New model to highlight joint work
In spring 2023, Emily Wise and Charlotte Lorentz presented Hjorth, Future by Lund and Lund University, a publication on The LIEPT model (LIEPT stands for Lund Innovation Ecosystem Portfolio Tracking). LIEPT is a method for tracking the evolution of portfolios of activities undertaken over time in innovation ecosystems.
- The LIEPT model follows how things change over time and creates visualizations of different aspects of how the ecosystem evolves, says Emily Wise. LIEPT is based on various quantitative metrics (such as project investment and number of actors) but also adds soft values, allowing us to capture dimensions we might not otherwise be able to see. This is also a material that several actors can gather around. In the gap between organizations, it's pretty lonely and your ability to succeed in a make a move may depend on how many you can gather to make the change. Then it is crucial to find a way to talk about what you want to accomplish and it also provides a form of metrics to follow or take home to your own organization to explain the work.
In developing the model, the work of Digital Cities & Citizens The innovation platform Future by Lund was the first example. In this area, Future by Lund Project has led the four projects AS 1 and AS II, LOSC and FLOW. The projects have had more than forty partners and here are good examples of impacts in the form of new projects, innovations, more employees and new business opportunities.
The LIEPT model consists of several different images that, taken together, can provide a broad understanding of an ecosystem. One of them is the layer model that we show here in the image. In the layer model, you can see hard values that show financing and the leverage that financing entails, but also soft values inserted such as initiations, “milestones” and “scaling events”. This diagram is based on the work with Digital Cities & Citizens in the context of Future by Lund.
The layer model is divided into four layers. The first layer (yellow) is the support (or base funding) that comes directly to the innovation platform. The second layer (orange) consists of project funding for projects that Future by Lund either leads or participates in. The third layer (green) is project funding that goes to partners in projects where Future by Lund is not involved. This is called a spinoff project. The fourth layer is the qualitative events in the system that are signs that change is taking place in the direction of the sustainable city. It could be an increase in the number of employees, new investment flows, new infrastructure and an increase in attention.
The basis for the model is taken from our projects, theme follow-ups, written articles on the website, data from companies involved but has also been made possible by Lund University's data mining tool that can collect data on publicly funded projects in Sweden. Behind this tool is Martin Stankovski, who also produced the visualizations made in the model.
- We want to show the benefits of working together, of working cross-sectoral across time and showing how activities and events build on each other, says Emily Wise. Perhaps you do not see a direct output of a coffee shop from the beginning — but seven years later it has perhaps become a company that delivers solutions both in Sweden and internationally. This shows the value of efforts in early open events, but also the profits of an intermediary organization like Future by Lund that might otherwise be forgotten. This provides the basis for our project managers to zoom in and out, to guide others in decision-making processes and to support the processes that we need to spend more time on.
NOTE! We are also looking for more projects that are spinoff projects to the digital projects within Future by Lund. We are happy to describe and display these projects on our website and include them in our calculations. Contact caroline.wendt@futurebylund.se
In our older articles you can see what the work looked like earlier in the process.
Researchers map impact of SOM project
The accompanying researcher captures the effects of Future by Lund
Now the Liept model has been launched