Periodic Reporting for period 2 - OpenInnoTrain (Open Innovation – Research Translation and Applied Knowledge Exchange in Practice through University-Industry-Cooperation)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2022-07-01 al 2024-06-30
The need for innovation through university-industry cooperation is more critical than ever. The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the vital role of knowledge creation and transmission across industries and disciplines. Identifying, developing, and scaling breakthrough technologies, and converting them into incremental, radical, or disruptive innovations that are widely accepted by users, customers, and communities is crucial. However, turning research into societal benefits rarely happens spontaneously.
Mechanisms like stakeholder engagement and co-creation can create the conditions needed to foster innovations that meet current and future societal needs. The EU-funded OpenInnoTrain project successfully explored these mechanisms across four key areas, equipping over 150 researchers and practitioners from 38 countries through 5 Summer Schools and 143 individuals across Consortium Partner Institutions through 388 secondment months, providing tools and actionable knowledge to support their research and innovation efforts. OpenInnoTrain’s main objective has been to build and sustain a network of international and inter-sectoral organisations focused on research translation and knowledge sharing. Theoretical foundations, spanning multiple disciplines, were combined with practical insights from four key areas:
• FinTech: applying technology to improve or innovate financial services
• Industry 4.0: digitalisation of integrated, automated manufacturing
• CleanTech: low-carbon technologies addressing environmental challenges
• FoodTech: advanced technologies in food production, packaging, and distribution.
The participating staff members, and broader research and innovation community through project events, such as summer schools, and openly accessible project research outputs, (including 51 publications, over 90% of them being Q1 (Scimago), A/A* (ABDC), with many more still in the pipeline), have developed new skills and challenged the status-quo through exposure to a new environment thus also having their career perspectives widened.
Mechanisms like stakeholder engagement and co-creation can create the conditions needed to foster innovations that meet current and future societal needs. The EU-funded OpenInnoTrain project successfully explored these mechanisms across four key areas, equipping over 150 researchers and practitioners from 38 countries through 5 Summer Schools and 143 individuals across Consortium Partner Institutions through 388 secondment months, providing tools and actionable knowledge to support their research and innovation efforts. OpenInnoTrain’s main objective has been to build and sustain a network of international and inter-sectoral organisations focused on research translation and knowledge sharing. Theoretical foundations, spanning multiple disciplines, were combined with practical insights from four key areas:
• FinTech: applying technology to improve or innovate financial services
• Industry 4.0: digitalisation of integrated, automated manufacturing
• CleanTech: low-carbon technologies addressing environmental challenges
• FoodTech: advanced technologies in food production, packaging, and distribution.
The participating staff members, and broader research and innovation community through project events, such as summer schools, and openly accessible project research outputs, (including 51 publications, over 90% of them being Q1 (Scimago), A/A* (ABDC), with many more still in the pipeline), have developed new skills and challenged the status-quo through exposure to a new environment thus also having their career perspectives widened.
Notable achievements include:
-Implementing secondments for 143 individuals across the Consortium (45% female), including PhD candidates, Early-Stage Researchers (43%), Experienced Researchers (44%), and Professional R&I Staff (13%).
-Establishing 5 co-tutelle agreements between Consortium academic partners, representing scalable, structural mechanisms to sustain the network.
-Delivering annual Summer Schools (2021-2024), equipping researchers and innovators with actionable knowledge—tactics, techniques, and tools—to build research agendas and advance research translation for societal impact.
-Deepening the understanding of research translation mechanisms, codifying them in training materials (toolkits and canvasses) refined through the Summer Schools, now openly available via the OpenInnoTrain website under a Creative Commons licence.
-Developing and delivering masterclasses, involving academics and industry participants, focusing on targeting knowledge transfer across contexts (e.g. the interplay between AgTech and FoodTech, and how Cleantech can be used to rejuvenate mature industries such as the wine industry – workshop at the University of Siena and Salcheto in June 2019; The role of new technologies in linking firms, consumers, and territories, at the University of Siena in September 2022; Ideation and Venture Creation, at the University of Vaasa in August 2023 or the Impact through Research in Graz, Vaasa, and Cambridge in June 2024);
-Adopting a train-the-trainer approach, empowering members to replicate these trainings institutionally. For example, the Masterclass on Research Impact (2024) emerged as a shorter version of the Summer School. Additionally, the International Society for Professional Innovation Management (ISPIM) uses these training materials in its Research Impact Mentoring Program.
-Involving ESRs and postdocs in delivering trainings and Summer School Mentor roles, enhancing their skills in stakeholder interaction.
-Implementing STREMS (Students-Researchers-Managers) activities where OpenInnoTrain acted as a knowledge broker, connecting industry stakeholders (seekers) with students and researchers (solvers) to address challenges in FinTech, Industry 4.0 CleanTech, and FoodTech. An example is the October 2023 STREM hosted by INESC TEC in Porto.
-Enabling 143 individuals to engage in international and intersectoral secondments, allowing them to work in globally diverse teams, form social bonds with local hosts, and experience serendipitous encounters within wider ecosystems.
-Implementing secondments for 143 individuals across the Consortium (45% female), including PhD candidates, Early-Stage Researchers (43%), Experienced Researchers (44%), and Professional R&I Staff (13%).
-Establishing 5 co-tutelle agreements between Consortium academic partners, representing scalable, structural mechanisms to sustain the network.
-Delivering annual Summer Schools (2021-2024), equipping researchers and innovators with actionable knowledge—tactics, techniques, and tools—to build research agendas and advance research translation for societal impact.
-Deepening the understanding of research translation mechanisms, codifying them in training materials (toolkits and canvasses) refined through the Summer Schools, now openly available via the OpenInnoTrain website under a Creative Commons licence.
-Developing and delivering masterclasses, involving academics and industry participants, focusing on targeting knowledge transfer across contexts (e.g. the interplay between AgTech and FoodTech, and how Cleantech can be used to rejuvenate mature industries such as the wine industry – workshop at the University of Siena and Salcheto in June 2019; The role of new technologies in linking firms, consumers, and territories, at the University of Siena in September 2022; Ideation and Venture Creation, at the University of Vaasa in August 2023 or the Impact through Research in Graz, Vaasa, and Cambridge in June 2024);
-Adopting a train-the-trainer approach, empowering members to replicate these trainings institutionally. For example, the Masterclass on Research Impact (2024) emerged as a shorter version of the Summer School. Additionally, the International Society for Professional Innovation Management (ISPIM) uses these training materials in its Research Impact Mentoring Program.
-Involving ESRs and postdocs in delivering trainings and Summer School Mentor roles, enhancing their skills in stakeholder interaction.
-Implementing STREMS (Students-Researchers-Managers) activities where OpenInnoTrain acted as a knowledge broker, connecting industry stakeholders (seekers) with students and researchers (solvers) to address challenges in FinTech, Industry 4.0 CleanTech, and FoodTech. An example is the October 2023 STREM hosted by INESC TEC in Porto.
-Enabling 143 individuals to engage in international and intersectoral secondments, allowing them to work in globally diverse teams, form social bonds with local hosts, and experience serendipitous encounters within wider ecosystems.
The progress achieved has been documented in 51 publications across various disciplines including innovation management, marketing, engineering, AI, digital transformation, sustainability, entrepreneurship, maritime, food and agriculture, and technology venturing. The impacts of OpenInnoTrain include:
1) Enhanced career prospects for staff members.
2) Secondees’ testimonials, featured in the OpenInnoTrain book (Mention & Menichinelli, 2021) and video testimonials (2024), shared via social media, highlighted the value of secondments and how they unlocked new career opportunities. Of the secondees, 45% were female ESRs, often underrepresented in career advancement. OpenInnoTrain facilitated specific roles like a PhD funded by Croatian public bodies via UniZAG’s involvement. The project fostered long-term research collaborations, knowledge transfer, and boosted research and innovation at European and global levels. These mechanisms, including MoUs, co-tutelles, and industrial PhD programs, which contribute to the network’s sustainability beyond EC funding. Co-tutelle agreements, in particular, provide PhD candidates with global experience and dual degrees.
3) OpenInnoTrain accelerated behavioural change in research translation and commercialisation to better respond to crises and societal challenges. This was achieved by: 1) developing lasting structural collaboration between industry clusters and research experts via industrial PhDs and co-tutelle agreements; 2) creating networking opportunities through structured and exploratory spaces; 3) equipping researchers to engage meaningfully with industry throughout R&D&I; 4) fostering experimentation and rapid testing through cross-disciplinary design thinking; and 5) formulating cross-industry challenges and future-oriented needs using foresight techniques with global industry experts.
OpenInnoTrain will continue to impact the European and international research and innovation community through its established networks and legacy initiatives.
1) Enhanced career prospects for staff members.
2) Secondees’ testimonials, featured in the OpenInnoTrain book (Mention & Menichinelli, 2021) and video testimonials (2024), shared via social media, highlighted the value of secondments and how they unlocked new career opportunities. Of the secondees, 45% were female ESRs, often underrepresented in career advancement. OpenInnoTrain facilitated specific roles like a PhD funded by Croatian public bodies via UniZAG’s involvement. The project fostered long-term research collaborations, knowledge transfer, and boosted research and innovation at European and global levels. These mechanisms, including MoUs, co-tutelles, and industrial PhD programs, which contribute to the network’s sustainability beyond EC funding. Co-tutelle agreements, in particular, provide PhD candidates with global experience and dual degrees.
3) OpenInnoTrain accelerated behavioural change in research translation and commercialisation to better respond to crises and societal challenges. This was achieved by: 1) developing lasting structural collaboration between industry clusters and research experts via industrial PhDs and co-tutelle agreements; 2) creating networking opportunities through structured and exploratory spaces; 3) equipping researchers to engage meaningfully with industry throughout R&D&I; 4) fostering experimentation and rapid testing through cross-disciplinary design thinking; and 5) formulating cross-industry challenges and future-oriented needs using foresight techniques with global industry experts.
OpenInnoTrain will continue to impact the European and international research and innovation community through its established networks and legacy initiatives.