AUSTRIANOPENINNOVATIONSTRATEGY( Draft(elements(under ...€¦ ·...

Stakeholder Workshop for the development of an Open Innovation strategy for Austria – Breakout-‐Session 1 and 2

AUSTRIAN OPEN INNOVATION STRATEGY

Draft elements under public consultation until March 7th 2016

Initiated by the federal government, Austria is one of the first countries in the world developing a national Open Innovation Strategy.

As first core elements, a vision for Austria in the year 2025 and 15 concrete measures, which have been co-‐created with stakeholders and citizens, are under public consultation until March 7th 2016.

This document provides an English translation of the text currently under public consultation done by the open innovation research and consultancy firm winnovation (www.winnovation.at). It consists of three parts:

1. Introduction to the Austrian Open Innovation Strategy 2. Open Innovation in Austria: Vision for 2025 3. 15 Concrete Measures how to foster Open Innovation in Austria

1. Introduction to the Austrian Open Innovation Strategy

The increasing speed of technological change requires novel solutions far beyond classical innovation

models. Contemporary research, technology and innovation processes need to consider dynamic

changes in markets and societies. This requires a strong inclusion of citizens and (end) users and new

forms of collaboration such as open business networks. Purposefully opening innovation processes

offers the chance to substantially raise the awareness for innovation, research and development

within the broader population.

Interdisciplinary networks and the inclusion of a broad range of actors in innovation processes

increase the competitiveness of the country on the international level. Globalisation and competitive

pressure associated with it increase the necessity to use Open Innovation as a strategy to develop

innovations in more purposeful ways and transform them successfully and fast into marketable

products.

By using Open Innovation strategically, Austria’s hopes to be able to significantly increase its

competitiveness and generate a momentum that could not be achieved with traditional innovation

methods. However, an important precondition is to shape a culture of Open Innovation and to

develop Open Innovation competencies in science, the economy, the wider population (including

civil society) and government. Therewith, Austria’s research, technology and innovation system


should become one of the most competitive ones in Europe, positioning Austria as an innovation

leader.

2. Open Innovation in Austria: Vision for 2025

In 2025, Austria is internationally known for its openness in innovation and the participation of

citizens and a wide range of organisations in innovation activities. In dynamic ecosystems, societal,

environmental and economic challenges are solved in novel ways by using collaborative linkages

online and offline between actors in civil society, science, arts, economy, public administration and

politics. International companies, non-‐profits, scientific organisations and competence networks

appreciate Austria as one of the best locations for doing research and as a testbed for innovation due

to its capability to permanently invent itself regardless or even due to its richness in history and

culture.

Open Innovation is about being taken for granted in Austria: Openness towards the generation for

new knowledge, new products, methods and systems, a spirit of collaboration across domains,

sectors and geographical and societal boundaries, high eagerness to experiment and risk taking as

well as a culture to learn from failure are embedded values being lived and trained already in

kindergartens and schools. These values are deeply rooted in the organisational culture of most

businesses, non-‐profit organisations and public administration. The focus lies on human knowledge

and creativity.

Independent of age, educational level and profession, citizens are invited to participate in research

and innovation projects, but also to initiate new projects and voice problems which need to be

solved by using Open Innovation methods. Scientific organisations apply open, participatory, inter-‐

and transdisciplinary research methods to enhance their research efforts. The national research

support system is actively supporting this development.

User innovation has a strong position in the overall innovation system. Reaching a high degree of

diversity among actors and enhance boundary-‐spanning activities is one of its core principles,

enabling the country to generate truly novel knowledge and radical innovation. Children and

adolescents are systematically involved into future-‐related topics and projects, but also the elderly

share their experiences and needs and by that shape the demand for innovation.

The high capability of Austrian organisations to use Open Innovation methods purposefully and to

exploit and use globally distributed knowledge is an essential precondition for achieving success in


international markets in 2025. Even small and medium-‐sized enterprises are able to recognize future

market needs early on and collaborative innovate accordingly with partners including unusual

suspects such as (lead) users, user crowds, user communities, non-‐profits, other companies from

within and across sectors and science. Optimal framework conditions (e.g. access to crucial

information), especially with regards to the strategic use of intellectual property rights, modern

physical and virtual infrastructures, supportive management models and practices support

interaction, co-‐creation and collective experimenting.

Government and public administration use Open Innovation methods actively for the development

of processes and services. Their innovation activities cut across policy domains, departments and

knowledge areas. Austria’s Open Innovation policy inspires other countries to design and govern

national systems of innovation in novel ways.

In 2025, scientists are used to work in interdisciplinary teams and also with unusual, non-‐scientific

partners in order to enlarge the benefit for society and environment.

All actors anticipate the value of innovation knowledge as a key resource, which needs to be created,

accessed and used consciously. Depending on the purpose and needs in their respective innovation

activities, actors use the full spectrum from free revealing to protecting knowledge by using

intellectual property rights. Open Innovation, Open Access, classical IPR instruments and Responsible

Science are not used as contradictory, but synergistic concepts to create win-‐win situations for all

actors.


3. 15 concrete measures how to foster Open Innovation in Austria

Overview

Measure 1: Building open innovation and experimentation spaces for citizens

Measure 2: Establishing Open Innovation elements in kindergartens and schools including Open

Innovation training for teachers

Measure 3: Advancing public services by implying Open Innovation instruments for an adequate

involvement of citizens

Measure 4: Establishing an Open Innovation platform for social innovation as a contribution to

solve global challenges

Measure 5: Providing a matchmaking platform for all innovation players

Measure 6: Establishing a research centre for the application of Open Innovation principles in

science

Measure 7: Embedding incentive mechanisms for collaborations with “unusual suspects” into

scientific research funding

Measure 8: Opening funding programs for innovation from users and citizens

Measure 9: Developing fair sharing and compensation models for crowd work

Measure 10: Developing and enhancing Open Innovation methods and instruments for small and

medium-‐sized enterprises (SMEs)

Measure 11: Providing Open Innovation and co-‐creation training programs for interested

individuals

Measure 12: Building awareness and using Open Research Data and Open Access policies

Measure 13: Adapting IP-‐Strategies of organisations, institutions of higher education, research

institutions and intermediaries to Open Innovation requirements in order to maximize innovation

potential

Measure 14: Launching a comprehensive Open Innovation communication initiative

Measure 15: Setting up an Austrian Open Innovation Alliance with strong international linkages


Measure 1: Building open innovation and experimentation spaces for

cit izens

In a digital world, direct interaction and communication are still essential parts of innovation

processes: In open innovation and experimentation spaces, multiple citizen and stakeholder groups

(e.g. consisting of children, adolescents, students, elderly people, business people and scientists)

explore questions, challenges and solutions for the future. They connect “old” with “new” actors

resp. institutions. Openness, diversity and the inclusion of unusual suspects are of great significance.

By being playful and experimental, participants develop new skills, ideas and prototypes by using

digital and non-‐digital technologies. The innovation and experimentation spaces can, but do not

necessarily have to be guided by already existing formats such as Otelos, FabLabs, MakerLabs, Hack

your City and Citizen Science Labs.

They are essentially driven by needs of regional stakeholders and accordingly focus on specific topics

or target groups (e.g. civil society, SMEs including start-‐ups). A crucial point is to create a network of

stationary and mobile innovation and experimentation spaces in all regions and a lighthouse of

symbolic value in the capital Vienna. The network ensures high accessibility to innovation and

research activities for urban as well as rural citizens.

The participants of the stakeholder workshop stressed the importance of physical open innovation

spaces beside the 24/7 virtual interconnectedness. Therefore, this measure has been added after the

stakeholder workshop. The necessity to establish innovation spaces in cities as well as rural areas was

emphasized (“FabLabs in all federal states”, “Pop-‐up-‐labs”, “Breakout-‐rooms in cities and

municipalities”, etc.).

Measure 2: Establishing Open Innovation elements in kindergartens and

schools including Open Innovation training for teachers

In order to embed openness for innovation, eagerness to experiment and collaborate across

different age groups, ethnicities, disciplines and institutions early on into the Austrian culture, these

values are systematically trained in kindergartens and schools. Via Open Innovation weeks, children

and adolescents learn to generate and implement new solutions (e.g. new designs for classrooms,

new games, sports equipment or apps) by experiencing experimental learning, openness, diversity

and collaboration across boundaries. In order to let them feel the importance of innovation and at


the same time create an effective training environment where learning from failure, managing

conflicts and solving problems happens, choosing such topics and tasks which are of high interest for

young participants, is essential. Collaborating with selected adults like craftspeople, elderly people,

artists and scientists is also part of the Open Innovation week. Teachers are provided with training

materials for Open Innovation weeks as well as Open Innovation sessions in regular classes.

Additionally, Open Innovation modules will be offered in pedagogical institutions and incorporated

into training courses for teachers.

Due to the input of participants at the stakeholder workshop, this measure has been transformed

from an extra-‐curricular approach outside schools into an activity within kindergartens and schools.

Additionally, the need for an Open Innovation training for teachers was repeatedly mentioned and

therefore has been included.

Measure 3: Advancing public services by implying Open Innovation

instruments for an adequate involvement of cit izens

Public administration is increasingly urged to develop complex solutions meeting the needs of

heterogeneous citizens and stakeholder groups. Open Innovation methods can effectively contribute

to develop new services and processes of high quality being strongly accepted by citizens. As a first

step, pilot projects will be developed to test how public services and administrative processes can be

innovated through the involvement of citizens in new, professional and thematically adequate ways.

The can be supported by (already existing or new) online crowdsourcing platforms or via co-‐creation

workshops.

One integral element of this measure is to enhance mutual learning across administrative units and

levels: Those who start first with Open Innovation projects, share their experience with other units

on the federal, regional and community level. A cross-‐administrative network or service unit for

Open Innovation in the Austrian public administration could be a supportive structure for achieving

this goal.

Due to the feedback of participants in the stakeholder workshop this measure was modified from a

“national unit of competence” to a “service unit” or “network” providing knowledge / resources with

regards to Open Innovation in the public administration.


Measure 4: Establishing an Open Innovation platform for social

innovation as a contribution to solve global chal lenges

Due to complex demographic, health, environmental, climate and migration challenges, social

innovation gains in importance. Businesses, non-‐profits, scientists and policy makers are urged to

recognize needs early on and develop novel, widely accepted solutions. A crowdsourcing platform for

social innovation will be established, where new problem definitions (problem crowdsourcing) as

well as ideas (idea crowdsourcing) are generated by working deliberately with the crowd. It gives

public administrators, policy makers, scientists, non-‐profits and other organisations access to new,

highly distributed knowledge (ideas, problems, needs) which could not be accessed with

conventional methods. Hereby, it is essential that topic-‐specific crowds with motivated members and

expertise in specific domains are built up and the platform is professionally moderated and

monitored. Rules and obligations for participants need to be communicated transparently. Before a

new platform is set up, potential collaborations with existing national and international platforms

should be checked.

Participants of the stakeholder workshop emphasized the necessity of a professional, non-‐partisan

support of the platform following transparent, clearly communicated rules as well as a professional

moderation of the platform. Additionally, it was suggested to learn from already existing platforms,

such as www.openideo.com, www.climatecolab.org or www.innovationspartnerschaft.at/challenges.

Measure 5: Providing a matchmaking platform for al l innovation players

A substantial amount of innovation knowledge is currently not or only insufficiently used due to a

lack of transparency. Entrants into the Austrian innovation system have for instance no overview

about innovation actors, their topics and competencies. Additionally, most innovation resources like

specific devices and appliances are only accessible for a limited number of users and therefore not

used to full capacity. It is therefore necessary to make innovation actors, their fields of competence,

available infrastructures and other resources within the Austrian innovation system more

transparent and encourage mutual sharing by establishing a matchmaking platform which maps

actors, knowledge and resources. Hereby, data maintenance and data update (e.g. by providing

incentives for users to update their data regularly) will be crucial in the long run. Before setting up a

new system, opportunities for making use of existing platforms and public data bases will be

checked.


The participants of the stakeholder workshop voiced their wish to accompany the establishment of

the matchmaking platform with professional public relations work and clear and transparent

communication. It was also mentioned that existing activities, such as the research infrastructure

data base of the BMWFW (Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy) are to be considered /

integrated in the new concept.

Measure 6: Establishing a research centre for the application of Open

Innovation principles in science

Open Innovation has its origin in the economy, nevertheless its principles and methods – such as

purposefully opening up processes to collaborate with heterogeneous actors – are of increasing

importance in science. Science is facing the necessity to create more novel solutions for society and

the environment than in the past. This calls for establishing a new research centre on Open

Innovation in science, where new ways to open scientific processes are systematically explored and

which is highly interconnected on the national and international level. It thoroughly explores the

potential of Open Innovation in science, i.e. by analysing international best practices, researching the

effects of targeted openness and designing new models accordingly. With that, it clearly goes beyond

the scope of current concepts such as Citizen Science and Open Science. The question to what extent

Open Innovation principles contribute to the generation of new knowledge, its dissemination and

exploitation within society and economy and by that solving grand challenges have to be reviewed.

This research centre builds upon already existing approaches with relevance to Open Innovation (i.e.

transdisciplinary research, historical application of open strategies and methods) and includes a

substantial outreach-‐component as well as a public space.

The English term “Research Centre” was used in the original version of this measure, but was adapted

to the German term “Forschungszentrum”. A good integration of the research centre with the already

existing research landscape in Austria, the inclusion of already existing knowledge bases and the

financial security of the research centre and its work were key aspects for the participants of the

workshop.


Measure 7: Embedding incentive mechanisms for col laborations with

“unusual suspects” into scientif ic research funding

Research collaborations with “unusual suspects” have a high potential to generate novel knowledge,

radical innovation and societal impact. A high degree of diversity amongst the players offers new

perspectives, new combinations of ideas and space for experiments. However, generating diversity

purposefully in research teams and opening research process for collaboration with external actors

and “unusual suspects” (e.g. citizens, user communities, associations, etc.) is not common in science.

Therefore public research funding provides incentives for opening research processes and

collaborating with “unusual suspects”. Open Innovation elements are embedded in research funding

programs, the evaluation of research projects and funding principles. The funding mechanisms are

aiming for creating a high level of interdisciplinary collaboration within science, between scientific

and non-‐scientific actors (i.e. citizens, users, user crowds, user communities, etc.) along the entire

process of generating and disseminating new scientific knowledge, radical innovation and societal

impact. .

Participants of the stakeholder workshop called for “prioritizing interdisciplinary research projects”

and “conceding more funding to interdisciplinary research projects”. The participants emphasized

that the current scientific research funding did not provide enough incentives to do inter-‐ and

transdisciplinary research. Therefore, this measure has been added.

Measure 8: Opening funding programs for innovation from users and

cit izens

The Austrian system supports university-‐industry collaborations intensively and in multiple ways.

Although users have valuable knowledge regarding future needs and problem solving, they are not

systematically included in research and innovation processes. Therefore, the funding system is

incentivizing the participation of users (e.g. citizens, (lead) users, user crowds, user communities as

well as players from arts and culture) along the entire innovation process, especially in applied

research areas. Citizens, users, user crowds and user communities can be part of consortia or

initiating research or innovation projects themselves. To make the programs accessibly to new

beneficiary groups, some of the administrative requirements might need to be modified.


The participants of the stakeholder workshop supported the opening of the funding system towards

new actors and emphasized, that guidelines and calls for existing funding programs have to be

adapted accordingly as far as legitimate within the legal benefit framework of the European

Commission. Additionally, a low-‐threshold approach for new players was emphasized.

Measure 9: Developing fair sharing and compensation models for crowd

work

By opening up innovation processes, the roles of actors change and consequently also labour division

between actors. Especially the inclusion of crowds into innovation processes via online platforms,

which means service provision done by a large, distributed group requires a redesign of sharing and

compensation models for labour. As there are many questions still unsolved, new forms of fair

sharing and compensation models for crowd work have to be researched and developed. Hereby, the

term “compensation” should be considered as a broad term and used in different facets (i.e.

monetary and non-‐monetary compensation like visibility, reputation, appreciation, etc.). The

individual intrinsic and extrinsic motivation of the user has to be taken into consideration.

The participants of the stakeholder workshop agreed that there were many open questions regarding

the compensation models for crowd work and that a need for research existed. Fairness in

compensation and a high transparency in communication with users were key points.

Measure 10: Developing and enhancing Open Innovation methods and

instruments for small and medium-‐sized enterprises (SMEs)

Digitalisation and globalisation have increased pressures on businesses to adapt and innovate. SMEs,

however, have limited financial and personnel resources and less organisational innovation capacity,

infrastructure and experience to react with suitable innovation strategies. Due to this limited internal

access to resources und structures, it is essential for SMEs to open their innovation process: On the

one hand, Open Innovation provides SMEs access to otherwise expensive resources (e.g. facilities)

and knowledge (e.g. data), on the other hand it enables them to use internal innovation knowledge

more effectively. In order to enable SMEs to do Open Innovation, existing methods have to be

adapted according to specific needs and problems of SMEs. Therefore, Open Innovation methods

suitable for SME need to be co-‐created with SMEs and, after testing them, published and distributed


in the field. Training will be specifically designed for SMEs. It is important to allow easy and cheap

access to the training and make it time efficient. Furthermore, the training has to provide added

value for SMEs by addressing the organisational and thematic context of participating SMEs.

This measure was added due to numerous contributions in the stakeholder workshop regarding the

importance and role of SMEs in the economy (i.e. “large businesses can apply Open Innovation, SME

can’t”, “Support SMEs in introducing Open Innovation (e.g. coaching)”).

Measure 11: Providing Open Innovation and co-‐creation training

programs for interested individuals

Successful boundary crossing rarely emerges spontaneously. More often it is a result of deliberate

strategies. Using Open Innovation methods requires new knowledge and competences, especially for

identifying new sources of knowledge (online and offline), interpreting relevant knowledge

(decontextualizing and broadcasting to new context and applications) and collaborating across

boundaries (e.g. identification and composition of crowd, collaboration with lead users). Therefore,

co-‐creation training programs for participants from science, public administration, private

organisations and the civil society will be developed and offered. Hereby, the participants are trained

to solve real-‐world cases in team structures and test the practical application of Open Innovation

methods and principles. It is a hands-‐on learning. Interaction in small heterogeneous teams ensures

an intensive learning experience. Participants learn to identify relevant solution providers and

connect problem holders with solution providers across disciplines, sectors and technologies (by

applying principles from the “Analogous Market Effect”). Working with users, citizens, user crowds

and user communities are key focus areas of the training, which will be aligned with the needs of

participants. The co-‐creation training program can be offered in innovation, research and

experimentation spaces (see Measure 1) but also in other spaces.

This measure was composed after the need for Open Innovation training has been repetitiously

mentioned during the stakeholder workshop. As an example, identifying suitable existing online

crowds, building new online crowds and bridging different innovation contexts and domains

(“different languages”) were mentioned.


Measure 12: Building awareness and using Open Research Data and

Open Access policies

Open Science and Open Access improve public access to data and information generated in academic

research and by that increase the value and the reproducibility of scientific research. Providing open

access to research data improves also the dissemination and commercialisation of results from

applied research. For instance it opens access to scientific data for actors which would not have the

resources to generate research data themselves, e.g. SMEs and start-‐ups. Hence, more awareness for

advantages of providing open access to data need to be created. In public funded projects, a data

management plan can lay the groundwork for creating awareness about data generation and a

purposeful use of data. Beneficiaries of public research funding (i.e. universities, other research

organisations, scientists) have the opportunity to decide on their own whether to publish the data or

not and how to formulate the advantages of data generated in the research process. If data are

published within the framework of funded projects, additional costs for publishing data have to be

covered by the project budget. Hereby, appropriate sharing and compensation models have to be

considered (see also measure 9).

The discussion of participations of the stakeholder workshop enabled examining the potential of open

access with regards to the access to research data from public funded projects. It was emphasized

that the non-‐disclosure of research data is mostly preferred due to competitive and strategy

considerations. Examples were discussed where a provision of the research data can bring

advantages to the organisation. The measure has been changed accordingly.

Measure 13: Adapting IP-‐Strategies of organisations, institutions of

higher education, research institutions and intermediaries to Open

Innovation requirements in order to maximize innovation potential

The application of Open Innovation strategies requires a conscious dealing with intellectual property

rights (IPR) and a comprehensive knowledge of the broad spectrum of possibilities from free

revealing to a strong protection of IP. Negotiating knowledge sharing versus protecting between

individual innovation partners and finding joint solutions for contracts is a key issue in Open

Innovation. However, IPR-‐strategies vary not only in open and closed innovation processes, they also

vary in sectors, types of organisation, business models, etc. It is therefore important to improve the

awareness and establish competences regarding the application of IP-‐rights, Open Innovation and


Open Access. Specific training about implementing and using intellectual property strategies

purposefully is needed for universities, research organisations, businesses and industries.

Multiple participants of the stakeholder workshop mentioned the necessity to improve knowledge on

IPR in connection with Open Innovation activities, as they feel that this topic creates a high

uncertainty and a lot of tension. Clarifications, in which cases openness and intellectual property

protection are compatible and how this could be done, should be brought forward.

Measure 14: Launching a comprehensive Open Innovation

communication init iative

Open Innovation refers to the democratisation of innovation processes. Each citizen and organisation

can contribute to, initiate and benefit from Open Innovation activities. Currently there is, however,

little awareness regarding new possibilities and approaches to innovate enabled by modern

communication technologies. In order to illustrate Open Innovation principals and methods and

show the contributions they can accomplish, an exhibition with good practices from multiple

contexts will be designed and implemented. This exhibition addresses different demographic and age

groups. Selected innovations are explained from the different perspectives of participating

stakeholders in order to show their individual point of view. This exhibition is a lighthouse project in

a comprehensive communication initiative about Open Innovation using different media channels

(including Social Media) and reaching a broad spectrum of demographic groups.

The participants of the stakeholder workshop mentioned the differences in the level of information of

Open Innovation and the ambiguities arising in connection with the definition, dimensions, meaning,

and boundaries of Open Innovation. They emphasized the necessity to work more intensively on the

publicity of Open Innovation. Therefore, this measure has been added.

Measure 15: Setting up an Austrian Open Innovation Al l iance with

strong international l inkages

In Austria, as in many other countries, Open Innovation is in its early stages. Individual users and

organisations work independently from each other, hence, the opportunity of joint Open Innovation

activities is underused. In order to specifically support and accelerate collective knowledge and


accumulate Open Innovation experience, multiple stakeholders (e.g. start-‐ups, SMEs, think tanks,

established organisations of all sizes, non-‐profits, research institutions) connect and form a national

Open Innovation Alliance. The alliance creates awareness for Open Innovation in the public and

cooperates with already established alliances, institutions and platforms (i.e. Alliance for Responsible

Science) on a national, European and international level.

Participants of the stakeholder workshop repeatedly mentioned, that Open Innovation not only

played an important role on national, but also on international level. Hence, connecting Austrian

Open Innovation stakeholders within national boundaries and at the same time to the European level

is a precondition for success.

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