Digital transformation and technology democratization are demanding new organisational structures led by trust, transparency and openness. For some years now, innovation laboratories have been embraced as unique and enabling environments acting as facilitators for the evolution of our communities, business and territories. However, as they are being embodied under different names and shaped by their context, they also seem to operate freely under multiple-related innovation approaches. This is leading to a grey-zone within the universe of innovation laboratories, making them difficult to study and manage. In this paper, Innovation laboratories are studied as innovation intermediaries that fulfil the purpose of creating communities of knowledge imbued with values of sharing and collaborating towards a common objective or project. Through a bibliometric study, a scientific outlook for the constellation of Innovation laboratories is built. Research affinities and distinctions between the most common concepts often related to these innovation intermediaries are discussed. And lastly, the grounds for a research agenda on the strategic management and assessment of this phenomenon are set.