STI Parks as orchestrators of innovation ecosystems
How do innovation hubs create value under very different conditions? The UNCTAD work brings together practical experience of science parks with international advisory work, policy and capacity development.
Innovation hubs in different contexts
Jakob participates in UNCTAD's international expert network for Science, Technology and Innovation Parks, or STI Parks. The work includes expert exchange, policy development and advisory work, drawing on experience from developing countries and economies in transition.
It builds on practical work with science parks, incubators, clusters and entrepreneurship. Experience from these settings meets new conditions and different ways of organising innovation systems.
From physical space to a function in the system
An innovation hub needs to be understood through the function it performs. Buildings and infrastructure can matter, but value also depends on how researchers, entrepreneurs, businesses, public sector actors and capital find one another.
Orchestration means helping these connections develop: coordinating support, building relationships and helping actors mobilise resources around shared opportunities.
The entrepreneur's development journey
An idea needs different forms of support on its journey towards a viable business. Expertise, capital, test environments, customers and partners need to meet the entrepreneur's needs at the right time.
An STI Park's task therefore extends beyond offering a set of separate services. It can help entrepreneurs find a path through a system that might otherwise feel fragmented.
Context before a ready-made model
Institutions, funding, trust and local implementation capacity shape which approaches are possible. International advisory work needs to start with these conditions.
For ALDAB Innovation, this is a recurring starting point: use experience from elsewhere to ask better questions and develop capacity suited to the local context. General principles become useful when they can be tested in practice.
Working on a challenge that extends beyond a single organisation?
An innovation programme, a project portfolio or an ecosystem ready for its next step. Let's discuss the challenges you face.
jakob@aldab.se