What is Policy? And its importance for CCSI innovation ecosystems’ development.

Within Work Package 3 (WP3), SPECTRA partners are learning from advanced initiative championed by the Creative Business Network (CBN), focusing on Tools, Systems, Methods & Structures for an Amplified Ecosystem.

Specifically, this includes activities to:

• Engage with, and learn from, successful CBN ecosystem & network building practices and model for regional ecosystem development.
• Acquire and exchange new knowledge, skills, methods, tools, systems and structures that can be utilised by moderate and emerging regions to strengthen their respective ecosystems.

On 20th July, CBN’s Rasmus Tscherning and Marjan Nikolovski collaborated with Alexandre Lotito, from Techonopolis Group, to deliver an interactive session on Policy and its importance to ecosystem development, a senior policy expert also helping drive the EKIP Horizon Project (European Cultural and Creative Sectors and Industries Policy Platform). The Technopolis Group is one of Europe’s leading consultancies in science, technology, and innovation policy.

The interactive session was focusing on:

1. Policy: A policy refers to a public intervention in a specific domain where certain challenges, problems, and needs have been identified and must be addressed. This intervention becomes necessary when there is a market failure or where current systems or practices are not sufficiently addressing these challenges. In our context, we will be looking at policies relevant to the CCSI.
2. Ecosystem: An ecosystem, in our context, refers to a community of interdependent heterogenous actors coordinated through a co-alignment structure who collectively deliver an ecosystem-level output. These actors can include organisations engaged in the production, transfer, and exploitation of knowledge, such as universities, public research organisations, companies, public sector and civil society organisations, and intermediaries.

Understanding these two key concepts set the stage for the discussion about how policy influences and shapes innovation ecosystems within the CCSI.

As part of the presentation, participants reflected on and discussed the following points:

1. Greatest Challenges: What are the most significant policy-related challenges you encounter in your sector?
2. Policy Needs: Are there specific needs in your area that could be addressed through policy interventions?
3. Policymaker Relations: How would you describe your relationship with policymakers within your ecosystem?
4. Ecosystem Actors: Who are the primary actors within your innovation ecosystem, and how do they interact?
5. Policy Influence: How have existing policies influenced your activities and the broader ecosystem?

SPECTRA partners benefited greatly from the rich insights provided from this learning session. The recording of the session can be accessed on the Zoom Platform as follows:

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/F8J8k1K0W7szKL6yAeJeSC-Qh4abxcF52jBVHPOY7I917T1gca_1KDv34m8R0i_W.WFge8xnv8Jsyt20r

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