Vitagora inaugurates the Living Lab premises, a third place for co-construction of sustainable food

Vitagora is pleased to announce the inauguration of the Living Lab, a third-place food hub dedicated to open innovation. This new space brings together the various players in the ecosystem that Vitagora has been promoting for 20 years: academics, businesses, start-ups and, for the first time, consumers. Through meetings, workshops and various highlights, the aim is to actively involve citizens and consumers in the co-creation of tomorrow's food supply. The inauguration will take place on Tuesday 18 June from 9am at 16 rue de l'Hôpital in Dijon.

As part of France 2030, operated by the Banque des Territoires on behalf of the French government, the Vitagora Living Lab aims to play an active role in the food transition.

The Living Lab, an initiative of the ProDij food transition policy, is led by Vitagora and supported by Dijon Métropole, the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Regional Council and the French government, as part of France 2030 ‘Territoires d'Innovation’ (Innovation Territories).

Fully committed to innovation in sustainable food, Vitagora is launching this new approach to enable citizens and consumers to get involved in the agri-food research and development process and thus take control of their food choices. As a collaborative innovation tool, the Living Lab makes it possible to question and redefine the food supply in the face of current environmental, societal and economic challenges, enabling companies to co-develop new food products with their future customers.

This Living Lab brings together consumers, producers, researchers, businesses, start-ups and external partners to devise new solutions that meet a common goal: healthy, accessible, sustainable and tasty food. The objective is twofold:

• To offer manufacturers the opportunity to co-create in direct connection with motivated and willing citizens in order to identify new product ideas and thus de-risk innovation by responding to real expectations and uses.
• To respond to citizens' desire to engage in their role as consumer-actors by giving them the opportunity to express their preferences and influence the definition of specifications for future products or services related to developments in the food system.

The third place for co-constructing the food of tomorrow, coupled with an agile and iterative methodology

The third place serves as a projection space with debates and workshops on emerging topics, and offers a virtual reality space to explore future scenarios.

The originality of the Living Lab lies in equipping this third place with a four-step methodology for stimulating innovation (explore, co-create, experiment and drive), with the support of the Vitagora ecosystem. Thanks to this agile and iterative approach, the Living Lab makes it possible to quickly move from promising ideas to real-life testing.

The Living Lab is thus a place for knowledge sharing and constructive and creative exchanges, equipped with tools, technologies and resources to accelerate the development of solutions to the challenges of tomorrow's food supply.