Analysing the process of an open innovation can give deep insights of inter alia how the process can be optimized. In D2.1 – the document held at hand – the first steps towards improving the processes of open innovation have been made. The Science2Society project wants to increase the efficiency of the European innovation system and the ways it creates new businesses, turns technology into products and services, attracts financing and generally creates value from academic research. [1] The project focuses on key schemes currently used to encourage the use of innovation. The fields of interest have been summarised into seven pilot projects:
1. Co-creation: Product development with future users in a virtual idea-laboratory
2. Co-location: Establishing industry innovation labs within universities
3. Collaborative R&D Projects: Between universities, RTOs, industries, SMEs and public-sector entities
4. Inter-sectorial Mobility: As an enabling tool for open innovation/science
5. Big Research Data Transfer: Collaboration through Big data and Science 2.0
6. University Knowledge Transfer: Direct university coaching and training to SMEs
7. Open innovation Marketplaces: Connecting universities, RTOs, industries, SME and start-ups
Design Thinking is a well approved approach among designers in the creative industries, with originally focusing on the look and functionality of products. But the methodology gained popularity as using design tools can tackle more complex problems as well. In other industries and branches the methodology of Design Thinking has often been used intuitively but not beyond the conventional problem-solving methods. In applying the Design Thinking methodology to the process design of the Scienc2Society pilots a new approach for identifying key processes has been implemented.
As the Science2Society project works towards a sustainable learning programme, where a community of practice will be set up for sharing knowledge, providing training material and giving best practice examples. The "Guidelines for Pilot Descriptions" was developed with Design Thinking methodologies and supports the concept of sustainable learning by providing a basis for replication of the best schemes. The basis is, that all seven pilots of the Science2Society project have to follow the same path, in order to derive findings at the end of the process. The "Guidelines for Pilot Descriptions" are not public, but are available for all project partners.
The general modelling approach is stated in section 3. As the modelling approach itself, is no public deliverable, the methodologies have not been described in detail. A brief overview and the major steps are being reported to guide the reader through and link the Design Thinking approach. This assures the understanding and describes the importance of linking these approaches. Section 4 starts with a short introduction of Design Thinking in general and its advantages. Then the report goes deeper into why the selected tools have been used in the "Guidelines for Pilot Descriptions" to shape the process design of the seven pilots of Science2Society.
The overall aim of this project is inter alia a common picture of all seven pilots, in order to make them comparable and derive the lessons learned into guidance for policy design at a later stage in the Science2Society project.
