Living labs sustainability strategies and rural development policies

The objective of this paper is to analyze the strategies for sustainability of rural living labs that were established in the C@R project, and to identify their strengths and weaknesses in the context of rural development and innovation policies. Based on six living labs case studies including analysis of the rural policy environments, the paper describes how public-private partnership structures enable rural living labs to become better integrated in policies and instruments for rural and regional development, achieving an impact in terms of dimensions of rural livelihoods.