Getting Back on the Road after our Summer Lethargy :)

So.... summer vacation is probably over for most of us (or nearing its end) and time to get back on the road (even if it may seem a little difficult after our breaks) - hope you had some great times and have good stories to tell!

Over the past month or so Nuno, Filipa, Lynne and myself have submitted a short paper titled "A Framework for Accelerating Innovation through Innovation Webs" for the Conference on Automation Innovation in Construction (CIAC) 2019 Conference (https://sites.ipleiria.pt/ciac/en/) on November 7th and November 8th. There have also been various discussions on offering Master students thesis topics building on this. We will share the paper as soon as possible. There is also some work being done to support an industry panel session at the ONLINE 7th CIRP Global Web Conference focused on "Towards Shifted Production Value Stream Patterns (http://www.cirpe2019.com/) on October 16th-October 18th (do join!). There is also ongoing work with Raimonda on the Stage-play “Journey of Innovation” work-package - early stages yet and we will update you as soon as possible. There are also some first discussions around a network event in Kaiserslautern towards the end of January everyone will be invited to attend (unfortunately at their own cost for the moment).

With the COST proposal almost ready to submit at the end of the month (and then having to wait until April 2020 to learn whether we have been successful or not) we have now pulled together the key work-packages that are relevant for the next proposal (looking at an ERASMUS+ Knowledge Alliance call that should open in October I believe).

Please take a close look at the high level descriptions of the work-packages and reflect on which specific ones you might be interested in leading as part of the overall effort. We will be putting a first coordination call in around the middle of September. The first work-package will be necessary to complete as part of the proposal itself and will hence be the focus of attention for the moment.

1. Journal Paper & Proposal Element - Gap / Needs Analysis: Conduct a literature review of public and private mechanisms supporting innovations through the diffusion of innovation curve under consideration of the Gartner hype cycle framework and with a focus on advanced high value manufacturing products. Identify where / when each mechanism is applicable and how the different mechanisms are connected / interdependent. Identify differences in local, regional, national and European level frameworks and policies. Create a value network based on the results and conduct a relevant analysis and gap evaluation. Validate finding through a semi-structured interviews with relevant participants from public and private organisations. Submit results to an international peer reviewed journal in the top 10% of journals in that space. Structure, format and length will be based on the submission requirements of target journals selected.

2. Journal Paper - Success Stories: Create 16 individual case studies describing the diffusion of historically significant HVM innovations from an innovation web perspective. Place special emphasis on identifying game-changing exchanges. Describe results using the innovation web evolution stage archetypes and revise those as necessary- Submit results to an international peer reviewed journal in the top 10% of journals in that space. Structure, format and length will be based on the submission requirements of target journals selected.

3. Journal Paper - Analysis of Variables affecting the Speed of Innovation: Complete a review of innovation management processes in research and practice, align these with the generic diffusion of innovation process, identify the variables influencing the speed with which ideas travel through the diffusion process and create a high level dependency model for these variables. Use semi-structured interviews with industry organizations in the high value manufacturing sector to verify the logic of the dependency model. This work builds on the related CIAC 2019 conference contribution “A Framework for Accelerating Innovation through Innovation Webs”. Submit results to an international peer reviewed journal in the top 10% of journals in that space. Structure, format and length will be based on the submission requirements of target journals selected.

4. Marketing and Dissemination: Create a concept for the marketing and dissemination of work-package offerings suited for participants and sponsors.

5. Stage-play “Journey of Innovation”: Create a concept translating the Debra Amidon “Childs Book” and ENTOV-HVM “Wow Story” into a stage script and then an interactive stage-play (including video version). Submit concept “stand alone” fror other deliverables to funding organization, i.e. German Kulturstiftung des Bundes (next submission date 31 January 2020) ensuring that 20% project funding is solicited separately (perhaps via www.kickstarter.com) .

6. Game “Journey of Innovation”: Based on the stage-play “Journey of Innovation” create the concept for and prototype of a face-to-face gaming experience for groups of players.

7. Education / Training Course: Create a four module educational / training offering suited for delivery at varying levels of intensity (i.e. ½ day, 1 day, 2 day and 4 x 3 day Master certificate level offering) both in face-to-face, online and hybrid settings. The Master certificate level offering should achieve accreditation with multiple universities. Planned modules include: (a) Module 1: Foundations: The Foundation module introduces participants to the paradigm of diffusion of innovation, how this is achieved and the role which innovation webs play to make the diffusion journey transparent. (b) Module 2: Techniques: The technique module focuses on enabling participants to apply a spectrum of approaches for creating a living systems view of the diffusion of innovation, including how to analyse its dynamics, simulate the effect of changes on it, and identify (potential) tipping points affecting its performance. (c) Module 3: Game changers: This module builds on the concept of tipping points in living systems as applied to innovation webs and gives participants the opportunity to explore how these might be nurtured and / or created. Based on the insights generated participants learn to create a business process notation of innovation webs in order to accelerate adoption in enterprises and then calibrate ideas for rapid diffusion. (d) Module 4: Innovation through experimentation: The final module builds on the now created ability of participants to apply living systems, innovation web and diffusion of innovation principles in order to apply them to creating their own innovation project. Structure and format will be based on ASTD best practice recommendations for online education.

8. Innovation Acceleration Program: Create a program for accelerating groups of innovations from ideation through market saturation. The program is intended to work with groups of 20+ individual innovators and coach them in cohorts through a multi-month acceleration experience in conjunction with mini-conferences, living labs, and joint research-industry workshops. Structure and format will be based on similar projects previously delivered by the Entovation network.

9. (Virtual) Mini-Conferences: Create the concept for events aligned to a training school and / or joint research-industry workshop where research results presentations with short papers will be presented by participants of the programme in a (mini-) conference format. Short papers should be published in relevant journals. Structure and format should be aligned with the CIRPe format (i.e. http://www.cirpe2019.com).

10. Living Labs: Create the concept for short term scientific missions of researchers / innovators to industry participants in order to engage in action-research on previously agreed ideas. The default length of the mission is three days and the agenda is customized based on the ideas to be explored and the industry member resources available.

11. Joint Research-Industry Workshops: Create the concept for one day events that bring together the participants in the training courses and the wider public to explore collaboration opportunities. Agenda items could include (a) a local industry keynote speaker from a high value manufacturing organization discussing the role of innovation in their business / industry (b) a world café exploring the influencers of innovation speed in high value manufacturing (c) an introduction to and discussion of the innovation web evolution process and (d) a speed dating session allowing research and industry to share and explore collaboration opportunities.

12. Journal Paper – Business Process Reference Architecture of Innovation Webs: Translate the innovation web archetypes described in the journal paper “Success Stories” into business process notation as a reference-architecture suitable for simulating game-changing exchanges in the diffusion of innovation of high value manufacturing. The reference-architecture will also serve as the process model for the (automated) innovation platform. Place special emphasis on integrating the intangible and game-changing exchanges, including the use of a mathematical model to describe the behaviour business process reference-architecture in connection to the speed variables identified in the journal paper “Analysis of Variables affecting the Speed of Innovation.” Submit results to an international peer reviewed journal in the top 10% of journals in that space. Structure, format and length will be based on the submission requirements of target journals selected.

13. Diffusion Simulator: Create a MS Excel based simulation tool to visualise and simulate the business process reference-architecture under varying scenarios. Design consideration should be given to the use of the simulator to investigate the impact of technologies and relationships to disruptively accelerate the diffusion of innovation process. The simulator will be the primary tool for the creation of the disruptive technology and the disruptive relationship indices.

14. Journal Paper - Disruptive Technology Index: Based upon the reference-architecture of the innovations webs and their business process notation translation, identify technologies suited for significantly reducing the time for diffusion and simulate their impact to identify potential dependencies and make  recommendations for piloting in applied contexts.  Assess and rank simulated technology solutions based on their capability to accelerate the diffusion of ideas. Submit results to an international peer reviewed journal in the top 10% of journals in that space. Structure, format and length will be based on the submission requirements of target journals selected.

15. Journal Paper - Disruptive Relationships Index: Based upon the reference-architecture of the innovations webs and their business process notation translation, identify intangible relationships suited for significantly reducing the time for diffusion and simulate their impact to identify potential dependencies and make  recommendations for piloting in applied contexts.  Assess and rank simulated intangible relationships based on their capability to accelerate the diffusion of ideas. Submit results to an international peer reviewed journal in the top 10% of journals in that space. Structure, format and length will be based on the submission requirements of target journals selected.

16. Journal Paper - Rapid Diffusion Design: Based upon the reference-architecture of the innovations webs and their business process notation identify and simulate the ideal design of an idea for disruptively rapid diffusion. Submit results to an international peer reviewed journal in the top 10% of journals in that space. Structure, format and length will be based on the submission requirements of target journals selected.

17. Journal Paper - Policy Recommendations: Based upon all project findings provide inputs to policy making at local, regional, national and EU levels to accelerate the speed of diffusion of innovation from ideation to market saturation. Submit results to an international peer reviewed journal in the top 10% of journals in that space. Structure, format and length will be based on the submission requirements of target journals selected.

18. Software as a Service “Innovation Automation”: Refine and translate the diffusion simulator into software as a service. 

If you are interested in learning more please visit us at www.innovation-web.eu, our LinkedIn Group at https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8779542/, our blog at https://www.innovation-web.eu/entov-hvm-blog, our Researchgate project page at https://www.researchgate.net/project/Open-European-Network-for-Enterprise-Innovation-in-High-Value-Manufacturing-ENTOV-HVM and our Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2014779865300180/. You can also follow us via Twitter: @owschwabe (#innovationweb) and the LinkedIn Group page https://www.linkedin.com/company/entov.