# Senior Living Lab: An Ecological Approach to Foster Social Innovation in an Ageing Society
## 2 Background
### Living Labs and Older Adults  
Considering the specific target of the Senior Living Lab, we have identified several European living labs dealing with challenges linked to healthy ageing and older adults. For the analysis that we present in this section, we focus on living labs that are members of ENoLL, using the data publicly available about their activities at the end of 2015. From the complete list of ENoLL living labs available on the ENoLL website [7], we individuated the living labs working with older adults. The selection and classification of existing living labs was performed separately by two SLL members; complete agreement was achieved after discussion. The living labs were classified according to the following criteria analyzing the information on the ENoLL website and the respective living lab websites:  
* Work on ICT (25) \[ \begin{array}{ll}\circ&\text{Work only on ICT (10)}\\ \circ&\text{Home automation/domic (10)}\\ \circ&\text{Smart objects (4)}\\ \circ&\text{Telemedicine/tele-assistance (11)}\\ \circ&\text{Robots (3)}\end{array} \]
* Have multiple target population and not only older adults (12)
* Have a specific goal (17) \[ \begin{array}{ll}\circ&\text{Autonomy (11)}\\ \circ&\text{Isolation (2)}\\ \circ&\text{Specific illness (8)}\\ \circ&\text{Counselling (2)}\end{array} \]
* Work with older adults' caregivers and doctors (9)
* Have an ecological approach (8)  
The number of living labs respecting each criterion are highlighted in parentheses. It is worth noting that some living labs may comply with more than one criterion (even in the same category). Our research highlighted 28 living labs spread across Europe working in this specific field or strictly related domains (Austria 1, Belgium 6, England 2, France 7, Germany 1, Ireland 1, Italy 2, Spain 5, Sweden 2, Switzerland and Hungary 1). Some of the living labs are strictly linked together and work in complementary domains (e.g., Care living labs in Belgium) or belong to a national/regional platform linking different labs acting in different domains (e.g., InnovaPuglia, which links 79 local living labs in the Puglia region in Italy). The considered living labs are listed in Appendix A. It is worth noting that in more than the 43% of the cases, older adults are not the only target population of the reviewed living labs. In fact, often, the proposed interventions focus also on people in the environment of the older adults (e.g., caregivers, families, doctors and nurses) or people with psycho-physical conditions that are similar to those of older adults (e.g., hospitalized people, impaired people or people with particular diseases or illness). As mentioned in the previous paragraphs, a universally-accepted definition of living lab does not exist and, therefore, the adopted approaches are quite different and the modalities of users' involvement in the co-creation process are very heterogeneous. However, one result is particularly evident: living labs are very often linked to ICTs (in several living lab definitions, ICT is indeed a requirement [16]). In fact, most of the projects born inside European living labs aim at creating innovation thanks to novel technologies. In detail, about 90% of the living labs analyzed have projects dealing with the co-creation of ICTs, whereas the other 10% deal more with the creation of services impacting socio-economicalaspects or creating innovation in medical technologies. Projects span different areas of ICT, but among the different services and solutions proposed, the development of home automation solutions (35%) and telemedicine or tele-assistance services (39%) clearly stand out. In addition, most of the living labs deal with specific challenges linked to ageing, such as autonomy (39%). In 21% of the living labs, actions are undertaken to have an impact on the older adults' ecosystem via the training of caregivers, nurses or doctors in several domains (and particularly, in the use of new technologies) or organizing informative events and workshops.