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

WHITE SPACES INNOVATION IN SWEDENscientific and flexible. In the London terrorist attacks in 2005 the fire brigade frequentlyarrived first but hierarchical system „silos‟ meant they could not over-ride ambulanceservice regulations as a consequence of which victims whose lives could have beensaved died. A British firefighter receives fifteen weeks‟ training while in Sweden it istwo years of higher education involving preventative as well as rescue recovery, includingcognitive skills like pattern recognition and so on.Accordingly unified command (UC) systems require parameter-mapping, in developingknowledge of managing „systems of systems‟. A priority is to make system informationtransparent to each Open Arena membership organisation as a basis for developingtechnical solutions together. Therefore, for Training Regions, which is a pedagogicinitiative, methods of learning resilience management among complex systems isa priority. The key Swedish international engineering consultancy Sweco won the contractto design the first phase of the new Chinese eco-city of Caofeidian some 200 kmsoutheast of Beijing (Fig. 3.10). Sweco defines the sustainable city or eco-city as a conceptfor sustainable urban development that can be applied on both a large and smallscale. The idea is based on the use of a holistic approach to reduce emissions from entireurban districts. By planning according to the unique conditions of each site andproposing integrated system solutions for energy, transport, waste, landscape design andother factors, is it possible to create virtually climate-neutral cities. Accordingly, designingfor resilience is evolving as a Sweco niche expertise as it changes its profile from a„silo-supplier‟ of specific construction services to a „platform-supplier‟ of integrated andsustainable services in multi-functional structures like eco-cities.3.2.5 Concluding Remarks on Region Skåne’s InnovationPlatform ModelIn the early parts of this chapter, we outlined an approach to regional economic changeanalysis that paid attention to the following key elements: multi-level relationships ingovernance and corporate structures and relations; resilience as an expression of a region‟scapabilities in absorbing „shocks to the system‟ and returning to the positioncalmed down. The other, more common form of displaying resilience with the supportof regional innovation agencies was to identify „preadaptive‟ innovations that could betransferred from one industry or cluster to a different one. In some European regionslike Bavaria and Lower Austria this is normal whereas in Värmland, in Sweden there ismore of a search across a relatively narrow span of related regional industries for userand design-driven innovation in the „adjacent possible‟. In the key comparative case ofSkåne region, this quest for the „adjacent possible‟ is even more to the forefront across abroader span of industry clusters. In Table 3.2 the commonalities and divergences inthis practice are summarised. It is clear that certain Grand Challenges have imposedshocks on the regional innovation system. These range from Climate Change imposingharsher winters on shared infrastructures in the Öresund region, deindustrialisation with56