EVOLVE2CARE at the EIC Summit 2026: Bringing Living Labs to Europe’s Innovation Stage

EVOLVE2CARE took center stage at the EIC Summit 2026, one of Europe’s flagship events for innovation and entrepreneurship. Held on 4 June 2026, the Summit brought together startups, researchers, investors, policymakers, and innovation support organizations to discuss how breakthrough ideas can successfully reach the market and generate societal impact.

As part of the EUnicorners sessions hosted within the EIC Pavilion, EVOLVE2CARE contributed to two dedicated presentations showcasing how Living Labs can support innovators in navigating the complex journey from concept validation to real-world adoption.

Living Labs as a Competitive Advantage

The first session, “Living Labs as a competitive advantage for European companies” presented by Martina Desole from the European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL), focused on how Living Labs can transform innovation from a high-risk process into a structured, evidence-based pathway.

The presentation highlighted the unique value that Living Labs provide to innovators by offering access to users, facilities, expertise, and real-life testing environments. Through co-creation, experimentation, and validation, Living Labs help innovators reduce uncertainty, identify challenges early, and generate evidence that supports investment and market uptake.

The session emphasized that innovation success depends not only on technological excellence but also on understanding user needs, regulatory requirements, and real-world implementation conditions.

Accelerating HealthTech Innovation in Transitional Care

Later in the day, Despoina Petsani from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki presented the session “Accelerating HealthTech Innovation in Transitional Care through Living Labs: Lessons from the EVOLVE2CARE Project.” The presentation highlighted how EVOLVE2CARE supports innovators in validating HealthTech solutions within transitional care environments through Living Lab methodologies and real-world experimentation.

A central message was that successful healthcare innovation requires more than technological excellence. Living Labs provide innovators with access to users, multidisciplinary expertise, testing infrastructures, and structured co-creation processes that help address challenges related to validation, user acceptance, ethics, and regulatory compliance. The session also showcased AccelUP, the EVOLVE2CARE marketplace connecting innovators with certified Living Lab services, as well as the experimentation vouchers that enable companies to access testing and validation support.

As EVOLVE2CARE continues supporting innovators across Europe, the EIC Summit reinforced a key message: successful healthcare innovation requires more than technology alone. It requires collaboration, validation, and engagement with the people and environments where innovation will ultimately be used.

Accelup in focus | Interview with the Project Coordination team of EVOLVE2CARE

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As the EVOLVE2CARE Open Call continues to welcome applications from HealthTech innovators across Europe in order to matchmaking with Health and Wellbeing Living Labs and test their digital HealthTech solutions, one platform stands at the heart of the collaboration process: Accelup. Designed to streamline matchmaking, Accelup ensures that project proposals meet the right expertise, infrastructure, and support. In this interview, Evdokimos Konstantinidis, Project Coordinator, and Despoina Petsani, Project Mission Coordinator, share how Accelup works, what makes it unique, and why it’s a key enabler for co-creation and real-world validation in the EVOLVE2CARE ecosystem.

Read on to discover how Accelup is shaping collaboration in EVOLVE2CARE:

1. What is the Accelup platform, and how does it help innovators and Living Labs collaborate more effectively?

The Accelup platform is a digital matchmaking platform designed to connect innovators with Living Lab infrastructures. The platform offers the possibility for the innovator to upload a specific project specifying the services that would be required for its completion. For the design of the platform, a continuous assessment of stakeholder needs, existing tools and frameworks has been conducted, ensuring improved efficiency for the collaboration of the two parties.

2. How is it used within the EVOLVE2CARE project?

Within the EVOLVE2CARE project, the primary objective is to facilitate matchmaking between Health Tech companies and Living Labs. Rather than requiring innovators to independently identify a suitable Living Lab, Accelup facilitates improved communication and ensures that the matching process is streamlined, thereby relieving innovators of the need to undertake this task on their own. Therefore, it is designed to bring users with diverse research on demand needs together with Living Labs to co-develop, validate, and test innovative HealthTech solutions in real-life conditions.

3. Please give us a simple overview of how Accelup works.
Accelup enables innovators to create projects by submitting key details such as title, description, services required, budget range, and bid. ENoLL Certified Living Labs can then browse these projects, review the information provided, and submit bids with the required amount to perform the project, creating a structured and transparent matchmaking process.

4. Are there other platforms that aim to connect innovators with Living Labs? If so, what makes Accelup stand out in this space?

Yes, there are some other matchmaking tools that can be used in a similar way as Accelup. Such tools involve both digital and methodological approaches that facilitate the matchmaking process. However, Accelup’s mission is to enable transparent and effective matchmaking between innovators and Living Labs. Accelup is the only platform that gives the opportunity to innovators to get in contact with ENoLL Certified Living Labs that can facilitate their work. ENoLL certification provides a quality seal so that the innovators know that they will receive high-quality Living Lab services.

5. And finally, how is Accelup currently supporting the EVOLVE2CARE Open Call?

Accelup is the main form of connection of the two parties, with the innovator being given the opportunity to select a desired Living Lab. EVOLVE2CARE supports the collaboration by providing €5,000 to the selected Living Lab to perform the work that the innovator requested.

Ready to take the next step?

If you’re a HealthTech innovator looking to validate your solution or a Living Lab eager to collaborate on cutting-edge projects, join the EVOLVE2CARE Open Call and experience the power of Accelup matchmaking.

Learn more here