Designing Care Innovation Ecosystems: The Care Living Labs in Flanders (Belgium)

Abstract

This chapter describes a different kind of ecosystem design. Rather than focus on taking existing actors and entities within a care ecosystem and co-designing new models of integrated care delivery, the approach described herein built an innovation infrastructure i.e., a care innovation ecosystem. In 2012, the Flemish Minister of Innovation launched the Flanders Care Living Labs program to stimulate innovation in elderly care in order to tackle the aging population challenge. Backed by a Program Office, six care innovation ecosystems were established, which were named ‘Care Living Lab Platforms’. These “platforms” brought together public and private partners from multiple domains in a particular region and offered management and support services for bottom-up innovation projects. The Care Living Lab Platforms realized a total of 53 innovation projects. The program employed a Living Lab methodology which relies heavily on ecosystems theory and on the concepts of open innovation and social innovation. The success of the program is evidenced by the number and range of realized projects as well as by the longevity of the platforms. Lessons can be learned from the apparent importance of openness towards experimentation and collaboration and, on the project level specifically, openness towards all stakeholders that are potentially affected by a particular innovation. The Living Lab methodology seems to bring together essential ingredients to address complex societal challenges through truly innovative solutions from within the ecosystem, although the potential for commercialization and upscaling in a care context needs further investigations.