Experience of building innovation hubs
At Norrköping Science Park, visualisation and printed electronics developed into distinct areas of focus. The work involved connecting research, business, entrepreneurship and the public sector around opportunities that required contributions from several actors.
The science park's task therefore extended to what happened between organisations. Research knowledge needed to meet business needs. Entrepreneurs needed access to resources and partnerships. Actors with different mandates needed to see the value of developing something together.
This is one starting point for ALDAB's perspective on orchestration. The ability to develop relationships and create conditions for collective action becomes part of an innovation hub's contribution to the system.
Explore the spaces between
An innovation ecosystem develops through interaction between actors with different roles, resources and motivations. Their scope for action is shaped by interdependencies, institutional conditions and the ways knowledge, capital and legitimacy flow between them. The capacity for innovation emerges through these relationships and changes as actors learn, test new roles and influence each other's room for manoeuvre.
Formal mandates and funding conditions interact with trust, norms and established ways of working. This influences which needs receive attention, which ideas gain support and which actors can participate in development.
To understand these dynamics, we need to explore the spaces between: how actors meet, what prevents collaboration and which resources are hard to access. These spaces reveal both friction and the potential for collective action.
Create the conditions for action
Orchestration means developing the conditions for actors with different mandates and motivations to act together. This can involve translating between perspectives, making interdependencies visible, building trust and establishing a shared direction that leaves room for different contributions.
A science park, incubator or other intermediary can contribute through its connections to several parts of the system. The role rests on relationships, understanding and legitimacy. It also requires sensitivity to power and conflicting interests: whose perspectives are heard, whose are missing, and who can influence the direction?
Start with your own context
The connections that need strengthening vary from one setting to another. An established model from elsewhere can offer inspiration, but needs to be tested against local mandates, resources and needs.
A useful starting point is to follow a specific development journey through the system. Where does it stall? Which relationships are missing? And who can help build them?
A question for reflection
Where in your ecosystem does taking the next step become difficult?