Following Bergvall-Kåreborn et al. (2003: 1)^[1] a (Living) Lab is “… a gathering of public-private partnerships in which businesses, researchers, authorities, and citizens work together for the creation, validation, and test of new services, business ideas, markets, and technologies in real-life contexts. The purpose of a Living Lab is to create a shared arena in which digital services, processes, and new ways of working can be developed and tested with user representatives and researchers. Hence, a Living Lab is an environment in which people and technology are gathered and in which the everyday context and user needs stimulate and challenge both research and development, since authorities and citizens take active part in the innovation process.”

‘Labs’ are part of the methodological discussions about ‘open innovation‘, ‘crowdsourcing’ and ‘involving lead users’. Meanwhile, different forms of ‘labs’ are seen as innovative management tools to come up with (mainly social) innovations and is strongly related to the method of ‘citizen science’.

^{[1] Bergvall-Kåreborn, Birgitta; Ihlström Eriksson, Carina; Ståhlbröst, Anna & Lund, Jesper 2009: A Milieu for Innovation – Defining Living Labs. in The 2nd ISPIM Innovation Symposium – Stimulating Recovery – The Role of Innovation Management. New York.}