Periodic Reporting for period 2 - CoSIE (Co-creation of service innovation in Europe)
Berichtszeitraum: 2018-12-01 bis 2021-05-31
Co-creation of Service Innovation in Europe (CoSIE) adopted a definition of co-creation as “a collaborative activity that reduces power imbalances and aims to enrich and enhance the value in public service offerings”. CoSIE was distinctive because it advanced co-creation with citizens who are often excluded or overlooked. It did this through ten real-life pilots across Europe, each working with a different public service and responding with innovations in co-creation to locally determined needs and priorities. In the pilots people who typically have services ‘done to’ them became asset holders with legitimate knowledge. They demonstrate that co-creation has impact even in contexts that look unpromising. Some impacts from the pilots include: new cross-sector collaboration in prevention and treatment of childhood obesity (Italy); strengthened local community integration (Hungary), mobilising people from diverse backgrounds – including vulnerable individuals - around co-defined community problems (Estonia); and nationwide uptake of tools co-designed by young people for youth workers (Finland). New learning about co-creation included the importance of asset or strengths-based approaches to service delivery. CoSIE’s legacy includes cross-cutting actions especially in the form of responsibly curated digital storytelling mobilised for change, and the COSMOS tool developed from Living Lab technology within the project to support co-creation by building and sharing visual models. Reusable learning from CoSIE (tested in a new pilot site) is encapsulated in a MOOC and the accessible, interactive CoSIE Roadmap.
CoSIE is committed to produce 1) new co-creation skills 2) new knowledge and 3) new insight. The project was executed via 10 pilots in 9 different EU countries. Pilots were experimental co-creation cases around different socio-economic-cultural contexts. In these pilots together with academic partners were developed and tested various ITC-tools and process models for co-creation.
The main contribution to 1) new skills rises from the two main methods used in the project: Community Reporting (CR) and Living Lab analyzing (LL).
The CR consists of methods that support citizens to express their opinions via stories and videos. To make this possible, CoSIE trained pilot staff and peer group representatives to operate as community reporters, who interview and document the insights of the target groups. Collected stories examine issues pertinent to the pilots (i.e. unemployment, youth marginalisation, experiences of probation services) and reflections on the co-creation and CR processes. Versions of the written analyses and edited audio-visual content were produced in all ten pilots.
The LL enhance sense-making and co-creative design of the pilots and stakeholders by helping them to develop a set of models for roles, structures, processes and capacities. Visual models support the exchange and learning between the pilots by giving them common language to represent their visions, developments and outcomes.
CoSIE’s main contribution to 2) new knowledge. All CoSIE pilots concentrate on finding more effective and innovative solutions to persistent problems of societies by innovation in ways to incorporate the legitimate knowledge of service receivers (end users). To guide formative evaluation as well as evidence of impacts and lessons learned: Reporting Requirements & Evaluation Framework and CoSIE Evaluation Guidance were used.
The main messages from the pilot evaluations were at:
Micro level: There is evidence of achievement in developing skills and attitudes of front-line workers through dedicated training with time for reflection. Paradigm change towards user centred co-creation among public service workers for example.
Meso level: Co-creation implies interaction across organizational boundaries involving a wide range of stakeholders with diverse expectations and worldviews. Orchestrating collaborative interaction is demanding. In Hungary CoSIE engaged multiple level stakeholders e.g. 10 municipalities, 10 local coordinators and 72 households at poor rural villages.
Macro level: The wider socio-political environment can either support or impede co-creation. In Reggio Emilia, Italy the CoSIE pilot aligns with the Social and Health Regional Plan. CoSIE arranged Spring 2021 joined policy round table with EESC. The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) is the voice of organised civil society in Europe. Find out more about its role and structure at www.eesc.europa.eu.
CoSIE provides 3) new insight about co-creation as a concept and existing co-creation procedures. CoSIE has produced a guide for roadmap, which includes pedagogically accessible guidelines (e.g. MOOC) and video modules for public sector actors on how innovative co-creation in public sector can be made possible. CoSIE has also actively encouraged pilots to explore digital technologies (e.g. CoSMoS, Luuppi) for collaborating with stakeholders. See www.cosie.turkuamk.fi.
Pilot evaluation results were disseminated to national and regional stakeholders in each partner country in a series of Policy Roundtables (organised virtually due CoVID-19). Results and learning were shared across the consortium formally in series of project-wide events and beyond the project in EESC policy round table for example.
The main contribution to 1) new skills rises from the two main methods used in the project: Community Reporting (CR) and Living Lab analyzing (LL).
The CR consists of methods that support citizens to express their opinions via stories and videos. To make this possible, CoSIE trained pilot staff and peer group representatives to operate as community reporters, who interview and document the insights of the target groups. Collected stories examine issues pertinent to the pilots (i.e. unemployment, youth marginalisation, experiences of probation services) and reflections on the co-creation and CR processes. Versions of the written analyses and edited audio-visual content were produced in all ten pilots.
The LL enhance sense-making and co-creative design of the pilots and stakeholders by helping them to develop a set of models for roles, structures, processes and capacities. Visual models support the exchange and learning between the pilots by giving them common language to represent their visions, developments and outcomes.
CoSIE’s main contribution to 2) new knowledge. All CoSIE pilots concentrate on finding more effective and innovative solutions to persistent problems of societies by innovation in ways to incorporate the legitimate knowledge of service receivers (end users). To guide formative evaluation as well as evidence of impacts and lessons learned: Reporting Requirements & Evaluation Framework and CoSIE Evaluation Guidance were used.
The main messages from the pilot evaluations were at:
Micro level: There is evidence of achievement in developing skills and attitudes of front-line workers through dedicated training with time for reflection. Paradigm change towards user centred co-creation among public service workers for example.
Meso level: Co-creation implies interaction across organizational boundaries involving a wide range of stakeholders with diverse expectations and worldviews. Orchestrating collaborative interaction is demanding. In Hungary CoSIE engaged multiple level stakeholders e.g. 10 municipalities, 10 local coordinators and 72 households at poor rural villages.
Macro level: The wider socio-political environment can either support or impede co-creation. In Reggio Emilia, Italy the CoSIE pilot aligns with the Social and Health Regional Plan. CoSIE arranged Spring 2021 joined policy round table with EESC. The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) is the voice of organised civil society in Europe. Find out more about its role and structure at www.eesc.europa.eu.
CoSIE provides 3) new insight about co-creation as a concept and existing co-creation procedures. CoSIE has produced a guide for roadmap, which includes pedagogically accessible guidelines (e.g. MOOC) and video modules for public sector actors on how innovative co-creation in public sector can be made possible. CoSIE has also actively encouraged pilots to explore digital technologies (e.g. CoSMoS, Luuppi) for collaborating with stakeholders. See www.cosie.turkuamk.fi.
Pilot evaluation results were disseminated to national and regional stakeholders in each partner country in a series of Policy Roundtables (organised virtually due CoVID-19). Results and learning were shared across the consortium formally in series of project-wide events and beyond the project in EESC policy round table for example.
CoSIE resulted innovations for public service designers: Conceptual innovations by defining and refreshing the concepts of co-creation in connection with public service design; Administrative innovations on regional, national and EU levels; Process innovations, such as road maps, tools, MOOC and other aids for co-creation; and Governance Innovations paradigm change from the top-down management of co-creation towards bottom-up approach. CoSIE results have exploitation potential beyond the project and results are disseminated in various academic and professional publication channels and policy briefs for the EU decision makers.
The CoSIE project has tackled one of the fundamental and most difficult challenges in involving both end users and service provides as well as decision makers in development process of services: to create a common language and common understanding about the co-creation processes itself. The Living Lab method gives tools to visualize the complexity of the matters and tools (e.g. CoSMoS) to build a visual map for steps needed to achieve the expected change. Moreover, the Living Lab method is a forum for deliberation, where conceptions are modeled in collaboration. As such, the method provides a strong democratic dimension.
The Community Reporting method allows hard to reach groups to participate in service development by providing them innovative channels for delivering insights.
Utilizing blended data sources (open data, social media) with the innovative deployment of ICT (data analytics, Living Lab, Community Reporting) the project introduces a culture of experiments that encompasses various stakeholders for co-creating service innovations. See www. cosie.turkuamk.fi.
The CoSIE project has tackled one of the fundamental and most difficult challenges in involving both end users and service provides as well as decision makers in development process of services: to create a common language and common understanding about the co-creation processes itself. The Living Lab method gives tools to visualize the complexity of the matters and tools (e.g. CoSMoS) to build a visual map for steps needed to achieve the expected change. Moreover, the Living Lab method is a forum for deliberation, where conceptions are modeled in collaboration. As such, the method provides a strong democratic dimension.
The Community Reporting method allows hard to reach groups to participate in service development by providing them innovative channels for delivering insights.
Utilizing blended data sources (open data, social media) with the innovative deployment of ICT (data analytics, Living Lab, Community Reporting) the project introduces a culture of experiments that encompasses various stakeholders for co-creating service innovations. See www. cosie.turkuamk.fi.