LIVING INNOVATION is an initiative coordinated by the Institute for Managing Sustainability at Vienna University of Economics and Business. The project unites 14 partners from 10 European countries, including nine leading companies in the areas of smart homes and smart health.

LIVING INNOVATION aims to develop responsible, smart home solutions that tackle societal challenges and respond to pressing societal trends. Uniquely, and for the first time, the initiative involves industry leaders that engage with lead users in co-creation processes to create solutions that meet user needs and leverage collective creativity to uncover new business opportunities.

Funded by the European Commission's Horizon 2020 programme, the project creates two distinct opportunities:

• LIVING INNOVATION gives lead users and citizens the chance to be involved in the design of the technology that will shape their future lives

• LIVING INNOVATION gives industry the possibility to respond directly to changes and needs of users and society.

In doing so, the initiative aims to demonstrate to industry and the public what Responsible Innovation is, and how citizens can be involved in developing innovations. 

The guest in the last week's Responsible Innovation Story, Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, is Professor of Internet Governance and Regulation at Oxford University and one of the world’s leading experts in Big Data. For him, it is imperative to mitigate the risks of using sensitive information in the context of Big Data analytics.

As Covid-19 proves to be highly contagious, one of the biggest challenges is to interrupt transmission chains - and this is where Big Data comes in. Big Data analytics help to reconstruct contact histories of smartphones and their owners. Fever data from digital thermometers can predict Covid-19 outbreaks and support public health authorities to adjust ICU capacities upfront.

The most important insights from this interview with Viktor Mayer-Schönberger:

• Big Data will serve as a key technology in the fight against Covid-19.

• However, we need to strengthen partnerships between public and private players if we don´t want to lose societal trust in the technology.

• Only if we carefully assess potential impacts of Big Data, can it be an integral part of our “New Normal”.

Contact: Institute for Managing Sustainability 

a.Prof.Dr. André Martinuzzi, andre.martinuzzi@wu.ac.at