Citizen-led sustainable innovation platforms are efficient tools in innovation processes, particularly while addressing localised living and working-related challenges where local, contextual knowledge as well as high acceptance levels for the developed innovation is important. According to the Living Lab actor typology citizens participate as both users (end-user, recipients of the new solution) and utilisers (implementers of the new solution/gained knowledge), participating in the different stages of the innovation process through time-sharing, skill sharing and knowledge sharing. In this deliverable, the infrastructures and methodologies underpinning extant citizen-led innovation platforms have been reviewed and assessed, focussing on their main goals, challenges, barriers and best practices. It further shares key learnings from real-world applications, examining their ability to mobilise stakeholders across the quadruple helix in supporting innovation processes that lead to urban transformations. In order to support future implementation of a citizen-led innovation platforms within LANTERN Living Labs as well as in any other Living Lab in the context of urban transformation a set of guiding principles are developed. Data for the study combines a desktop review of 25 diverse innovation platforms fitting a pre-defined set of characteristics, followed by primary data collection through a short e-mail questionnaire sent to the platform operators, followed up by in-person interviews in a number of cases. The analysis followed a thematic coding approach, focusing on the goals of the platforms, innovation and co-design methodologies, failures/barriers and best practices/key learnings. Collected best practices emphasise the importance of multi-channel communication and outreach activities, in-person interaction to build societal and interpersonal trust and complement online formats, process transparency and positive effects of guidance, funding and capacity buildings. Barriers for citizen-led platforms are often related to low participation and/or failure to reach a critical mass of participants, slow processes, scepticism towards the platforms’ outputs, resource limitation, or communication issues. The results of the analysis are summarised in the form of ten guiding principles for citizen-led innovation platforms in the white paper’s conclusion, providing practice-oriented guidelines for building and implementing effective, efficient co-creation and innovation platforms engaging stakeholders in collaborative innovation.
Oberkalmsteiner et al. (Sun,) studied this question.