The platform is an initiative of ENSGSI and ERPI
Since the mid-2000s, the École Nationale Supérieure en Génie des Systèmes et de l’Innovation -ENSGSI- and the Équipe de Recherche sur les Processus Innovatifs -ERPI- have been interested in the emerging concepts of Living Lab and Smart City through research questions (Dupont 2009) and the implementation of innovative pedagogical devices and spaces. In 2005, the Cré@ction space at ENSGSI was designed to support creativity processes and enable engineering students to create models or intermediate design objects (ICOs) (Boujut and Blanco 2003). In 2009, InoCité, a platform supporting Living Lab approaches to territorial issues and innovation in the city. Then in 2011, the GSI Lab, \(1^{er}\) FabLab in a French engineering school . And finally, in 2014, these spaces were merged, giving birth to Lorraine Fab Living Lab® (Osorio 2021; Dupont, Morel, and Lhoste 2015), an innovation acceleration platform, one of the incarnations of the Lorraine Smart City Living Lab and incubator for a multitude of Labs.
The Lorraine Fab Living Lab® is a platform for prospective evaluation of the uses and acceptability of innovation. It is located on the Technopôle Renaissance, at the heart of the city and life in Nancy. Initiated and piloted by ENSGSI (https://ensgsi.univ-lorraine.fr/en/) and ERPI (https://erpi.univ-lorraine.fr/)
the Lorraine Fab Living Lab® brings together facilities to accelerate creation and collaborative innovation for the uses of tomorrow.
Fablab and Living Lab approach
The Lorraine Fab Living Lab® supports the creation and use of “demonstrators” of new products, processes, services and organizations, mobilizing companies, territories and academics for creative and sustainable territories. It is rooted in successful experiments based on the concepts of Living Lab (integrating users into design and collaborative approaches) and FabLab (Fabrication Laboratory), an open, functional space for prototyping, in the sense of the digital fabrication workshop concept initiated by MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).
These experiments stem from the Lorraine Smart Cities Living Lab project, launched in 2008 and accredited in 2010 by the European Living Labs network ENoLL, and the 1st French FabLab to be set up within an engineering school and recognized by the Fab Foundation in 2011.
This space enables the co-creation, prototyping and testing of products and services dreamt up by citizens and companies keen to participate together in the improvement of tomorrow’s creative territories.
Enter the 4th helix of Innovation!
The Lorraine Fab Living Lab® enables you to create on-demand and get immediate results, thanks to an established process based on the paradigm of use. By bringing together complementary cutting-edge tools in a single space, the Lorraine Fab Living Lab® facilitates collaborative thinking and the development of innovation. What makes the Lorraine Fab Living Lab® unique is its ability to welcome and support different communities of practice (citizen users, entrepreneurs, researchers, institutions, etc.) via a scientific and technical facility capable of multiplying interfaces to integrate the usage dimension at every stage of the project. In this way, LF2L® accelerates the transition from abstract ideas or concepts (2D) to their materialization (virtual or prototyped 3D) by evaluating them (4D - evolution scenarios). Our research has also led us to develop immersive devices to ensure a regular connection to real-life situations.
They have put their trust in us:
Through this project, the Université de Lorraine is transferring its knowledge, tools and methodologies to help local authorities develop their capacity to innovate. Seduced by the Lorraine Fab Living Lab® project, which fits in with their research themes, two chairs are now benefiting from the platform: the PRINCIP Research Chair (accredited by the Fond pour l’Innovation dans l’Industrie) dedicated to SMEs, and the REVES Collaborative Chair (supported by ENEDIS, EDF, the Grand Nancy Metropolis, the CCPHVA), deploying the Smart Cities concept to propose solutions to the new societal challenges facing cities and territories.
Inaugurated in June 2014, as part of the French Tech festival, the Lorraine Fab living Lab® is a member of LORnTECH (Métropole French Tech). This space opens up new perspectives in the ways scientific and technical knowledge is produced and disseminated.