Gibert, C., & Plantec, Q. (2026). The living lab and the cursed catalyst: Navigating the legitimacy challenges of innovation intermediaries for sustainable innovation. Research Policy, 55(3), 105403. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2025.105403 

Living labs are increasingly used to bring frontier science into real-world sustainability projects, but their long-term survival depends on more than delivering technical results. This article examines how such intermediaries build and balance organisational legitimacy through an in-depth study of MOSIS, a project designed to improve water management along the Senegal River through an Earth Observation system.

The analysis identifies three key roles performed by the living lab: technological expert, stakeholder orchestrator, and end-user empowerer. Each role generates a distinct form of legitimacy: instrumental, relational, and moral. Together, these roles create strong “active legitimacy” by demonstrating usefulness, coordinating diverse partners, and supporting local users. Yet this very success can produce an unexpected vulnerability. Because the living lab spans several roles and categories, external audiences may struggle to understand what kind of organisation it is and how its contribution should be evaluated.

The article conceptualises this tension as the “Cursed Catalyst”: an intermediary may successfully enable innovation while failing to secure the cognitive legitimacy needed for its own recognition and continuity. The findings show that legitimacy is not simply accumulated; it must be actively balanced. For living labs and other innovation intermediaries, making their organisational identity and distinctive contribution intelligible is therefore essential to sustaining impact over time.

Link to the full article (open access): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2025.105403