Co-creation and the Future of Innovation in Europe

MCTS researchers are leading the new European H2020 Research Consortium “SCALINGS

Researchers from across Europe gathered in Munich last week to celebrate the official launch of the new EU Horizon20020 Project SCALINGS (short for “Scaling Up Co-creation: Avenues and Limits for Integrating Society in Science and Innovation”). The one-and-a-half-day meeting culminated in a public panel discussion on Thursday evening that brought together leading innovation experts from academia, industry, government, and civil society to discuss the future of innovation in Europe and the opportunities and challenges for including society in science and innovation. The panelists discussed questions such as: How is innovation changing in Europe? Which role will co-creation and open innovation practices play in the future? How does innovation differ across regions, cultures, and technical domains? What does it mean conduct innovation responsibly and collaboratively with many stakeholders?

The Munich meeting marks the kick-off for a 3-year interdisciplinary research effort to study co-creative innovation practices across 10 European countries in robotics and urban energy. Coordinated at Technical University Munich by Prof. Sebastian Pfotenhauer (MCTS & TUM School of Management), the consortium brings together members from the following institutions, including the four EuroTech universities:

• TUM (DE) – Technical University Munich (Coordinator: Prof. Sebastian Pfotenhauer)
• BOKU (AT) – Universität für Bodenkultur Wien
• DTU (DK) – Technical University of Denmark
• EPFL (CH) – École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
• ESADE (ES) – Fundación ESADE
• MINES ParisTech/ARMINES (FR) – École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris / Association pour la Recherche et le Développement des Méthodes et Processus Industriels
• SIX (UK) – Social Innovation Exchange Ltd.
• TU/e (NL) – Eindhoven University of Technology
• UCL (UK) – University College London
• UEW (PL) – Wrocław University of Economics

The SCALINGS project

Scaling Up Co-creation: Avenues and Limits for Integrating Society in Science and Innovation H2020 Project, Science with and for Society Program (SwafS-13-2107)

Co-creation—the practice of bringing together diverse actors in a joint innovation activity to mutual benefit—has emerged as a widely desired key resource in current attempts to enhance innovation. It answers to recent calls for greater responsiveness and responsibility in innovation practice, and broader trends to organize innovation more openly, democratically, and with a view towards concrete local needs and contexts. The European Research Consortium SCALINGS explores the avenues and limits for the wider use of co-creation across Europe. Funded by the European Commission under the Horizon2020 Program with € 4 million over 3 years, SCALINGS will investigate and reflexively shape the implementation of co-creation practices in two technology domains (robotics and urban energy systems). SCALINGS follows a comparative, embedded, and experimental research approach that studies three co-creation instruments (innovation procurement, living labs, and co-creation facilities) across 10 partner countries. SCALINGS aims to strengthen opportunities for “best practice” transfer and a socially robust upscaling of co-creation in Europe, while improving our understanding of how co-creation practices relate to the social, cultural, economic, and institutional environments in which they are implemented. SCALINGS is an interdisciplinary project that brings together social scientists, engineers, policy-makers, and industry partners from all over Europe.

For inquiries, please contact the coordinator Prof. Dr. Sebastian Pfotenhauer (sebastian.pfotenhauer@tum.de).