New book: Quantitative Methods for Place-Based Innovation Policy_ Measuring the Growth Potential of Regions

Posted at 12 August 2020 in Innovation

Building on the experience of more than one hundred innovation strategies for smart specialisation, this book uncovers insights into their recent implementation by regional and national governments in the European Union. The authors provide new reflections on the conceptual approaches for the identification of innovation priorities, the data required, the methods with which to turn data into useful information, and the mapping of the information available. Although designed to boost the competitiveness of Europe and its regions, chapters analyse why the implementation of this policy model was much more complicated than expected.

New paper: COVID, CITIES and CLIMATE: Historical Precedents and Potential Transitions for the New Economy

Posted at 28 July 2020 in Cities, Innovation, Intelligent Cities / Smart Cities

According to the author, the 2020 collapse of the global economy due to Covid-19 pandemic has enabled us to think about long term trends and what the future could hold for our cities and regions, especially due to the climate agenda. Having as a starting point the current pandemic, this paper sets out the historical precedents for economic transitions after collapses that unleash new technologically based innovation waves. These are shown to be associated with different energy and infrastructure priorities and their transport and resulting urban forms.

New Report: Overview of the use and impact of AI in public services in the EU

Posted at 16 July 2020 in Innovation, Intelligent Cities / Smart Cities, Platforms, Apps, Solutions

The present study is addressing the role of AI in the public sector and providing an overview and analysis of the use and impact of AI in Public Services. The main goal of the authors is to gather information on EU Member States’ initiatives on the use of AI in public services and develop a methodology to identify risks, opportunities, drivers and barriers.

This report is published in the context of AI Watch, the European Commission knowledge service to monitor the development, uptake and impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Europe, launched in December 2018.

New paper: Understanding Civic Crowdfunding as a Mechanism for Leveraging Civic Engagement and Urban Innovation

Posted at 8 July 2020 in Innovation, Intelligent Cities / Smart Cities, Platforms, Apps, Solutions

This paper analyses the dynamics of government initiated civic crowdfunding platforms, with regards to participation inequalities and their defining dimensions. Such platforms are considered by the authors as governmental responses for bottom-up peer-to-peer support mechanisms related to urban innovation, which also allows top-down governance and governmental support systems for civic entrepreneurship.

Sharing cities and citizens sharing: Perceptions and practices in Milan

Posted at 12 May 2020 in Business Models, Innovation, Platforms, Apps, Solutions

Sharing has become a global phenomenon; business models, social innovations and technological developments enable an escalated number of uses for a given asset, resulting in reshaped urban dynamics, practices and morphologies.

This paper is exploring diverse aspects of sharing economy as part of the urban fabric, through participatory activities with citizens and stakeholders. It investigates the co-construction of society and technology with respect to the implementation of sharing-based strategies in urban practices.

Transforming innovation for decarbonisation? Insights from combining complex systems and social practice perspectives

Posted at 8 May 2020 in Collaborative Innovation, Innovation, Innovation Strategies

The transformation of research and policy approaches to innovation for decarbonisation towards a type of social innovation, is promising to open discussions and interrelate with the present reality. This paper starts by challenging the demand-supply dichotomy. Complex systems and social practice theories represent the compelling frameworks whereby to deal with this transformation.

Digital research and innovation: why do platforms prevail?

Posted at 26 April 2020 in Innovation, Innovation ecosystems

In recent days we have seen a series of initiatives to combat the pandemic with data, web platforms for research sharing, and models for simulation and forecasting. But how successful can these efforts be? What digital systems can strengthen and accelerate research and innovation in various fields of science and technology?