Real-life testbeds for ageing and inclusion: a citizen community and a network of living environments

Solutions for ageing and inclusion succeed or fail in real life, depending on the people who use them and on the housing, connectivity, local services and social environment around them. Yet many projects still struggle to secure sustained, meaningful user involvement and access to comparable test sites.

We are working on two complementary assets. The first is a durable citizen community of older adults, people with disabilities, carers and professionals, involved from needs definition through evaluation and governance. We want to move beyond ad hoc panels towards a regular, reciprocal, volunteer-based collective. The second is a network of experimental living environments (private homes, supported housing, shared housing and other places of life), with a common testing protocol that allows comparison across habitat types and a broad view of daily life, including mobility, activities and social ties.

We are looking for partners to strengthen and scale this approach. We seek Living Lab practitioners and researchers on participation methods, quality of user mobilisation and multi-country comparison. For coordinators, we can provide access to engaged end-users and real-world test sites, plus the field experience to make them work in practice.