This is the first functioning prototype of this National Living Lab for young people diagnosed with cancer aged 16-24 inclusive. The aim of this LL is to offer young people living with and after TYA-onset cancer across the UK a route to contribute their expertise, in an environment adapted to fit in with the reality of all our daily lives.
The LL is designed to be able to integrate into our day-to-day, just as many other digital resources we use can do, so that we can all contribute our views and perspectives as and when the opportunity arises, rather than over-reliance upon formal synchronous meetings.
What is a Living Lab?
Living Labs (LL) aim to support open innovation, through an ecosystem of people (first), methods and tools, organization, project(s), and activities. A ‘LL’ places citizens and/or users of services at the centre of innovation and improvement within communities of citizens, service providers, volunteers, commercial and academic contributors. They aim to co-create service improvements (whether in practice, implementation, education or research for example) using real-life ‘test and experimentation’. LLs usually address a group of distinct circumscribed projects, embedded alongside several other projects, each using a group of overlapping methods and tools. To maximise quality, this LL has been developed guided by the principles outlined in (https://vitalise-project.eu/).
How will this Living Lab work?
This LL aims be an infrastructure for us all, where work can be channeled in a growing number of ‘nodes’, each responsible for a specific aim, and address a specific challenge. Individuals can see other work ongoing, in outline, so that should they wish they can chose to work upon more than ‘what they came for’. By linking several projects in one space, over time, individuals may work within and between projects, learn from each other’s processes, share expertise, resources and contribute more from their expertise, in a time efficient manner. This can smooth over the peaks and troughs in lived experience activity which participants in only one project can experience. Educational tools, forums, workshops and research will be part of this LL in due course. In its full form, members of the LL can also have their interests and credentials recorded, forming an information resource for engaging the right people in the work they can contribute most to.
In a broader sense, this LL project aims to deliver innovative solutions to the priorities of TYA, stronger inclusive collaboration, and a rich set of co-creation resources and approaches, support discussion threads, and facilitate online focus groups. We envisage (over time) more and more clinical services, charities or research groups may wish to make use of this LL to develop their own innovations. Each new additional node can bring more lived experience leadership, more clinicians, charities and researchers, and may bring in new funding or software selections. We may also build, in future, to include significant others (who often feel ‘out on a limb’ from the cancer trajectory experience) parents, and/or develop work with younger children.
About Circle
Circle is a community platform which allows us to bring researchers and young people together. Circle is the app we have chosen to host the UK Living Lab.
Circle is available on desktop browser or as an iOS or Android app.
How you can help
What we want from you (please) is to navigate around this space, looking at the publicly available spaces, documents, and resources and feedback to us aspects that you think are not clear, ideas that would help you or others to use the space better, by way of design, content or any other aspect.
If you'd like to get involved, get in touch with Lucy Walsh: lucy.walsh@cclg.org.uk
