The second policy booklet (PDF) from the SEE Project was recently published. There will be a total of four policy booklets over the course of the programme.

Design thinking can be a tool for realising social innovation and sustainable development by contributing to long-term behaviour change and integrating the user experience into significantly improved products, processes, services and systems. This Policy Booklet outlines the rationale behind policy intervention in this domain, explores how design can be employed to address social innovation and sustainable development, provides illustrative case studies and proposes policy recommendations. We have applied this framework under four headings: communities, industry, the public sector and policy-making.

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On the 9th November 2009, the SEE project launched its first Policy Booklet on Integrating Design into Regional Innovation Policy (PDF) at the SEE network summit in Copenhagen. SEE is a network of eleven European partners working to lobby our national and regional governments to assimilate design and creativity into public policy. The project is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the INTERREG IVC programme.

The SEE Policy Booklet presents an overview of innovation policy priorities in the SEE partner regions. These priorities were identified from national and regional policy documents and contrasted with the strategic priorities for innovation identified by the European Commission. From this comparative analysis six key issues emerged as common across the policy agendas:

• Innovation in Services
• Public Procurement
• Collaborative Clusters & Networks
• Lead Markets & Eco-innovation
• Intellectual Property Rights
• Broadening the Scope of Innovation

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This past week I attended the first of four thematic workshops as part of the Sharing Experience Europe (SEE) Interreg IVC project. Ireland is one of eleven European partners as well as one of five members of the Policy Recommendation Research Group. After each of the four thematic workshops, a research group partner is responsible for the publication of policy recommendations to be distributed to policy makers and governments. The first will be out in September on “integrating creativity and design into regional innovation policy.”

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Countries that wish to increase their competitive advantage have turned to design as a mechanism to add value to the goods and services that their indigenous companies produce. Recognising that those companies that use design are more successful than those that do not, they invest significant time and effort in promoting and supporting companies to overcome the barriers to its effective use. Their goal is to increase the demand for design.

Increasing demand is only one side of the equation however; it is just as important that there should be a broad and deep supply of designers who can provide services to business to help them add value to their products and services. Without them, an economy can be starved of a key input that helps to differentiate the goods and services it produces.

A range of interrelated issues governs the supply of designers who provide services to business. The role of education is critical, as is the aspiration of the individual and ultimately the market for their services. But there are also a number of other more subtle influences such as the role of the industry support bodies, the nature of continuous professional development and the business empathy of designers themselves.

This report examines the strengths and weaknesses of the sector and makes recommendations about how to build on those strengths in order to stimulate one small but important part of the economy that can create added-value to the economy as a whole. Given the similar barriers faced by the sector in Northern Ireland and Ireland, it makes sense to adopt a cooperative approach to optimise the potential of the sector.

Aidan Gough
DIRECTOR, STRATEGY & POLICY
InterTradeIreland

Download study (PDF, 568k)

Perhaps the first question should be whether “standard” and “innovation” should even be in the same sentence. However, I feel very strongly that there are certain systematic approaches to managing innovation that might not guarantee you’ll end up with a string of guaranteed innovations, but you’ll stand a much better chance of success if you apply some best practice.

Every day we hear calls to innovate our way out of the current crisis, but there is little practical, step-by-step how-to for organisations to apply. It was with great enthusiasm that I participated within a group to help the NSAI draft a National Workshop Agreement on a Guide to Good Practice in Innovation and Product Development Processes. It’s not a perfect document. How could it be after two day-long meetings? It is a start and highlights the need for a practical approach and more practical tools.

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Brendan Gleeson made a presentation at the Institute of Technology Sligo yesterday on Designing Child-Friendly Cities. Not to be confused with the Irish actor, this Brendan is Director of the Urban Research Program at Griffith University in Austraila. At Crayola we never addressed the concept of the child-friendly city, though we certainly agreed with the necessity of “places for wild, unstructured play” in child development.

The talk was introduced as less about “how” and more about “why.” The imperative is pretty clear when you begin to consider how the built environment affects child well-being, particularly within urban areas, where devoid of enlightened planning, gobble up green spaces, as well as market-driven compaction of housing plots. The cult of materialism and individualism has produced wealthier, yet fatter, sicker and less happy kids.

The conversation was dense with the forces that conspire against our most dependent and vulnerable citizens, yet there was enlightened commentary around how child-friendly societies are designed to be more caring and civil to all, and have longer-term outlooks around solutions. We also need to consider the benefits of getting older people together with younger people, as opposed to segregating them into specific spaces.

On Monday 21 January 2008, BEDA President Michael Thomson (UK) and Vice-President, Jan R Stavik (Norway) met with Vice-President of the Commission, Günter Verheugen at his office in the European Commission in Brussels.

At the meeting, Günter Verheugen stressed the European Commission’s full agreement with the positioning of design as a “very crucial element” for European competitiveness. “Europe must maintain its position as the most competitive region in the world as far as design is concerned”, said Vice-President Verheugen.

Three key actions were agreed.

1/ The European Commission will issue a Communication on design to be published during the European Year of Creativity and Innovation in 2009. This policy document will include guidance to EU Member States on national design promotion strategies in addition to other measures to support the growth of Europe’s design industries and to stimulate the wider adoption of design by Europe’s 23 million Small and Medium-sized Enterprises.

2/ The Commission will reinforce its efforts to build up a knowledge base for design activity and design policy in Europe. The European project ADMIRE, supported by the Commission under PRO INNO Europe, is currently conducting a mapping study of design and design management in Europe. This information will be complemented by data from existing tools such as the INNO-Policy Trendchart, the Innobarometer and the European Innovation Scoreboard, which will give design a more prominent place from 2008 onwards.

3/ The Commission will ensure the existence of a permanent body for a dialogue on design policy as a key component of Europe’s innovation policy, within the context of achieving the goals of the Lisbon Strategy for Growth and Jobs.

BEDA President Michael Thomson said, “The measures outlined by Vice-President Verheugen today will permanently raise design’s profile in European innovation policy and will help to grow and strengthen design in Europe”.

via Putting People First

A special programme for so-called user driven innovation is to be launched with funds of EUR 50 million for projects in Denmark.

The Danish government has set off EUR 50 million over the next four years to strengthen innovation in Danish companies and public institutions. This will take place through a special programme for user driven innovation – for which support can only be applied four times annually.

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The American Chamber of Commerce has published a strategic paper on creating an innovation and commercialisation base in Ireland. Entitled “Retuning the Growth Engine“, the paper sets out a blueprint for co-operation between the Irish government, Irish business and the base of US multinationals in this country in order to build an innovation base to underpin Ireland’s future sustainable growth. Last Monday the Irish Times provides a nice editorial from Jim O’ Hara, president of the American Chamber of Commerce Ireland, who believes the time is right for a new type of partnership between “Ireland Inc”, the Government, and the US multinational companies which have together and enjoyed such successful working relationships to date here in Ireland. Retuning the Growth Engine, sets out the American Chamber’s blueprint for this future success.

The aim is to create a “virtuous circle” built on positive action in five key areas: education, research, convergence, commercialisation and fiscal policy.This will not only help us retain the existing base of overseas companies located here but assist in attracting the next wave. US companies here are ready and willing to play their part with Government and all other stakeholders in meeting the challenges which face us and helping to create the conditions which will maintain Ireland’s economic success into the future.

This paper makes for very interesting reading in terms of America’s influence in our past economic success, problems with respect to eroding competitiveness, and how we can strategically position ourselves for future economic progress through sustaining important relationships with existing and new US companies willing to operate out of “Ireland Inc”.