Reconfiguring Research and Innovation Constellations

Project Information

RiConfigure

Grant agreement ID: 788047

DOI

10.3030/788047

Project closed

EC signature date 12 April 2018

Start date 1 May 2018

End date 31 July 2021

Funded under

• Develop the governance for the advancement of responsible research and innovation by all stakeholders, which is sensitive to society needs and demands and promote an ethics framework for research and innovation

Total cost

€ 3 517 132,50

EU contribution

€ 3 517 132,50

Coordinated by

FONDEN DEMOCRACY X
Denmark

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - RiConfigure (Reconfiguring Research and Innovation Constellations)

Reporting period: 2019-08-01 to 2021-07-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Addressing societal challenges, institutions and actors are playing new roles and enter into new constellations of collaborationd. Universities are seeking to contribute more directly to society. Corporations are breaking new ground through public engagement. Public sector organizations are taking on more entrepreneurial roles. Citizens’ take matters into their own hands and engage in sustainable innovation.
The main challenge facing practitioners and policy-makers who seek to strengthen and support these changes to the constellations of R&I is that new constellations and new roles in innovation are conceptualized, strategized and practiced in highly diverse ways depending on the outlooks of different types of actors, which creates as much confusion as inspiration.
The RiConfigure project has pursued the objectives to engage stakeholders in the diversification of, and enhance conceptual clarity on, R&I-constellations and roles; to new constellations; to facilitate the dissemination and training of good practices in practitioners’ networks and with key stakeholder; to involve policy-makers in mutual learning support them to enable changes to R&I governance frameworks.
One main lesson of RiConfigure is, that the theory of quadruple helix collaboration is quite different from the practice we have studied. Once applied in practice, the theoretical idea of four sectors collaborating together in research and innovation stumbles upon a myriad of real-life barriers such as funding, role distribution, incentives, power structures and path dependency. RiConfigure identifies a series of opportunities and ‘enhancers’ that can potentially strengthen quadruple helix innovation, on different government and collaboration levels.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The RiConfigure consortium has carried out the following activities:
• An extensive study of the existing work on Quadruple Helix Collaborations and an analytical framework with data collection tools. Developing a methodological manual for the social labs (WP1). Outlining data needs for the analysis and incorporating these in the data collection tools (WP6).
• Recruiting Quadruple Helix Collaborations as main- and mirror cases for the social labs.
• Coordinating the five social labs, organizing panel meetings, case meetings, facilitating interventions and collecting data to document the cases and processes (WP2-5).
• Collecting data from social labs to analyse the reality of Quadruple Helix Collaborations. As well as to get better understanding of the impact of governance structures at various levels (regional, national and international) on the development and success of QH collaborations (WP6)
• Reaching out and keeping relations to existing platforms and networks and establishing working agreements with actors with interest in RiConfigure. Organizing two joint dialogue events with innovation practitioners and policy makers to present our findings and collect inputs for the policy brief series (WP7).
• Developing a market analysis of existing trainings on Quadruple Helix Collaborations and RRI. Collecting information from the social labs for use in the development of courses. Developing and testing three types of training sessions – workshop, intensive course and online course (WP8).
• Doing communication on social media and press releases. Disseminating RiConfigure results and insights to practitioners in a booklet. Organizing a three days online final event bringing experts and stakeholders together to discuss intersectoral collaboration and the learnings from RiConfigure (WP9).

The RiConfigure has produced a number of exploitable results of relevance beyond the project:
• Products useful for inspiration for other projects: A social lab methodology manual for facilitation of Quadruple Helix Collaborations; videos introducing the concept of Quadruple Helix Collaborations and RRI; Blog entry for OECD OPSI: “Do we need a reorientation for the innovation imaginary?” A special Session on Quadruple Helix and RRI at the ETHAC 2019; A paper discussing how capabilities and skills needed to navigate a QHC can be trained.
• A Policy-Makers' Handbook for Supporting Quadruple Helix Innovation
• Reports with key lessons from two dialogue events with innovation practitioners and policy makers reflecting on the outcomes of RiConfigure
• A collection of four policy briefs on Quadruple Helix Collaborations and RRI.
• Training programs and recommendations for online and face-to-face courses on Quadruple Helix Collaboration and RRI. Conducted trainings and contributed to building capacity to initiate and drive quadruple helix collaborations.
• Booklet aimed at innovation practitioners in research, industry, the public sector, civil society and innovation policy makers
All publications and products can be found on the RiConfigure webpage as wall as other stakerholder network sites. The training material is also available on RRI tools, which targets policy makers.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Other exploitable results
• Collected a rich empirical data set on QHC cases. Case reports describing 75 projects in terms of their partners and their respective roles, collaboration type, timespan, budget, governance frameworks affecting the collaboration etc.
• Analysis of RiConfigure social labs resulted in an increasing awareness of a quadruple-helix approach in research activities.
• Through QHC and continuous collaboration activities in and around social labs developed processes aligned to the values, needs and expectations of society and inspired cases to use quadruple helix model as a tool to reflect on their activities and strengthen collaboration.
• Provided good practices and recommendations for enhancing QHC in innovation collaborations
• Highlighted experiences and messages on the value, benefits and constraints of RRI and collaboration to policy makers and practitioners on local, regional, national and EU level
• Provided rich and diverse online guidance (training, reports, booklet, videos) targeted different stakeholder groups
• Contributed to research on Quadruple Helix Collaborations and the social lab methodology, introducing a processual approach to QHC and the relation between social labs and social change.
RiConfigures has met the expected impacts in the following way:
1) Enable the diversification of actors and stakeholders in research and innovation processes
• 146 practitioners and policy makers participated over the course of RiConfigure’s two dialogue events.
• Multiple ideas were collected from the online dialogue event, which resulted in a co-authored policy brief.

2) Enable the spread of good practices among actors and stakeholders involved in new constellations
• In total, RiConfigure has reached 197.605 people on social media and had 7.511 unique visitors on the webpage
• 100 % of the social lab members expressed that they have found it useful to be part of the social lab getting inspiration and methods.
• In all 426 innovation practitioners have been engaged in dialogue events
• 66 practioners tested the training material, and training programs are available after the end of the project at various webpages

3) Enable the transformation of governance frameworks that affect actor and stakeholders involved in new constellations
• Agreements have been made with Barcelona City Council for promotion of the training program relevant for innovation policy makers. Moreover, the courses are available on RRI tools, which targets policy makers

riconfigure-family-picture.jpeg

gruppebillede.jpg