BEYOND is an H2020 EU project that aims to leverage advanced data analytics to help buildings and market actors to integrate and improve their value chain.
To achieve this aim, BEYOND partners build a reference Big Data management platform with an advanced Artificial Intelligence analytics toolkit that will allow:
- the acquisition of data and intelligence of building and external sources data
- the performance of analytics aiming towards the intelligent real-time \ control of building assets.
- intelligence-sharing among buildings different energy actors
- the provision of energy services to the building
A co-creation approach towards a user-centric final product
One of our goals is to establish an iteration and open collaboration process that will boost collaborative knowledge generation and integration, technology customization and validation, as well as end-product definition and go-to-market strategy creation against, external to the project, experts in a process known as “living labs”.
What is a “Living Lab”?
We know that it sounds like a buzzword but let us put it simple. The Living Lab (wiki) concept is a user-centered, open-innovation environment integrating research and innovation processes within public-private-user partnerships. It is based on the user co-creation approach integrating research and innovation processes. Hence, such activities have to do with the co-creation, exploration, experimentation and evaluation of innovative ideas, scenarios, concepts, and related technologies in real life use cases. The advantage of the involvement of these communities is that can act as a main source of formation of the outcome of the project. This approach allows all involved stakeholders to shape the performance of a product and its adoption by users.
The BEYOND Living Labs
Now that we know of the concept, let’s go to the BEYOND version of the living labs. First of all, we consider as value co-creators external to the project partners coming from various types and functions of stakeholders in the energy domain such as: (i) Energy distribution and Network Operators, (ii) Retailers, (iii) Energy Service Companies (ESCos), (iv) Aggregators, and last (v) Local-city authorities. To obtain their feedback and views on various aspects of the BEYOND project we use several tools like interviews, working and focus Groups, training seminars and questionnaires among others.
What is there for Living Lab participants?
We are aware that experts’ time is valuable. So, we believe that through their participation they can realise several benefits for their organisations such as:
- Use a trial version of BEYOND platform within their organisations. In case of the commercialisation of the platform they could use it with favourable terms.
- New research questions could arise leading to EU-funded research activities that may include them
- By being part of an EU project with top players in the energy market and scientific community they can shape the buildings’ energy management
- Gain visibility through the BEYOND communication campaign.
