Open Innovation 2.0 Yearbook 2013 - European Commission - Europa

Innovation dynamics have increased, also leading
to new requirements for successful and sustainable
innovation ecosystems (Figure 6). Experimenting
and prototyping better enable trials of entirely new
and risky solutions and also call for a new type of
daring leadership.
Thus, the characteristics of sustainable innovation
are the following.
• It is full of disruptions!
• It is about (value) choices!
• It is beyond (political) buzzwords!
• It is holistic!
All this means increased risk-taking (in a managed
way) but, at the same time, greater gains for successful
and, often daring, new solutions. Does the
approach in Horizon 2020 allow modern innovation?
My answer is definitely ‘Yes’, but it requires courage
to take the new approach in practice.
New instruments
As I write this article, new instruments which support
faster innovation cycles, with higher return
rates, are being developed at the Directorate-
General for Communications Networks, Content and
Technology.
The new approach to support innovation in a more
holistic manner can, for example, be seen in
the tools developed for the new Horizon 2020
framework.
Firstly, as mentioned earlier, the whole Horizon
2020 programme structure supports demandorientation
that links interdisciplinary thinking to
problem-solving. The science-driven innovation part
of the programme supports the growth of new science
and technology-based results to be harvested
in the other parts of the programme.
The new tools currently in discussion are, for example,
the extension of the piloting approach currently
in the seventh framework programme. The pilots
were used, for example, in the IST PSP programme
to verify, in large-scale pilots, the platform thinking
in cross-border applications. These pilots were
driven by public sector organisations. Examples of
these can be found in eHealth, eGovernment and
eProcurement.
In the new approach, piloting is extended beyond
the downstreaming, to prototyping, testing and
demonstrations in real-world settings. This, as discussed
earlier, enables faster identification of the
potentially successful approaches but, likewise,
helps to fail fast, avoiding costly failures at a too
late stage. The pilot/experimentation approach
en ables seamless integration of demand-side innovation
with a technology-enabled approach. Users
will be also in important role in this approach —
ideally, involved in all stages of the projects.
Pre-commercial procurement and public procurement
of innovation will be reshaped and extended
to, ideally, provide the necessary bridge from
prototypes and experiments to scale-up. Public sector
procurers have tremendous purchasing power,
meaning that their impact on take-up of modern
solutions can be of crucial importance.
Importantly, inducement prizes will also be proposed.
They drive real solutions which are often
application-oriented. Prizes attract new constituencies
who are not usually involved in EU projects.
Prizes also publicly highlight well the issues to be
solved. Current thinking is based on three categories
of prizes, namely: grand prizes (up to EUR 10
million); major prizes (up to EUR 6 million); and
sectorial prizes (up to EUR 1 million). Prizes ideally
bridge research results to commercialisation without
predetermining the structure or technology of
the solution.
From the open innovation perspective, perhaps
(besides prizes) the most interesting scheme is the
non-descriptive, open, light and fast scheme which
supports disruptive innovation. This approach does
not predetermine the topic area, but proposes
a cross-sectorial approach and leads to high rewards
and high impacts. The risk level of this initiative is
rather high, but by dividing the process into phases,
the risk is managed. At the same time, it maintains
the openness and incentive in the scheme.
One of the targets of this scheme is to create new
markets through the disruptive approach, which
very often also involves the strong presence of the
problem owner (clientele, citizens) in the project
execution. At its best, it enables co-creativity in
innovative solutions.
The scheme is divided into three phases: the first
is a feasibility study and demonstration, funded up
to some EUR 50 000. After this period, the most
promising 20 % can continue for 6–9 months to
the next phase, which consists of validation and
trialling the solution in real-world settings. Funding
for this experimentation phase would be up to
some EUR 2 million for a maximum of 18 months.
At the end of the second phase, prizes could also
be granted for the most successful based on the
impact and scalability of the solution.
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