INNOVADE Living Lab #4: From Ideas to a Digital Democracy Application
The fourth INNOVADE Living Lab marked an important step from conceptual exploration towards the practical design of the project’s Digital Democracy Application. Held in Brussels, the Living Lab brought together researchers, civic-tech experts, municipal representatives, legal specialists and students to collaboratively explore how digital participation can become more accessible, trustworthy and effective.
Participants evaluated existing platforms such as FixMyStreet, Pol.is and Decidim, identifying key lessons around usability, transparency and administrative feasibility. Building on these insights, they co-designed three core elements of the INNOVADE application: Participation Profiles & Achievements, Hybrid Participation, and the Learning & Guidance Layer.
A key conclusion was that digital democracy should not simply add more technology to democratic processes. Instead, it should make participation clearer and more inclusive while remaining realistic for municipalities. The resulting Draft Specification v0.1 provides the foundation for the next stage of INNOVADE’s application development, bringing together principles of clarity, trust, feasibility, coherence and accountability.
The full report provides a detailed overview of the workshops, findings, prototype concepts and the proposed functionality of the INNOVADE Digital Democracy Application.
Read the full INNOVADE Living Lab #4 Final Report: