Since 2009, the Living Labs Global Award has worked together with cities in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas to present major societal challenges affecting more than 125 million people. In response, more than 800 solution providers have in the past two editions responded with often ground-breakingtechnologies, ready to meet those challenges.

Winners of the Living Labs Global Award are invited to implement a pilot of their solution to evaluate impact, provide input into product development, and improve procurement or regulatory decisions by cities later on. This has transformed the way waste management is planned in Barcelona, the way venture capital is provided to social entrepreneurs in Cape Town, or community healthcare is delivered in New Taipei City.

Some of the winners:

Birmingham (United Kingdom) Enables green communities to handle their food waste on site, reducing transportation of waste and encouraging recycling and other environmentally
-For the 16 green communities in Taipei we provide an on-site solution through the Big Hanna Composters that safely converts food waste to compost. The composters are installed at the bottom of a block of flats, in a waste room or inside greenhouses. There are no chemical or biological additives, very low energy consumption and no water is added to the process. The food waste is converted to rich organic compost filled with nutrients that should be used on site to improve soil quality. Composting on-site helps to create a greener city. It is also a way to involve people in their neighborhood and support local initiatives while reducing one’s carbon footprint.

Hamburg (Germany)Contactless mobile services for Smart Cities
*Connecthings provides contactless mobile services through the implementation of NFC tags and QR codes on street furniture and public spaces. *Connecthings looks for the appropriate existing information in data bases, and gives it back to users on the most readable, fast and smart way. In the area of transport, transport stops, bike/car-sharing terminals, and car parks entrances are equipped with tags giving access to real-time schedules and traffic information, and availability.

As regards cultural and touristic heritage, monuments and points of interest are equipped with tags giving access to specific digital content about their history (video, photo, audio etc.). In day-to-day life, the implementation of tags is the solution to transform emblematic and traditional objects and places into something communicating and interactive: a tag on a store

Eindhoven (The Netherlands) The App that gets teenagers moving
Being overweight is one of the biggest ‘public health’ problems nowadays and for the coming decades. The amount of children that have overweight still increases worldwide.

Social media, like social gaming, is growing tremendously in popularity and significance. With the number of smart-phones growing, so does the number of people using them. The challenge is to combine the use of digital media and physical activity and make it attractive for teenagers to use. The developed Lekkerbek-app is a game that is meant for teenagers with an Iphone, Ipod, Android or pc. Teenagers who use the Lekkerbek-app can play a game online wherefore they must gain energy in real life. The app on their phone counts the moves they make. So the more you move in real life, the more energy you have to climb and jump online in the game. You also have to move your arms during the game, so physical exercise is needed to come further in the game. After playing the game, the game data can be automatically shared to an online high-score system. There, users can compare their scores and compete for awards. Via the existing Facebook, Hyves and Twitter-connection, users can directly share scores of the game with their friends and followers which increases their social networks.

The program ‘De Familie Lekkerbek in balans’ for the city of Eindhoven tries to get children move more and eat healthier. An internet site has been developed where children can get information about these subjects.  

See website for full list: http://llga.org/2012/awarded