GrowinG Future innovators - ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative ...

Baltic Quay maths teachers.
Photograph by Dan Brady,
courtesy of BALTIC Centre
of Contemporary Art,
Gateshead, UK.
69 SKE (2007:3)
being an early adopter and procurer of
innovation throughout its public services
and departments. While government cannot
force a society to be more innovative, it can
create incentives, provide infrastructure and
remove obstacles.
Sectors and organisations can also increase
innovation capacity by fostering their own
culture of innovation, seeking out new ideas
and rewarding those who challenge the
status quo. Organisations can team up and
sector associations can offer awards, circulate
information or establish relationships and
mentorships that build knowledge, experience
and opportunity.
The supporting backdrop of a cultural milieu
and education system also plays important
roles within the innovation system. A society
that affirms innovation can encourage and
enable creators through to consumers and
citizens to be more involved in innovation
activity, such as risk-taking, experimentation
and enterprise. As the Society for Knowledge
Economics has commented, “a nation’s social
value system—the beliefs, attitudes, spirit,
values, and culture of its people—is often
an important facilitating factor of innovation
and creativity in society and business.” 69
Education, both formal and informal, can
generate this broad understanding and skills
base, and it is to this most important issue
that we now turn.
Growing future Innovators: a scoping study 19