White Spaces Innovation in Sweden - Innovation policy for ... - Vinnova

WHITE SPACES INNOVATION IN SWEDENvery complex environments at the same time as innovation in itself can be seen as a„wicked‟ issue. This means policy and practice can have negative „unanticipated consequences‟requiring both experimentation and retro-fitting skills to resolve. We claim thiscalls for a new policy mindset as well as a changed toolset. We have therefore adoptedan analytic framework influenced by complexity thinking to illuminate central issueslike:why variety is important, and „smart specialisation‟ to be treated with cautionhow micro-macro level interaction takes place in nested hierarchies, andassessing consequences of evolutionary and non-linear change.Framing the analysis in this type of context also affects the way policy might be perceived.An example is the notion of “wickedness” which is not easily compatible withthe present „steering‟ model in innovation policy. As in other policy fields „steering‟assumes that policy problems are clearly defined, decomposable and based on a controlperspective. So we have also made an effort to translate this complexity thinking intothe policy domain.1.2 Strategic growth by turning Grand Challengesinto business opportunitiesBoth the OECD and the EU in their respective innovation strategies attach a great dealof importance to global and social challenges as drivers for innovation and growth. Inthe EU communication regarding the Innovation Union the issue is presented as follows:“Focusing on innovations that address the major societal challengesidentified in Europe 2020, strengthening our leadership in key technologies,reaping the potential these markets offer for innovative businesses,and enhancing EU competitiveness. Innovation must become a key elementin EU policies and the EU must use the strong potential of the publicsector in areas such as energy and water, health, public transport andeducation, to bring new solutions to the market.”In this project we will link Grand Challenges with the idea of strategic growth forclusters in VINNVÄXT, the National Cluster Program run by Tillväxtverket and theclusters in Skåne. Our premise is that turning Grand Challenges into business opportunitieswill call for transversal (cross-cluster) innovation which in turn will lead to a needto understand issues related to boundary crossing, bridging of interfaces and also a demandfor tools to facilitate and/or orchestrate transversal innovation. We believe that„design thinking‟ is an approach to test in this context. Transversal innovation also hasto build on interdependencies of different sorts between companies and clusters. Relatedvariety is an enabler and a constraint for transversal innovation because it is both the18