Users drive Innovation in Satellite Navigation
The European Satellite Navigation Competition awards a 10,000 Euro prize for the best application ready to be tested in a Living Lab

Oberpfaffenhofen, 16 July 2010: How can citizens influence future technologies? How can companies access a larger or more varied market? How can researchers bring revolutionary technological breakthroughs closer to the 'man on the street'? - In a Living Lab.

A Living Lab is a user-driven open innovation system that speeds up the innovation process by addressing the user's needs. In a Living Lab firms, public agencies, universities, institutes and users collaborate for creating, prototyping, and validating new service-products and societal infrastructures in realistic contexts such as cities, villages and rural areas or industrial plants.

By offering established, consolidated services and ICT infrastructure for new applications or services development Living Labs can provide the ideal environment for developing innovative downstream products and services for Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), involving different user communities such as:

• Patients and their families, doctors and players in the Health sectors;
• Citizens and mobility managers, willing to enjoy a more effective and responsible mobility;
• Urban communities, including tourists, willing to have advanced multimedia and information services about the specific places, and so on

For the first time in 2010 the European Satellite Navigation Competition will award a special prize for the best application ready to be tested in a suitable Living Lab. The 'GNSS Living Lab Prize' will be awarded to three winners, who will get the opportunity to conduct a 'reality check trial' in a suitable Living Lab with the involvement of relevant user communities and potential future customers. The winning innovators will thus benefit from the validation of their ideas, the user oriented engineering of their products and services, the development of their entrepreneurial team and the intensifying of their network of industrial relationships. In addition the three winners will receive prize money of 10,000 EUR each.

Submissions to the prize shall focus on one of the following themes: health (e.g. ageing and inclusion), energy (e.g. efficiency and environment ) or media and creativity. To learn more about these fields of application and to register for the GNSS Living Lab Prize please go to http://galileo-masters.eu/index.php?anzeige=special_prizes_gnss.html

A comprehensive description of the overall reach of the Living Labs network can be found at www.openlivinglabs.eu .

Editorial Contact:
Anwendungszentrum GmbH Oberpfaffenhofen
Ulrike Daniels
Friedrichshafenerstr. 1
82205 Gilching
Germany
Phone: +49 (0) 8105.7727714
Fax: +49 (0) 8105.7727755
Email: daniels@anwendungszentrum.de
www.anwendungszentrum.de
www.galileo-masters.eu


About the European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL)

The European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL) is the international federation of benchmarked Living Labs in Europe and worldwide. Founded in November 2006 under the auspices of the Finnish European Presidency, the network has grown in 'waves' up to this day. To this date, 4 Waves have been launched, resulting in 212 accepted Living Labs. The ENoLL international non-profit association, as the legal representative entity of the network, is headquartered in Brussels, at the heart of Europe.
www.openlivinglabs.eu


About the European Satellite Navigation Competition

The European Satellite Navigation Competition is an international innovation contest that awards the best ideas for applications in satellite navigation. The competition has been organised by Anwendungszentrum GmbH Oberpfaffenhofen (AZO) since 2004 and is oriented toward companies, entrepreneurs, research institutes, universities and private individuals. As part of the competition, AZO has established a network that has since expanded to 23 regions worldwide. The network connects technology hubs and companies that boast some of the most important players in the fields of incubation, prototype and product development, market development, and idea management for applications related to satellite navigation. Meanwhile, aerospace clusters and other regional initiatives involved in the network give entrepreneurs crucial access to potential partners and investors.

Having begun with three partner regions, this year's ESNC will be held in 23 high-tech regions all over the world: Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hesse, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Nice / Sophia Antipolis, Prague, South Holland, Madrid, Lombardy, Australia, Taiwan, Great Britain, Øresund, Gipuzkoa, Valencia, Switzerland, and Israel as well as newcomers Lithuania, Aquitaine, USA, Brazil and the Arab Middle East & North Africa (MENA).

The ESNC intends to further strengthen international collaboration among these regions, particular with regard to the development of applications and services made possible by Galileo, Europe's satellite navigation system. The competition is held under the patronage of the Bavarian State Ministry of Economic Affairs, Infrastructure, Transport and Technology and is supported by the European BIC Network (EBN). The main winners of the ESNC - the GALILEO Master, the special topic prize winners, and the 23 regional winners - will be recognised at a state reception to be held at the Munich Residenz on 18 October 2010.

The GNSS Living Lab Prize has been established as part of the project GAINS (Galileo Advanced INnovation Services) which is funded under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) and supervised by the GSA.
www.galileo-masters.eu