On November 22, 2024, at the Stanka Ožanić Agricultural, Food and Veterinary School in Zadar, the Croatian Chamber of Agriculture organized a Living Lab workshop as part of the Interreg project Bioeco-up. The aim of the workshop was to test and evaluate innovative bio-based products through the Living Lab approach, which promotes sustainability and a circular economy.
“The key objectives of this project activity are to improve products/services based on sustainability through user co-creation and open innovation practices. The project will establish 7 local living labs in different countries, each of which will test 3 biological products (21 in total) from bioeconomy companies in terms of usability, environmental and marketing aspects,” HPK announced.
HPK added that the Living Lab approach uses real-life experimentation and active user participation, following the principles of open innovation (integration of external knowledge) and user innovation (users as sources of innovation). The core activity is testing the product and gathering user feedback to identify opportunities for product improvements
Living Lab offers companies the opportunity to evaluate the benefits of their business idea, product, service or business model. During the workshop, the participants tested the product – apple energy bars, created as a by-product of unused apple chips produced by the Secondary Agricultural, Food and Veterinary School in Zadar. Users also answered questionnaires and had the opportunity to participate in interactive discussions, which are actually key to obtaining feedback from end users, which showed how the Living Lab approach contributes to the development of the bioeconomy and the empowerment of local communities, HPK points out.