In full coordination with project management, partners LAUREA and LC co-led the design and implementation of a series of five internal workshops, launched in March 2025 (Month 15). The primary objective of these workshops was to refine the end-user facing description of the ExPEDite offerings, clarify stakeholder categories and their roles, and explore the potential of the Living Lab approach as a practical framework to support the development and deployment of ExPEDite solutions.
This initiative was considered essential due to the varying levels of thematic expertise and knowledge distribution across the consortium. By creating a structured space for shared learning and alignment, the workshops aimed to enhance internal coherence and strengthen the project’s overall capacity to deliver integrated, stakeholder-oriented solutions.
Ahead of the workshop series, technical partners contributed with non-technical descriptions of the ExPEDite components to ensure that all partners—regardless of their background—could fully understand the intended use and value of the technical solutions. These inputs included descriptions of the solutions’ purpose, scope, and practical applications, along with an outline of key “pains,” “gains,” and benefits for users. Preliminary insights related to the upcoming testing phase and suggested target user groups were also shared. See the gathered details from here: Workshop series prleliminary details from technical solutions spring 2025
Across all five workshops, a total of 26 project partners participated, as recorded in the official attendee list. These collaborative sessions played a vital role in consolidating a shared understanding of the ExPEDite value proposition and ensuring readiness for the next phases of stakeholder engagement and Living Lab implementation.
2.2.1 The workshops: an overview
This series of five internal workshops, co-led by partners LAUREA and LC, was conducted between March and April 2025 and were structured as follow:
Workshop #1 – Stakeholders involvement: Introduction to Living Labs (10 March 2025)
The first workshop focussed on the importance of stakeholders’ engagement in the development and sustainability of the project and introduced the Living Lab concept, featuring guest speaker Ms. Elena Deambrogio from the City of Turin — one of Europe’s leading Urban Living Lab initiatives. Partners participated in interactive Miro board activities, divided into four thematic groups:
- Data and Knowledge Sharing
- Long-Term Analytics and Simulation
- Short-Term Analytics and Optimisation
- Visualisation
Each group explored fundamental questions such as:
- What should the scope of the ExPEDite Living Lab be?
- Who are the key stakeholders (Quadruple Helix actors)?
- Why is early stakeholder engagement critical for technical development?
Workshop #2 – Group Reflections and Synthesis (17 March 2025)
Building on the first session, each group presented their key findings, including open questions for follow-up. The group outputs helped distil initial ideas and highlighted areas requiring further exploration. For example, Group 1 (Data and Knowledge Sharing) delivered a comprehensive list of enablers and barriers to data sharing within Living Lab environments.
Figure 1: Example output Data and Knowledge Sharing Group of workshop 1 & 2
A summary of the results from Workshops 1 and 2 can be accessed here:
Workshop Series Summary – Spring 2025
Workshop #3 – Aligning Vision and Stakeholder Content (31 March 2025)
The third workshop aimed to align the emerging vision of the ExPEDite Living Lab with the overarching goals of the project, building also on insights gained during the WP6 team’s study visit to the Centre for Energy and Environmental Technologies (CEET) at VŠB-TUO in Ostrava, Czechia, on 4 March 2025. (See also the ExPEDite blog post: Cooperation for Sustainable Cities – CEET Hosts ExPEDite Partners).
Participants of the workshop were encouraged to move freely between thematic groups to promote cross-pollination of ideas and discuss further the input generated in the first two workshops (especially the identified stakeholders and tools). This third workshop generated a set of draft content items to be used in future Living Lab co-creation activities and laid the groundwork for refining the project’s vision collaboratively. Participants made a significant effort to describe the specific content items to be shared within the Living Lab co-creation sessions. In this workshop, the original composition of the working groups was abandoned, and partners were left free to change from one to another. This, like the previous exercise on visioning, was done on purpose, to promote convergence and alignment of opinions among the different team members.
Workshop #4 – Draft Vision and Usage Scenarios (7 April 2025)
Workshop 4 offered a space for validating and challenging the narrative that emerged in the previous session. A preliminary version of the project vision was presented, revised in real time based on partner feedback. In parallel, seven preliminary usage scenarios were introduced—each derived from project objectives and stakeholder needs—and subjected to group review and refinement.
Workshop #5 – Finalisation of Usage Scenarios (14 April 2025)
The final workshop in the series concluded with the validation and consolidation of the seven usage scenarios, which will be presented to the General Assembly on 6–7 May 2025 in Brussels. These scenarios form the basis for the next phase of stakeholder engagement and Living Lab testing.
All workshop proceedings and interactive session outputs are available online:
ExPEDite Miro Workshop Board
Workshop Outcomes and Feedback
The stakeholder engagement workshops for the ExPEDite project successfully brought together participants to co-create a framework for stakeholders engagement and defining the Living Lab (LL) approach. Four thematic groups were formed to cover key areas: data and knowledge sharing, long-term analytics and simulation, short-term analytics and optimisation, and visualisation.
The workshops achieved:
- Effective within-group collaboration, fostering productive discussion and idea exchange.
- Progress towards a common vision for engaging relevant stakeholders such as urban planners, policy makers, building managers, and citizens.
- Clarification of aims for each thematic area, with a focus on knowledge sharing, simulation of future scenarios, short-term data-driven solutions, and meaningful visualisation tools.
- Identification of open questions that need to be addressed before moving forward, including what specific knowledge and data to share, readiness of models and tools, and practical plans for stakeholder testing and feedback collection. These open questions were adressed by the end of the workshop series.
Overall, feedback received from participants across the five internal workshops was highly positive. Attendees particularly appreciated the use of Miro as a collaborative tool, which supported interactive co-creation and effective communication. The process of jointly identifying and shaping the seven preliminary usage scenarios was widely acknowledged as a valuable and necessary step toward meaningful stakeholder engagement in the Living Lab phase.
Figure 2: Feedback internal stakeholders/Living Lab webinars – positive remarks
Despite the overall success, several challenges and risks were also identified, particularly concerning the complexity of stakeholder mobilisation and engagement. These insights, as shown in the screenshots below, underscore the importance of proactive planning and ongoing coordination to ensure the Living Lab’s effectiveness.
Figure 3: Feedback internal stakeholders-Living Lab webinars – challenges & concerns
ExPEDite partners are fully aware that while stakeholder engagement is essential to the success of the Living Lab approach, it also brings significant challenges that may influence the trajectory of future project activities.
To further consolidate outcomes and align on the way forward, a follow-up workshop was held during the third General Assembly in Brussels (6–7 May 2025). The session aimed to secure partner agreement on the final concept of the ExPEDite Living Lab, recognising that in such collaborative innovation environments, stakeholder involvement is not just beneficial but essential. A well-functioning Living Lab depends on the meaningful participation of a diverse stakeholder ecosystem to ensure that developed solutions are relevant, socially acceptable, technically sound, and economically viable — while being firmly grounded in local contexts.
During the follow-up workshop, partners were invited to provide final input and agree on the following core elements:
- Official name: ExPEDite Living Lab
- Brief description: Who the Living Lab is designed for and its key functionalities and activities
- Expected contributions: How the concept supports solving domain-specific challenges in business, industry, or research
- Opportunities: Concrete benefits and use cases for different stakeholder groups
- Mission statement: An action-oriented summary defining the overarching goal of the Living Lab
- Stakeholder value: A list of added value elements the Living Lab offers to its stakeholders
The consolidated results of this exercise will be presented in a designed Living Lab Concept Leaflet, scheduled for release by August 2025 (M20). This document will serve as both an internal alignment tool and an external communication asset to support further stakeholder engagement and dissemination efforts.