Strategie für Österreich

Culture and Competencies
for large companies to adopt new approaches to
innovation, but in the future could also enable SMEs
to do so to a greater extent.
The aspect of cultural change is especially challenging,
as sharing innovation knowledge and other
resources but also collaboration across industries,
disciplines and organisations is insufficiently rooted
in the prevailing culture. The mind-set this requires
should be formed and put to the test in regional
open innovation and experimental spaces, which are
easily and freely accessible to different segments
of the population and their innovation activities. It
is also essential to embed the principles of open
innovation in kindergartens and schools, while at
the same time offering training programmes and
courses for adults in which specific open innovation
skills and methodological knowledge are taught.
Networks and Cooperation
New intelligent approaches are also required
to increase players’ networking and cooperation
abilities. In the future, a basic infrastructure which
enables new innovation partnerships as well as
access to non-traditional partners and supports the
sharing of resources could be provided by a digital
knowledge and technology map of Austria with a
smart matchmaking function. A suitable, intensively
supervised platform could also enable the use of
open innovation methods to solve societal problems
(social innovation). It is essential to systematically
make open innovation methods and services
accessible to small and medium-sized enterprises
(SMEs), which according to the BMWFW’s SME
Report represent 99.6%, and thus the overwhelming
majority, of companies. The combination of external
and internal resources already makes it possible
Resources and Framework Conditions
In terms of resources and framework conditions,
the way in which intellectual property (IP) is handled
plays an important role in open innovation. Focused
IP management adapted to the specific research and
innovation goals is a key prerequisite for the application
of open innovation. In particular, it is necessary to
raise actors’ awareness and knowledge of the broad
spectrum of disclosure, protection and exploitation
strategies. In the case of publicly funded research projects
where there is no sensitive data that has to be
protected in the interests of commercialisation, greater
use should be made of open access and open data
strategies than in the past with a view to intensifying
the transfer of knowledge and exploitation opportunities.
The development of fair sharing and compensation
models for crowdwork should be pushed forward.
The increasing involvement of crowds in innovation
processes and the resulting forms of decentralised,
small-scale contributions raise the question as to
how fair models of pecuniary and non-pecuniary compensation
can be designed in future.
With an active open innovation policy and swift
implementation of the open innovation strategy,
Austria is well positioned to become an international
role model for the design and steering of open
innovation systems in the digital age and to gain an
excellent reputation as a dynamic, open location for
research and innovation, and as a “testbed” for new
developments. As shown by an international analysis
of innovation strategies carried out during the
drafting of the Austrian open innovation strategy,
the opening up of innovation systems is still in the
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