Innovative schemes for open innovation and science 2.0

Specific Challenge: The specific challenge addressed by this topic is, in the context of open innovation and science 2.0 to assist universities to become open innovation centres for their region in cooperation with companies, realising the ERA priorities, and to enable public administrations to drive innovation in and through the public sector.

Scope: The actions under this topic will help universities, companies and public authorities to enhance their capacity to engage in science 2.0 and open innovation. They will build or reinforce structures and mechanisms to support effective linkages for innovation between universities and companies and other employment sectors, and provide freely accessible innovation training platforms, including digital platforms.

The actions will be implemented by consortia that will commit to the ERA principles[1] and adopt innovative ways to create new knowledge, new jobs and promote economic growth. This challenge can be addressed through different sets of actions:

a) Inter-sectoral mobility

The actions should aim at:

      The development and implementation of a policy of double nominations of research staff in academia, companies and public and semi-public/CSO employment sectors.

      The development and implementation of a policy to further and recognise inter-sectoral mobility as a demonstrably positive career asset.

The new policies should be operational before the end of the EU funding and sustainable after the end of the EU funding.

b) Academia- Business/Public/CSO knowledge co-creation

The actions should aim to develop or (further) implement open innovative schemes to strengthen linkages between academia, industry and community. The aim is to accelerate pace and allow maximum socio-economic and environmental impact of scientific research, taking account of geographical coverage, societal needs and the needs of research communities, citizens and CSOs. This should take into account other EU actions, including the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions fostering inter-sectoral mobility.

Research institutions together with companies are expected to build sustainable structures which help to absorb needs of users and thereby become co-creators of new solutions. SMEs should be encouraged to participate.

The new policies should be operational before the end of the EU funding and sustainable after the end of the EU funding.

Gender aspects need to be taken into account.

c) Innovation leadership programme for public administrations and researchers

The actions should focus on developing curricula and providing freely through online platforms, possibly combined with other delivery mechanisms, innovation training for public administrations and researchers. The actions would go beyond state of the art training programmes and produce curricula and modules for a ‘deep-dive’ short leadership programme, supported by a sustainable platform or community of innovation trainers in order to create and run the leadership programme.

Identification of users' needs is of central importance. The R&D efforts required would involve exploration, design, development and piloting of pedagogies as well as methods and tools for collaboration and knowledge sharing, including MOOCs.

International aspects should be taken into account, while appropriate consideration should be given to the gender dimension in the design, development and delivery of the actions.

The new courses and platforms should be operational before the end of the EU funding and sustainable after the end of the EU funding.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 2.5 and 3.5 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected impact: The actions are expected to allow a wide range of research organisations to do better in areas which are essential to their performance as actors or facilitators of collaborative research and innovation. These organisations will be in a stronger position to interact fruitfully with innovators in industry and the public sector. Their increased potential to innovate will contribute to the socio-economic performance of the societies in which they operate. Universities will take a more prominent role in innovation, together with business and other actors, and thereby contribute to the objectives of the Innovation Union and ERA. The actions will also boost innovation competences in public administrations and equip researchers with innovation leadership knowledge, thereby creating more innovative societies.

a) Actions on inter-sectoral mobility are expected to increase the number of researchers with active experience in both academia and industry and thus foster fruitful interactions between the two sectors.

b) The actions on academia business co-creation will raise awareness of the potential of co-creation of new solutions and other open innovation activities. Interactions with various actors within the eco-system will also contribute to increased understanding of the culture and (potentially conflicting) objectives of partners.

c). The Innovation leadership programme and platforms, notably the online platforms, will enable public administrations and researchers to drive innovation with newly acquired skills relating to creativity, critical thinking, idea generation, visualisation and entrepreneurship. The actions will reach out to some 60.000 leaders throughout the EU, at central, regional and local level.

Knowledge sharing through the platforms will create more new ideas and innovative approaches. The actions will complement the European research base with innovation skills which are crucial for business and research in the global market. The actions will also foster the widest possible use of new training provision through standards on inter-operability, quality assurance and recognition of the training modules towards degrees of accredited universities.

Type of action:

a) and b) Coordination and support actions

c) Research and innovation actions

[1] Commitment to the ERA Principles implies that institutions:

       advertise of all vacancies on the EURAXESS Jobs portal using the common profiles established in the European Framework for Research Careers

       fill research positions according to open, transparent and merit based procedures proportionate to the level of the position in line with the basic principles of the Charter & Code and including non-EU nationals

       apply a Gender Equality Plan