Participative processes and citizens’ empowerment are considered crucial aspects of social innovation (SI),

involving collaborative activities between the private, public, and third sectors. This article discusses the

principal trends in the literature on the concept of SI, its aims and differential characteristics related to

the identification of people’s needs, citizen participation processes, and improved quality of life. We

present an exploratory case study of SI focusing on the gap between elderly people’s needs and the

generation of business opportunities, using a living lab (LL) methodology for collaborative placed-based

innovation. Our results suggest that LLs are a useful instrument to detect community needs and improve

local development and support and integrate technological and social innovations in policies and local

governance processes