Copenhagen, 21 October 2009: Nine cities from Europe, Asia and the United States join forces with Living Labs Global in a challenge to find innovative solutions to major societal problems by opening competition among international solution-, technology- and service providers. The nine winners of the Living Labs Global Showcase Award will be invited to pilot their solutions in these cities, proving the effectiveness of new solutions and offering a first step for innovative providers to enter new markets.

Living Labs Global (www.livinglabs-global.com) a non-profit association to promote digital service innovation in cities, will be working with the cities of Chicago, Taipei, Barcelona, Stockholm, Eindhoven, Sant Cugat, Caceres and La Selva to choose the companies and organizations that have developed digital solutions that add high value to users in cities around the world.

Living Labs Global has partnered with these global cities, representing around 12 million citizens from Europe, the US and Asia to call for solutions that can solve some of their most pressing challenges. Challenges include social inclusion, digital tourism, water management, urban service automation, citizen participation, healthcare and mobility. Submissions follow the format of the Living Labs Global Showcase, which already today presents more than 230 international service innovations. Submissions to qualify for the Living Labs Global Showcase Award can be submitted until the 1st of December 2009.

Nine Categories for the Award are being presented in partnership with communities that seek to identify the best solutions to meet their strategic challenges. Showcases will be reviewed against all categories, and a shortlist of the top 5 Showcases will be presented by the juries on December 15th 2009. The final Award winners will be announced at the Award Ceremony on February 14th 2010, the eve of the Mobile World Congress.

The Award Categories were defined together with decision-makers in cities around the world. Not all cities are big, but this Award attempts to represent a range of challenges facing cities today. Behind each Category lies the commitment of a city to pilot the winning showcase, with full institutional support to evaluate the impact the solution can have on reaching the community’s objectives.

Sascha Haselmayer, General Director Living Labs Global said: “Service innovation in cities is of great importance, to bring the full potential of technologies to the benefit of society. This is a complex market for all actors, as projects usually require public-private-partnerships to meet the user-needs, local protectionism may prevail and very little information is available on solutions available in the market-place. We are grateful to work with these innovative communities that show how local challenges can be turned into global opportunities for new technologies, entrepreneurs and creative solutions.