Iceland Living Lab

The Iceland Living Lab is the first Living Lab organisation in Iceland. Innovation Center Iceland (ICI) is the founder and owner of the Iceland Living Lab. The Iceland LL has been established as a specific unit within ICI, and is run and managed by ICI.

Iceland Living Lab at Innovation Center Iceland

ICI has a long history of encouraging innovation and the productivity and competitiveness of Icelandic business and has acted as an innovation service provider through, what we do refer to as Living Labs methodology. Innovation Center Iceland has gained vast expertise after decades of working with SMEs, businesses, research institutions and academia, as well as extensive experience in managing and cooperating domestic and European R&D projects. Working with users in different capacity is an important part of ICI experiences. Through these projects and working relations ICI has established large International network and has close working relationship with many highly respected experts both within universities, public research organisations and businesses.

ICI considers that cross border cooperation with other living labs gives specific possibilities. A flow of best practice through the net is expected to benefit those who are willing to open their practice for other countries. Iceland LL has a unique opportunity to build a nationwide pool of users, giving possibility of a representative sample of the whole nation. This is something Iceland LL is willing to contribute to the total network.

Main persons involved in the Iceland Living Lab

Berglind Hallgrimsdottir, Director of Entrepreneur and SME Services - Impra at Innovation Centre Iceland.  In her capacity as director Mrs. Hallgrímsdóttir has extensive experience of developing and running support programmes for SMEs and Entrepreneurs in a wide range of fields; i.e. innovation programmes, product and services development as well as management and business.  She has also led initiatives to promote female entrepreneurship and pioneered programmes in innovation in rural areas.  Mrs. Hallgrímsdóttir has is involved in National innovation policy development and has participated in numerous Nordic and European innovation projects.

Karl Friðriksson, Director of Human Resources and Marketing at Innovation Center Iceland. Karl has a degree in economics from London University. He has worked for decades in the fields of marketing and product development, and has extensive marketing and sales experience in both the domestic and international arenas. As a consultant he has assisted numerous Icelandic companies with structuring product development, and has supervised a diverse range of product development projects, from the conception of product ideas to marketing. Lecturing at universities, institutes and companies in the fields of management and operations, particularly product development, has also been a large part of the author's work. Along with his responsibilities as Managing Director at Innovation Center Iceland, Mr. Friðriksson has worked as a consultant in strategic planning, future studies and clusters for companies and municipalities, as well as Applied Benchmarking. He has authored a host of articles, lectures and publications in the field of management. He is a certified project manager with a professional certification in the field of product development from The Product Development & Management Association in the USA.

Kjartan Due Nielsen, Project manager of Nordic cooperation at Innovation Center Iceland. Mr. Nielsen is the project manager of a Nordic project which has the aim to further Nordic cooperation and increase participation of Icelandic companies, research, educational and cultural organisation in Nordic cooperation. The project is supported by the Nordic Council of Ministers. His duties include information gathering about possibilities in Nordic funding and about other types of support measures, networking and dissemination of information. Mr. Nielsen has participated in a several Nordic and European innovation projects, and co-managed an Icelandic innovation project. He has solid experience in project management and establishment of new knowledge related projects.

Setup and mangement

Asta Gudmundsdottir and Hannes Ottosson project managers, are in charge of the establishment process of Iceland Living Lab. Iceland LL is run by Mrs. Gudmundsdottir an Mr. Ottosson as a specific unit under ICI Impra. Mrs. Hallgrimsdottir, Mr. Friðriksson and Mr. Nielsen form the board of Directors and are responsible for the operation. Day to day management is under the responsibility of Mr. Ottosson while strategic management and key operational decisions will be decided by the board. A work group, comprised of representatives from different collaborators and stakeholders, will be formed for consultation.

Mrs. Ottosson can be contacted by email: hannes@nmi.is or phone: +354-522-9247.