Our courses focus on a novel concept that intends to diversify innovation, the collaboration between the different sectors or helices of society: academia, industry, public sector and civil society. This approach, also known as Quadruple helix collaborations (QHC), helps address complex issues, which are a common base in many innovation processes. But it also poses great challenges. Building on experience and knowledge, our courses identify a set of aspects that facilitate or hinder such collaborations and provide tools, methodologies and strategic guidelines that support the design, implementation and evaluation of quadruple helix collaborations for innovation

For two years, the practical experience of the European project RiConfigure on collaborative innovation has been closely followed and structured to create a set of training materials. This experience comes from social experiments, comparative analysis and dialogue events with innovation practitioners and policy makers. With the valuable learnings from the project, the University Pompeu Fabra (UPF, Spain) and Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft (LBG, Austria) have designed and developed three training programmes. 

Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) refers to an approach rolled out in the EU Framework programmes 7 (FP7) and 8 (Horizon 2020) emphasising the on-going process of aligning research and innovation to societal values, needs and expectations. Funders in countries like the UK, Norway and the Netherlands have similar definitions.

RRI guides researchers and research conducting and funding organisations in anticipating the implications of their work, including relevant stakeholders upstream, and reflecting and responding to those stakeholders’ concerns and expectations. In this way, co-design and co-responsibility for the outcomes research and innovation can be facilitated, increasing societal uptake and acceptability of research and innovation.

Experiences from the concluded and ongoing RRI projects can inform the operationalisation of RRI in Horizon Europe as well as in other funding programmes that support inclusive research and innovation processes aligned with societal needs and values. The last decade of the RRI agenda also provides important resources for operationalizing the Open Science agenda in its broad sense, beyond Open Access and Open Data, and the co-creation and citizen science agendas.

The initiative “RRI in Horizon Europe” [#RRIinHE]

While the future of RRI in Horizon Europe is still rather uncertain, it is not as bleak as it appeared in 2019. Several advocates in the ERA have called for higher visibility of RRI in Horizon Europe. Moreover, the Orientations towards the first Strategic Plan for Horizon Europe keeps the door open for RRI and even indicates a ’home’ for RRI in Horizon Europe (in Reforming and Enhancing the European R&I system). However, there is still a need to continue to reinforce the importance of RRI and to help show how it can be implemented widely in Horizon Europe.

This is why a group of RRI scholars and practitioners have joined forces to launch the initiative "RRI in Horizon Europe" [#RRIinHE] with the aim of supporting the visibility and operationalisation of RRI in Horizon Europe. The core group consists of ...

European Green Deal Call: €1 billion investment to boost the green and digital transition

The European Commission is launching a €1 billion call for research and innovation projects that respond to the climate crisis and help protect Europe's unique ecosystems and biodiversity. The Horizon 2020-funded European Green Deal Call, which is already open for registration, will spur Europe's recovery from the coronavirus crisis by turning green challenges into innovation opportunities.

This Green Deal Call differs in important aspects from previous Horizon 2020 calls. Given the urgency of the challenges it addresses, it aims for clear, discernible results in the short to medium-term, but with a perspective of long-term change. There are fewer, but more targeted, larger and visible actions, with a focus on rapid scalability, dissemination and uptake.

Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth said: 

“The €1 billion European Green Deal call is the last and biggest call under Horizon 2020. With innovation at its heart, this investment will accelerate a just and sustainable transition to a climate-neutral Europe by 2050. As we do not want anyone left behind in this systemic transformation, we call for specific actions to engage with citizens in novel ways and improve societal relevance and impact.”

Context

Quadruple Helix (QH) innovation, the collaboration of actors from public sector, industry, academia and civil society, is a
concept to address complex problems and to innovate for the benefits of all involved. By emphasizing collaboration
across sectors and the active involvement of civil society, QH links to models such as Open Innovation 2.0 and Mode3. The EU project RiConfigure has engaged with a number of QH cases across Europe and Colombia and established first-hand knowledge how these work in practice. The current COVID-19 crisis creates new challenges for society while, at the same time, 'old' problems, such as the climate crisis, are not disappearing. Most of the ways addressing wicked problems are currently top-down and expert based. We thus aim to foster collaborative- and more democratic modes of innovation.

About the dialogue days

The RiConfigure 'dialogue days' are an open online process that brings together policy makers, practitioners and researchers working on and with QH innovation. Knowledge and experience of participants from innovation policy and praxis are linked with findings from an empirical analysis of European and Colombian cases of Quadruple Helix collaborations. The analyzed cases are innovation projects located in fields such as energy production, climate change adaption, connected mobility and smart labor. Together we will discuss what it needs for these type of innovation projects to thrive - particularly in these challenging times. Special emphasis will be given to learnings from COVID-19 challenges to innovation collaborations, both as impacts on and potential of innovation in corona times.

The LIVING INNOVATION project brings together 14 partners from all over Europe, including major industry leaders, civil society and research organizations to co-develop more responsible, inclusive and sustainable approaches to innovation in the ICT sector. The project is building capacity and instruments to support the integration of responsible innovation in industrial contexts. The ultimate goal is to shift attitudes towards responsible innovation from risk to opportunity, across sectors and target groups.

LIV_IN is organizing co-creation workshops with lead users and citizens, who are jointly working on solutions that meet user needs and leverage collective creativity to tackle societal challenges, in the areas of smart homes and smart health, and that may uncover new business opportunities. The project has also created a virtual community platform meant to serve as an interactive space for discussion, knowledge exchange and collaboration, open to experts and practitioners in digitization and responsibility.

RRI Tools and LIV_IN have joined forces to enrich and improve contents of the RRI Toolkit focusing on industry needs, and to give higher visibility to LIV_IN and its activities among the R&I community.

Our courses focus on a novel concept that intends to diversify innovation, the collaboration between the different sectors or helices of society: academia, industry, public sector and civil society. This approach, also known as Quadruple helix collaborations (QHC), helps address complex issues, which are a common base in many innovation processes. But it also poses great challenges. Building on experience and knowledge, our courses identify a set of aspects that facilitate or hinder such collaborations and provide tools, methodologies and strategic guidelines that support the design, implementation and evaluation of quadruple helix collaborations for innovation

For two years, the practical experience of the European project RiConfigure on collaborative innovation has been closely followed and structured to create a set of training materials. This experience comes from social experiments, comparative analysis and dialogue events with innovation practitioners and policy makers. With the valuable learnings from the project, the University Pompeu Fabra (UPF, Spain) and Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft (LBG, Austria) have designed and developed three training programmes. 

Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) refers to an approach rolled out in the EU Framework programmes 7 (FP7) and 8 (Horizon 2020) emphasising the on-going process of aligning research and innovation to societal values, needs and expectations. Funders in countries like the UK, Norway and the Netherlands have similar definitions.

RRI guides researchers and research conducting and funding organisations in anticipating the implications of their work, including relevant stakeholders upstream, and reflecting and responding to those stakeholders’ concerns and expectations. In this way, co-design and co-responsibility for the outcomes research and innovation can be facilitated, increasing societal uptake and acceptability of research and innovation.

Experiences from the concluded and ongoing RRI projects can inform the operationalisation of RRI in Horizon Europe as well as in other funding programmes that support inclusive research and innovation processes aligned with societal needs and values. The last decade of the RRI agenda also provides important resources for operationalizing the Open Science agenda in its broad sense, beyond Open Access and Open Data, and the co-creation and citizen science agendas.

The initiative “RRI in Horizon Europe” [#RRIinHE]

While the future of RRI in Horizon Europe is still rather uncertain, it is not as bleak as it appeared in 2019. Several advocates in the ERA have called for higher visibility of RRI in Horizon Europe. Moreover, the Orientations towards the first Strategic Plan for Horizon Europe keeps the door open for RRI and even indicates a ’home’ for RRI in Horizon Europe (in Reforming and Enhancing the European R&I system). However, there is still a need to continue to reinforce the importance of RRI and to help show how it can be implemented widely in Horizon Europe.

This is why a group of RRI scholars and practitioners have joined forces to launch the initiative "RRI in Horizon Europe" [#RRIinHE] with the aim of supporting the visibility and operationalisation of RRI in Horizon Europe. The core group consists of ...

European Green Deal Call: €1 billion investment to boost the green and digital transition

The European Commission is launching a €1 billion call for research and innovation projects that respond to the climate crisis and help protect Europe's unique ecosystems and biodiversity. The Horizon 2020-funded European Green Deal Call, which is already open for registration, will spur Europe's recovery from the coronavirus crisis by turning green challenges into innovation opportunities.

This Green Deal Call differs in important aspects from previous Horizon 2020 calls. Given the urgency of the challenges it addresses, it aims for clear, discernible results in the short to medium-term, but with a perspective of long-term change. There are fewer, but more targeted, larger and visible actions, with a focus on rapid scalability, dissemination and uptake.

Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth said: 

“The €1 billion European Green Deal call is the last and biggest call under Horizon 2020. With innovation at its heart, this investment will accelerate a just and sustainable transition to a climate-neutral Europe by 2050. As we do not want anyone left behind in this systemic transformation, we call for specific actions to engage with citizens in novel ways and improve societal relevance and impact.”

Context

Quadruple Helix (QH) innovation, the collaboration of actors from public sector, industry, academia and civil society, is a
concept to address complex problems and to innovate for the benefits of all involved. By emphasizing collaboration
across sectors and the active involvement of civil society, QH links to models such as Open Innovation 2.0 and Mode3. The EU project RiConfigure has engaged with a number of QH cases across Europe and Colombia and established first-hand knowledge how these work in practice. The current COVID-19 crisis creates new challenges for society while, at the same time, 'old' problems, such as the climate crisis, are not disappearing. Most of the ways addressing wicked problems are currently top-down and expert based. We thus aim to foster collaborative- and more democratic modes of innovation.

About the dialogue days

The RiConfigure 'dialogue days' are an open online process that brings together policy makers, practitioners and researchers working on and with QH innovation. Knowledge and experience of participants from innovation policy and praxis are linked with findings from an empirical analysis of European and Colombian cases of Quadruple Helix collaborations. The analyzed cases are innovation projects located in fields such as energy production, climate change adaption, connected mobility and smart labor. Together we will discuss what it needs for these type of innovation projects to thrive - particularly in these challenging times. Special emphasis will be given to learnings from COVID-19 challenges to innovation collaborations, both as impacts on and potential of innovation in corona times.

The LIVING INNOVATION project brings together 14 partners from all over Europe, including major industry leaders, civil society and research organizations to co-develop more responsible, inclusive and sustainable approaches to innovation in the ICT sector. The project is building capacity and instruments to support the integration of responsible innovation in industrial contexts. The ultimate goal is to shift attitudes towards responsible innovation from risk to opportunity, across sectors and target groups.

LIV_IN is organizing co-creation workshops with lead users and citizens, who are jointly working on solutions that meet user needs and leverage collective creativity to tackle societal challenges, in the areas of smart homes and smart health, and that may uncover new business opportunities. The project has also created a virtual community platform meant to serve as an interactive space for discussion, knowledge exchange and collaboration, open to experts and practitioners in digitization and responsibility.

RRI Tools and LIV_IN have joined forces to enrich and improve contents of the RRI Toolkit focusing on industry needs, and to give higher visibility to LIV_IN and its activities among the R&I community.