Research report on cities' innovation work on platforms

The report “Multifaceted innovation work under the leadership of municipal organizations” has been compiled by the platforms' accompanying researchers. It is a typologisation of Vinnova's investment in innovation platforms in six Swedish cities, which has been made as a collaboration between RISO, Local Government Research in Western Sweden, Lund University, Uppsala University and Vinnova. It states:

“Nothing happens in a vacuum, and Vinnova's initiative shows in a good way how much the local context influences the interpretations, priorities and actions of different actors. And because the local context is relatively different in the participating cities, the platforms have also become different.”

The accompanying researchers have written a summary and categorization of what the different innovation platforms are and how have they interpreted the mission to be an innovation platform during the ten years. The report also points out that Lund's innovation platform, Future by Lund, has had a different starting point. “What everyone has in common is that now in the third phase of the venture, with the exception of the platform in Lund, they are run under municipal management.” Future by Lund has had the municipality of Lund as its principal, but has driven innovation in the gap between public activities, academia and the local business community.

“The most interesting thing from my point of view is that Future by Lund is the only one of the six innovation platforms that has maintained the interpretation of the call from the beginning,” says Future by Lund's associate researcher Emily Wise from Lund University. At the time, the idea was that the platforms would be an actor in the interstices of the innovation ecosystem and that the actors in the ecosystem could act externally from the municipality. The other municipalities have more managed innovation work internally and developed innovation capacity in the municipal organization. Future by Lund has acted proactively with external actors and constantly developed this way of working.

Why did Future by Lund choose this path?

“We need a form of work that is capable of making movement and change in an arena where it is not an organisation that decides everything or has its own mandate, but where the players own perhaps 20 to 30 per cent of the issue,” says Peter Kisch, Director of Operations for Future by Lund. That's where the innovation platforms can come in and be a place of negotiation to create societal benefits. Such an arena and a good working method for such collaboration are often lacking today, even though we are increasingly in need of working together to solve challenges. This has been Future by Lund's focus.

Are you curious about the results of the different innovation platforms? Here you will find the full report!