White Spaces Innovation in Sweden - Innovation policy for ... - Vinnova

WHITE SPACES INNOVATION IN SWEDEN1 The research project1.1 The research issuesThis report documents a multi-client research project to investigate the subject of InnovationPlatforms as the next phase in the evolution of Regional Innovation Policy.Those development agencies with responsibilities for supporting and promoting innovationat the leading edge have begun to recognise a basic truth about contemporary businessinnovation. This is that fruitful innovation interactions increasingly occur at interfacesbetween diverse firms, sectors, and even clusters. This offers national and regionaldevelopment agencies a new, catalytic role in stimulating regional innovation. Thisoccurs through shaping innovation platforms that can enable cross-fertilisation betweenclusters and tackling complex social innovation challenges like climate change, ageing,and sustainable cities to name a few.The study builds on earlier work on Platform Policy for VINNOVA reported in TheMatrix – Post Cluster Innovation Policy and Regional Policy in Transition (VINNOVAReport VR 2010:10). The most recent evaluation of the VINNVÄXT program has alsobeen of influence in its recommendation for strategic growth through the identificationof needs or markets to target, on the one hand and on the other, to possess the necessarycapabilities to serve those markets in an efficient way.This proposal grows from a perception that traditional sector and cluster policieshave reached a point in their evolution where significant growth or employment gainsare less forthcoming than previously thought likely or experienced. Three reasons helpexplain this. First, economic context is important and in a general downturn of the severityof the present one, conditions for sector or cluster growth are not good. Second,more directly, it is widely known that risk-finance for established and particularly newbusiness ventures has all but dried-up due to cautionary investor practices. Finally, themodel of vertically drilling down in relatively narrow fields, even involving partnershipwith similar overseas initiatives, may need refreshing. Fundamentally, our belief is thatrefreshment and expansion of a relevant development model comes from discovering theinnovative potential of horizontal interactions among different sectors or clusters. Importantly,this commences a new evolutionary policy cycle that begins by focusing oninnovation opportunities in regional and national geographical proximity before scanningthe globe for knowledge advantages.It is clear that this is a new and exciting avenue for national innovation and regionaldevelopment agencies to understand and consider as a possible tool-set in their armouryof developmental instruments. It is not only an issue of adding new tools. Innovationpolicy also increasingly has to be relevant for designing and implementing policy in17