We Connect the Dots. At OpenLivingLab Days 2026, that meant linking the RURALITIES project with the international Living Lab community, and with the people shaping where Living Labs go next.
From 29 September to 2 October, the European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL) gathered practitioners, researchers, public authorities, businesses and innovators in Brussels and Antwerp under the theme “Living Labs: Impacts and Values for a Changing World”.
APODISSI was represented by Catarina Pereira, an experienced project manager, who brought RURALITIES into the conversation on behalf of the project’s Dissemination and Communication Work Package, which APODISSI leads. Part of that work is Rural Thrive 2050, the campaign we designed for RURALITIES and are now developing to tell the story of rural areas that innovate and thrive.
A wider policy perspective
The opening Policy Event in Brussels connected Living Lab practitioners with European Commission representatives, including Henri Delanghe (DG AGRI), Wiebke Pankauke Head of Unit Ocean, Seas and Waters, DG Research and Innovation and Federico Porrà Policy Office, EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change. The discussion looked at how real-world experimentation can serve European priorities and competitiveness, and at the role Living Labs could play in future funding programmes: useful context for placing RURALITIES in the wider policy landscape.
From experimentation to impact
A recurring theme was the move from experimentation to tangible, lasting impact: scaling solutions, measuring results and strengthening collaboration between research, industry, public authorities and communities. Reindert Devlamynck of Inagro, Research Leader in Energy and Circular Economy and Living Lab Coordinator, showed how multi-actor approaches connect research with the realities of farming and rural communities.
That message sits at the heart of our work: an innovative idea is only the beginning. Lasting impact needs the right partnerships, local ownership and clear pathways to adoption and scaling.
New dots to connect
Antwerp was also about people. We exchanged ideas with Michele Coletti of GEM Alpine Business School; Asia Guerreschi European Climate Pact Ambassador in Italy; Elena Carrió Argós of INCLIVA, on health innovation and technology transfer; and Hee-Dae Kim of Daegu Technopark, on smart cities and Living Labs in South Korea. Together they span public services, health, digital transformation and community participation.
Looking beyond the event
Living Labs are familiar ground for us. From Feed4Food to PrAEctiCe, APODISSI has worked on EU-Africa Living Lab projects that bring researchers, farmers, businesses, policymakers and communities around the same table. OpenLivingLab Days added new dots to that map.
Through RURALITIES and our wider work across Europe and Africa, we will keep connecting knowledge, organisations and communities, so that innovation responds to real needs and leaves a lasting mark.
