, focussing in particular on ICT/data, Health, Mobility, Security and Manufacturing. Within the City of Eindhoven, he is part of the Strategy Department. Through his position he has strong links with European networks such as the Vanguard Initiative, ENoLL, Eurocities, ERRIN and OASC. Wim De Kinderen has represented the City of Eindhoven as a committed member of the Urban Agenda for the EU Digital Transition Partnership.
Georgia Ayfantopoulou
Deputy Director and-Research Director at CERTH/HIT
Georgia Ayfantopoulou
Deputy Director and-Research Director at CERTH/HITGeorgia Ayfantopoulou is CERTH/HIT's Deputy Director and-Research Director. She is head of the Research Department “Infrastructure, Networks, Mobility & Logistics†with high expertise in Traffic Management, Transport Systems Management, Use of Telematics Applications in: Maritime, Road and Combined Transport, GIS, Vehicle Fleet Management, Operations Research and in Road Safety. She has been assigned as Project Coordinator, Technical and Evaluation Manager for several EU as well as Greek projects. She manages Thessaloniki Smart Mobility Living Lab, which is an efficient member of ENoLL.  
Iudit Bere – Semeredi
Senior Councillor in TimiÈ™ County Council - Department of Project Management and Strategie
Iudit Bere – Semeredi
Senior Councillor in TimiÈ™ County Council - Department of Project Management and StrategieMs Iudit Bere-Semeredi, a Legal Advisor by profession, has over 33 years of experience in public administration and has worked in various specialised departments of public administration - environmental protection, approval of environmental documentation and project management. As a project manager, she has been involved in environmental protection, sustainable development and strategic management projects. She has coordinated and managed several international cooperation projects in the fields of sustainable energy, biodiversity and local sustainable development. Research focused on environmental strategic development in the context of climate change was a turning point in her commitment to help improve capacity, knowledge, attitudes and strategic management to have the necessary impact to transform our local communities into sustainable ones. The PLENTY-LIFE project, which is now being implemented in five European countries and in Romania at the level of TimiÈ™ County, is just one of the projects proposing an innovative approach, a stakeholder-based and citizen-driven Holistic Integrated Spatial and Energy Planning (HISEP), which integrates energy planning into the urban planning process, a methodology under development to make sustainable decarbonisation strategies for urban areas a reality. This new approach will enable smaller cities to manage the ongoing complex urban transformation in a more resilient manner.