maris-futurreg exploring regional innovation futures maris-futurreg exploring regional innovation...

MARIS-FUTURREG Exploring Regional Innovation Futures

MARIS-FUTURREG Exploring Regional Innovation Futures

Scanning Science Popularisation Futures Bighi, 24 October 2007

FUTURREG Malta Exploring Regional Innovation Futures

Policy Insights and Experiences

Jennifer Cassingena Harper

An Inter-regional Collaborative Futures Project

● An Interreg 3C Project focused on Futures for Regional Development (http://www.futurreg.net/). 

● Designed to have significant long-term impacts for regional development policies by ensuring that ongoing or new strategic policy development processes are informed by high-quality futures tools and participatory processes.

● A Futures Toolkit, providing a handy guide on vision development, horizon scanning and other foresight approaches, has been developed by the partners and is available from the project website. The project partners have also worked on identifying and implementing two local pilot applications of the toolkit.

Embedding Futures Approaches

in Strategy Development

In Malta the two regional applications were identified as relevant ongoing local strategy development projects, namely:

● The Malta Regional Innovation Strategy (MARIS) in collaboration with Malta Enterprise

● Higher and Further Education in collaboration with the National Higher Education Commission

Higher Education Regional Application

Main aims:● To promote more long-term futures and evidence-based

approaches to governance, strategies, and policy development in the higher and further education in Malta.

● To support institutions in the higher and further education sector in using futures approaches and foresight tools in developing their strategies.

● To ensure that students play a more proactive role in the higher and further education strategy process through enhanced awareness and use of futures approaches.

● To create a shared understanding of emerging trends and drivers of science-society and science popularisation futures

● To share inter-regional experiences on futures methods and approaches for tackling future and emerging science-society challenges, namely gender, privatisation, lifelong learning,

● To define a framework for future-oriented higher and further education and science popularisation strategies using futures approaches

Higher Education Regional Application Activities

● A kick-off event for key stakeholders in the further and higher education sector, in particular those responsible for strategic policy development within further or higher education institutions.

● This futures training and scenarios development workshop was aimed at the development of futures skills in policy. The event was well-attended by Heads of institutions, deputy heads, members of governing bodies, and members of the NCHE and secretariat. Overseas trainers guided participants through a process of identifying key drivers, horizon scanning and scenarios developments. The activity provided a unique opportunity for participants to interact and share experiences as an excellent start towards developing a structured dialogue on a F&HE strategy for Malta.

● Follow-up activities are now planned in Gozo with the Ministry and education bodies, the Malta College for Arts, Science and Technology (MCAST) and the student bodies.

MARIS Regional ApplicationKey Aims:● 1. to ensure a dovetailing of the Maris Project (a

bottom-up approach based on industry potential and actual needs) with the National R&I Plan 2007-2010 (a top-down approach based on ensuring R&I critical mass by addressing broader Euro-Med opportunities).

● 2. to network with other strategic players currently involved in projects with innovation policy implications, e.g. FOI and University (METIC project).

● 3. to identify gaps in our current innovation policy measures (ongoing and planned) through benchmarking with other EU and Med countries.

● 4. to obtain insights and expertise from those running such measures abroad.

● 5. to convene 2 workshops bringing together senior policy-makers in R&I on Malta’s Innovation Policy and Strategy.

● 6. to develop a draft innovation strategy outlining appropriate measures the new R&I Plan

The Process

● Consultations with MARIS Project Team● Futures Upskilling Workshop, Liege Nov06● Kick-off event with stakeholders in January 07 ● 2nd Workshop in March 07 to identify gaps in

innovation measures and related know-how and the focus of follow-up workshops

● Success Scenarios Workshop May 07 to explore Creative Measures for Innovative Futures – Scenarios Report

● Breakfast meeting with major industry players

Foresight Tools

● Horizon scanning to identify and map key drivers of innovation – global, regional and local.

● Scenarios as plausible and coherent pictures of the future - NOT to predict the future, but rather to expand the ‘possibility space’ on how the future might unfold.

● RICO – Resources, Incentives, Capabilities and Opportunities

● Success Scenario for envisioning the future

Why a success scenario?

● Create a vision of success to set a stretch target for all stakeholders

● Those who take part in a position to influence the policy/strategy outcomes

● Building an advocacy coalition● Actions steps are a key outcome● Key is the talent, imagination and influence of the

participants!

Success Scenario Workshop: Aims

● to define a broad framework for a future-oriented national innovation policy ● to create an enhanced and shared understanding of the drivers of innovation the future (by identifying key deficiencies of firms in Malta in their ability to respond to these drivers, it would be possible to design policy measures which would address those deficiencies in the most effective way). ● to explore success scenarios and designing new measures tailored to the specific needs of three types of Malta-based company (start-ups, SMEs and large firms)

The inputs● The key input is the knowledge (tacit and codified)

held by the workshop participants● Previous work on innovation policy in Malta● Main written inputs will be drivers,

barriers/inhibitors and policy framework ● Drivers (of change) are the key forces which,

according to the direction they take, will influence the future of the object of our scenario

● Barriers and inhibitors are aspects of firms or their environment whose presence or absence prevents firms from fulfilling their innovative potential

The Workshop Process

● The workshop was attended by 45 experts, drawn primarily from the private sector and government but involving also academia. In the plenary warm-up session, the key drivers of innovation were presented and discussed in order to identify immediate gaps from a local business perspective.

● Participants were then divided into three Working Groups, representing the needs and interests of three main types of firms. Workshop participants felt that innovation policies could best be distinguished by considering the needs of three types of firm: start-ups, SMEs and large firms.

Drivers of Change in Innovation

Mapping drivers

Breakout groups review/ amend drivers andadd any essential missing ones

Success scenario for National Portfolio of Innovation Policy Measures

Success Scenario Process Outline

RICO Framework Inhibitors

Breakout groups identify key deficiencies

Current policy measures Mapping deficiencies

Breakout groups design new measures

The Process

The working groups discussed the key drivers and identified those which are most relevant to their future development strategies and visions. The working groups focused on the following questions:

● Which drivers are currently influencing innovation in your sector?

● Which drivers are likely to influence innovation in your sector in the next five years? ten years?

● What are the likely future trends in innovation in your sector? In your products? Services? Processes?

● Are any innovation drivers or trends missing?

The working groups discussed the key drivers and identified those which are most relevant to their future development strategies and visions. The working groups focused on the following questions:

● Which drivers are currently influencing innovation in your sector?

● Which drivers are likely to influence innovation in your sector in the next five years? ten years?

● What are the likely future trends in innovation in your sector? In your products? Services? Processes?

● Are any innovation drivers or trends missing?

The Process● The plenary session focused on defining the impact of

drivers of innovation on each of these types of firms. Participants were then asked to map the drivers according to their level of importance. The working groups then focused on identifying the main deficiencies to innovation based on a framework which separated needs for Resources, Incentives, Capabilities and Opportunities (RICO).

● Participants were then asked to map the drivers according to their level of importance. A similar map was produced from a discussion of deficiencies (drawing upon an earlier exercise).

MOST IMPORTANT

Liberalisation

Relocation

Global Market

Eurozone

Malta 2015Environment

Security

Infectious diseases

Food safetyAgeing

Customer expectations

ICT convergence

ICT application

Competitors

Infrastructure

Networking

Energy

Social needs

New technologies

Economic sustainability

Eliminate waste

Growth

financeEducation

Health

Knowledge transfer

SurvivalDemand

Mapping Drivers

Repeated for deficiencies in system

Repeated for deficiencies in system

Success Scenario for MaltaChange of culture: Culture of change

● Political vision on innovation, targeting branding of InnovativeMalta and the provision of innovative solutions for societal needs spearheaded.

Implemented through a National Innovation Platform and a Strategy for capitalising on small country advantage and geostrategic position coupled with the diffusion of a culture favourable to innovation and risk-taking, a 'can do' culture

● Ecosystem of well-networked organisations engaged in mutual learning for self-sustaining growth through the nurturing of constant adaptation and learning processes

Supported through a state-of-the-art support infrastructure and an accessible national knowledge platform to provide the springboard for innovation.

● Firms well-networked to customers at home and abroad and attuned to market intelligence and scanning and enjoying enhanced In-house innovation management capabilities

Series of detailed policy measures targeted to each of the three firm types also produced.