Open Innovation 2.0 Yearbook 2013 - European Commission - Europa

92 O P E N I N N O V A T I O N 2 0 1 3
prioritised. Recommendations can be proposed
and discussed in terms of suitability
and practical implementation. Finland
was the first country to organise a round
table with the NCP (in 2005). This process,
documented in the report Five Steps for Finland’s
Future, contributed to a knowledgeminded
innovation programme inspired by
its recommendations. Since then, NCP round
tables have been held in Morocco, Serbia,
Malaysia and Austria, and a bilateral round
table between France and Germany is currently
running.
• Use ACSI camps and regional SI Labs to engage
citizens, researchers and experts to work collaboratively
on reframing issues and creating
early prototypes.
ACSI is an action-learning camp addressing
societal concerns in a new and highly effective
manner: it initiates a 12-month process
empowering people and organisations to
think and act in concert, applying innovation
skills and mindsets to address challenging
real-life issues. Participants create a shared
understanding of how opportunities for
societal innovation emerge and how to use
them constructively. Methodologically, ACSI
acts through the Knowledge Triangle, combining
research, education and innovative
practice to develop prototypes for systemic
societal renewal. The goal is to break new
ground and transcend traditional (social
and societal) borders to create new ways of
thinking about the issues addressed. Integrating
students, researchers, innovators,
artists, and working life experts from various
disciplines and many countries creates
synergies and multi-perspectives leading
to new ideas. The core of ACSI is an 8-day
camp that has been organised three times
in Finland, and will move to Sweden this
year. Short forms called Societal Innovation
Labs (SI Labs) are being prototyped
in South Africa and other locations. These
3- and 4-day labs focus on developing the
mindset and skills needed for pursuing systemic
change.
• Make use of innovation-enabling environments
such as future centres and Living Labs
to directly involve key stakeholders in addressing
issues, prototyping promising solutions, and
testing them in practice.
These innovation-enabling environments
are facilitated working and meeting environments
that help organisations to prepare
for the future in a proactive, collaborative
and systematic way. They provide facilitated
high-tech/high-touch environments to create
and apply knowledge, develop practical
innovations, bring government in closer
contact with citizens and connect end-users
with industry. Their core business is engaging
stakeholders in developing innovative
solutions to challenging business, organisational
or societal problems. People are
central to this solution-seeking process.
Future centres typically deal with the development
of new visions, policies, products
and services, translating strategic goals and
intentions into actionable plans, and creating
breakthroughs in stuck situations. They
stimulate cooperation within and between
organisations, enhance open innovation and
participative design through collaboration
with citizens, end-users, and stakeholders,
and provide process space to test prototypes
in practice.
Such a process could help regions to move decisively
from strategic plans to strategic action. It
would create early exemplars of successful practice,
using research and knowledge to tackle societal
challenges at the regional and local level, and
contribute to helping Horizon 2020’s three-pillar
focus to achieve its promise of strong societal
impact.
During the EPP (European People’s Party Group)/CoR
Open Days seminar on the importance of innovative
regions and cities for territorial development,
attended by more than 150 participants in October
2012, presentations described relevant factors for
maintaining open innovative regions. Michael Schneider,
President of the EPP Group of the Committee
of the Regions, set the tone when he stated that ‘to
reach the Europe 2020 targets, increasing bottomup
collaboration is a must … Piloting and experimenting,
entrepreneurial discovery and societal
innovation all have their role to play’. He concluded
by saying that ‘further policy development must be
based on shared ownership and integrating political
decision-makers’. Speakers emphasised that Europe
needs pioneering regions and cities. Entrepreneurial
spirit, open innovation, and cooperation between different
sectors are vitally important to achieving the
targets of Europe’s 2020 strategy. The NCP ideas
resonate strongly with these sentiments.
The seminar pushed the boundaries of traditional
gatherings by encouraging collaborative participation
through a ‘Meshmoon’ virtual world, developed
for use in Finland’s Energising Urban Ecosystems