Abstract

The gradual aging of the population as well as current socio-economic developments are leading to an increasing demand for quality health care and nursing, which poses complex challenges for society and the health care system in particular. The Open Innovation in Science (OIS) Impact Lab “Caring Communities for Future“ aims to meet these challenges and support innovative approaches and ideas for addressing community health needs, by improving the cooperation between civil society initiatives, municipal administrations, and professional services that strengthen the quality of life and health in a community.
The OIS Impact Lab, a strategic partnership between the Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft and the Austrian National Public Health Institute, is established as a laboratory to apply Open Innovation in Science to the field of health and community care. The lab funds five transdisciplinary research projects addressing complex challenges at the interface of health promotion, urban and regional development, and social and care sciences. The OIS Impact Lab funds projects striving for the further development and sustainable anchoring of Caring Communities in our societies and supports the involvement of citizens and other relevant stakeholders throughout the entire research process for greater impact.

The LBG Open Innovation in Science Center offers all project participants continuous reflection and networking opportunities as well as training in the areas of strategic impact planning transdisciplinary research, participatory and collaborative methods. Involving citizens in research is a way of bringing scientists and non-scientists together to work collaboratively to create better research and develop new, impactful solutions. Within the framework of the OIS Impact Lab we therefore aim to support the knowledge transfer between research projects and innovative municipal practice project.