Strategic Open Innovation for Research Centres
Research centres in Europe are increasingly required to embed their R&D activities in application-oriented and market-oriented R&D strategies. This requirement is perhaps inspired by experiences of such centres being less than successful when it comes to licensing out their patented results or attracting means of funding their activities other than government funding. Pushed by government budget cuts of the recent crisis and an increasingly competitive market, they need to re-evaluate their innovation strategies and move towards more market-oriented approaches in order to survive and prosper.
Considering this rising demand, B&W has developed a holistic approach for developing and structuring successful market-oriented strategies of research centres, based on the Open Innovation paradigm
Innovation must start in the same place where every strategy begins: in the core values and strategies of the organisation. “Knowing thyself” in terms of mission, vision, strengths and weaknesses, sets the base. From the outside, an open innovation paradigm warmly encourages a change from the traditional closed “science for science” way of thinking to a more open and collaborative model that would bring innovations to the market faster and more successfully. Knowing what the research centre does best, understanding its ecosystem and defining an inspiring vision on what it wants to become would then enable it to shape its internal functions and processes in order to get there.
All the points from the inside to the outside are interlinked and have to be well aligned in order to function smoothly towards a successful strategy. The benefits of achieving this may include reduced time for bringing research to the market, increased income from patent licensing, spin-offs or industry projects, and of course also the development of scientific and technological excellence.
This Strategic Open Innovation approach was part of the contributions of B&W CEO Laszlo Bax and consultant Harilaos Vasiliadis to the “Guidelines for Nanotechnology and Microtechnology Research and Technology Centres for Improvement of Market-Oriented Strategies”, recently published by the EU project nano4m. The Guidelines seek to offer guidance to nano / microtech research centres in self-evaluation and improvement of their science-to-market approaches.
If you would like more information about how Bax & Willems can help improve your research centre’s innovation strategy please contact Harilaos Vasiliadis at h.vasiliadis@bwcv.es .
