On 28 November 2025, EVOLVE2CARE was represented at LSOS 2025 – Life Science Open Space in Kraków, Poland, bringing the project’s work on Living Lab-based experimentation and validation to a wider life sciences and innovation community.
LSOS 2025 brought together researchers, healthcare professionals, industry representatives, startups, policymakers and other actors from across the life sciences ecosystem, with a strong focus on turning innovative ideas into real-world solutions through collaboration. Hosted in Kraków, the event explored areas ranging from prevention and next-generation therapies to inclusive healthcare, sustainable life sciences and the development and scale-up of innovative ventures.
Bringing Living Labs into the StartUp & ScaleUp conversation
As part of the StartUp & ScaleUp Zone: Where Life Science Ventures Take Off, Despoina Petsani from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH), Coordinator of EVOLVE2CARE, delivered the presentation:
“Leveraging the Power of Living Labs for Innovation in Transitional Care.”
Her presentation highlighted the role of Living Labs as catalysts for digital health innovation, providing environments in which users and relevant stakeholders can actively participate in the development, experimentation, and validation of new solutions.
This approach is particularly important in transitional care, where innovative technologies need to respond to complex real-world needs and demonstrate their relevance in practice. Living Labs can help bridge the gap between technological development and real-world implementation by enabling innovators to engage with users and stakeholders throughout the innovation process.
Sharing the EVOLVE2CARE experience
The presentation showcased the experience and results of the EVOLVE2CARE Horizon Europe project, which works to strengthen collaboration between Living Labs and HealthTech innovators and facilitate access to real-life experimentation and validation opportunities.
A central message of the presentation was the value that Living Labs can offer startups, SMEs and companies seeking to bring HealthTech solutions closer to the market. Through user testing, experimentation and validation in real-life environments, innovators can better understand user and stakeholder needs, gather evidence and further develop their solutions.
At the same time, effective collaboration requires a clear understanding of what innovators themselves need from experimentation environments. This two-way relationship between Living Labs and innovation actors lies at the heart of the EVOLVE2CARE approach.
Connecting ideas for better health innovation
EVOLVE2CARE’s participation was closely aligned with the wider ambition of LSOS 2025: connecting ideas and accelerating innovation through collaboration. The StartUp & ScaleUp Zone provided a particularly relevant setting for exchanging perspectives on how promising HealthTech solutions can move from development towards real-world application and sustainable growth.
By sharing the project’s experience with the LSOS community, EVOLVE2CARE contributed to the wider discussion on how collaborative experimentation ecosystems can support innovators in developing solutions that are not only technologically promising, but also responsive to the needs of users and healthcare environments.
