FutureEverything invites proposals for self-funded research and innovation projects to be presented as a part of the 20th anniversary FutureEverything Festival, 26-28 February 2015. Successful applicants will be given a unique opportunity to stage co-design, prototyping and public trials, engaging festival visitors and residents of Manchester at festival venues and across the city. Projects will showcase ground-breaking concepts, products and services to commercial enterprise and the international design and innovation community.

1. Festival As Lab
Call For Expressions of Interest
FutureEverything 2015
25-28 February 2015
Manchester UK

2. FutureEverything 2015
A global festival of ideas, art, invention

3. Festival As Lab
Cities become laboratories for new
ways of living, playing, governing,
new forms of citizenship.

4. FutureEverything Est. 1995
FutureEverything is an innovation agency, that presents city data
services, design for science, innovation events, advice and
training, art commissions, and experiences and demonstration.
Its festival is both a cultural event and research vehicle, for
experimentation in methods and mechanisms for research and
knowledge exchange around the emergence of a digital culture.
The 20th anniversary of its award winning festival takes
place 26-28 February 2015.

5. Call for Entries
FutureEverything and the European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL) invite
proposals for self-funded research and innovation projects to be presented as
a part of the 20th anniversary edition of FutureEverything festival, which takes
place 26-28 February 2015.
Successful applicants will be given a unique opportunity to stage co-design,
prototyping and public trials, engaging festival visitors and/or residents of
Manchester, at festival venues or across the city. Projects will showcase
ground-breaking concepts, products and services to attendees, commercial
enterprise and the international design and innovation community.
A physical hub with WiFi and A/V equipment will be provided for presentation
of data, workshops and public engagement at The Shed, hosted in
partnership with MMU Digital Innovation. Projects must launch and remain live
over the festival period. Projects could be live place for those days, or run
over a longer period.
The opportunity will appeal to research teams, design and new product
development companies, innovation agencies, and commercial enterprises.
We encourage applications from consortia and organisations with established
commercial partnerships.
The FutureEverything Festival As Lab 2015 (FAL15) is presented in
association with European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL) as a part of
FutureEverything 2015.

6. FAL15 Themes
Themes of relevance include:
– Smart Cities. Future Internet.
Internet of Things.
– Smart Mobility, Wayfinding and
Transport Innovation.
– Digital Social Innovation. Civic
Participation. e-Government.
– City Sensing. Citizen Observatories.
Data Services.
– Creative Media. Experience.
Personalisation. Identity.
There is a particular interest in city
sensing projects and trials. One
option here would be to combine a
number of sensing projects into a
sensing lab.
FAL15 Criteria
A living lab project involving co-design
and/or participatory research that:
– Co-creates and/or tests ideas and
prototypes with festival attendees and/or
Manchester residents.
– Generates visibility and engagement
around a theme.
– Uses creativity or design methods to
engage users or an audience in a novel
way.
– Involves motivation or reward. This can
be intrinsic (the experience is gamified,
artistic, playful, entertaining or thought
provoking) and/or extrinsic (an incentive,
such as entry into a competition).
– Uses the festival environment to extract
learnings be they through participation,
user testing, workshops, interviewing,
ethnography, and other methods.

7. Festival As Lab
Characteristics
Festivals as agile research and
development environments for real-world
rapid prototyping, open
innovation and user-led design.
– Experts and passionate amateurs
coming together to imagine and
experience the future.
– City as playspace - People and
businesses play and experiment with
the infrastructure of a city.
– These experiments devise and test
innovations, and generate visibility and
engagement.
Why
Festivals?
– Involve large numbers of people
taking part in experimental, playful
activity.
– Participatory spaces that nurture play,
risk and community creation.
– Enable the free circulation of people
and ideas, connecting people at
different levels, from grass roots to
government and business leaders.

8. Festival As Lab Differentiation
FestivalAsLab LivingLab
pop-up,
light touch
embedded,
longitudinal
staged,
extraordinary
real world,
ordinary
wide
engagement
deep
engagement

9. Pricing
For applicants wishing to run a project
to the specification detailed above,
guidance indicates that a fundamental
event package will cost €5500* (NB:
Indicative cost), although applicants
may wish to explore higher scope / cost
projects, so it is recommended
applicants provide a cost breakdown.
In understanding that applicants and
their partners may have additional
requirements, FutureEverything can offer
bespoke innovation events, enhanced
festival profile and curatorial expertise in
response to a specific project brief.
Applicants wishing to explore additional
scope should indicate so in their
expression of interest.
Applicants should signal any interest in
commissioning an artist or designer to
contribute to their project (eg. interactive
visualisations, or novel forms of user or
audience participation).
Comms Benefits
FutureEverything offers partners and
external organisations a variety of
sponsorship options, ranging from
banner based exposure to festival
footfall, branding in promotional
materials, and an opportunity to inform
the programme itself by hosting
curated and branded events.
Communications benefits for all
participating projects/teams include:
– Agreed passes for all festival events.
– Branding on all marketing materials.
– Promotion through FutureEverything
online marketing activity, including
press release, newsletter, Facebook,
Twitter.
The festival plays host to an
international community of designers,
companies, city agencies and citizens,
therein providing a unique platform for
public and industry engagement.

10. FutureEverything is
Responsible for
– Registering projects and providing
event coordination and administration.
– Venue and event support: a base for
projects, a Festival As Lab workshop.
– Promoting the Festival As Lab
projects as a whole and the
participating research institutes to its
global community and within
Manchester.
– Comms support including editing,
proofing, refining copy.
– Guidance (through written and/or
verbal feedback) on how to: identify
research themes and questions of
relevance to festival attendees and/or
Manchester residents; create an
engaging experience; engage a wide
audience/user group; communicate the
project to non-scientists.
The Partner is
Responsible for
– Design, delivery and evaluation of the
Festival As Lab project, within terms
defined by FE.
– Meeting all deadlines and milestones
agreed with FE.
– Creation and delivery of
communication and interpretation
materials.
– A dedicated project contact and lead.
– Appropriate crediting of project
contributors in marketing and
publications.
– FutureEverything direct costs and
their own project costs inc. travel and
accommodation.
– Optional: Contribution to a revised
edition of the Festival As Lab Toolkit.

11. Timeline
30 September 2014 Call for proposals
open
27 October 2014 Deadline for entries
27 - 7 November 2014 Interviews
(Skype/Hangout for Non-UK applicants)
22 November 2014 Submission of
revised and full project plan
5 December 2014 Final decisions, sign
off and contracting, delivery of project
copy, images, materials
12 December 2014 Festival As Lab
press release and announcement
January 2015 Project team available
for project communication and
development
February 2015 Launch and delivery
Entry Format
Please send a 4 page application
detailing your proposed Festival As Lab
project and supporting information to
include project partners.
Portfolios and supplementary visual
resources are encouraged, although will
not be considered without a detailed
written application.
Submission Email:
tom.rowlands@futureeverything.org
Submission Deadline:
5pm, 27th October 2014