Open innovation is a terminology that describes an innovation process that includes outside sources of knowledge into an organization.
There are two important aspects to open innovation: Firstly, Integrating external knowledge and expertise into an organization. Secondly, sharing knowledge in innovation networks with others.
Common barriers to open innovation processes are a lack of engagement of participantsand the challenge to integrate the results of the open innovation process in the internal structures.
Using open innovation in policy development is becoming of increasing importance, as the involvement of citizen is increasingly valued by public administrations.
Using a lab structure is an approach widely used in EU policy making, with as many as 64 labs identified by a survey in 2016. Instead on using a linear approach to decision making, they employ techniques such as user-centered design, design thinking and data analytics to develop solutions with the user or citizen in mind.Living labs can consist for example of workshops & hackathons with stakeholder participation and research that focuses on citizen and future demands are actions taken in innovation labs.
