Valencia Living Lab and Sandbox: Two Steps Forward Towards Climate Neutrality

The city of Valencia is firmly committed to fostering a sustainable society where innovation and entrepreneurship go hand in hand. Progressing in this direction, we are proud to announce a significant milestone that brings Valencia closer to the objectives outlined in Missions València 2030 and the Estrategia Urbana València 2030.

Valencia has been accepted into the European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL), recognizing the city’s efforts in promoting innovation. With this achievement, our city joins over 480 members in Europe and worldwide, comprising a prestigious and independent non-profit organization dedicated to fostering an open and global innovation ecosystem for co-creation and collaboration.

But what exactly is a Living Lab?

Living Labs (LLs) are open innovation ecosystems operating in real-life environments, employing interactive feedback processes throughout the lifecycle of innovation to generate sustainable impact. They emphasize co-creation, rapid prototyping and testing, as well as scaling-up innovations and businesses, thereby providing various forms of joint value to the involved stakeholders.

In this capacity, living labs serve as intermediaries and orchestrators among citizens, research organizations, companies, and government agencies.

This membership grants Valencia access to a range of resources and services, including tailored innovation programs, working groups of Living Labs members, and various networking activities.

Valencia submitted its application to become a Living Lab city last November and has recently received approval from ENoLL. Building upon this success, the city council has confirmed the imminent launch of the Valencia Urban Sandbox, the regulation of which has been under discussion over the past few months.

But what exactly is an Urban Innovation Sandbox?

A sandbox is a controlled and secure testing environment where technological innovations can undergo testing before being commercialized and implemented. The aim is to provide companies, startups, and academic institutions with a suitable location in the city to test their inventions with streamlined bureaucracy.

This initiative aligns with the goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2030 while promoting business productivity and competitiveness, contributing to the knowledge society, enhancing public services to meet evolving citizen needs, and fostering an innovative ecosystem and culture.

With the Living Lab and the Sandbox (almost) ready, Valencia now possesses two out of the three experimentation spaces prioritized by the European Commission to promote innovative experimentation policies among member states under public-private collaboration frameworks.