The webinar will cover methodological elements and practical applications of knowledge management as part of actions supporting policymakers in system mapping and policy co-design processes. In doing so, this webinar seeks to highlight applications and synergies with monitoring, evaluation and learning activities. The webinar will illustrate the broad context of policy mix and EU Framework, the case of Transitions Hub as a policy lab managing knowledge management processes as well as related examples on system mapping and policy co-design processes. This material is based in the Handbook Challenge-led system mapping, a knowledge management approach.
Challenge-led system mapping Handbook
This handbook crystallises more than 3 years working in more than 40 initiatives implemented in 18 countries. Experts, stakeholders, community, business, and policy makes have joined forces to better understand their systems and explore opportunities for transformative innovation.
The Challenge-led system mapping approach responds to the need to improve the practitioner’s capacity to move towards transformational system change by providing mechanisms by which to work more horizontally with challenge owners and other actors.
The approach highlights knowledge management as a good practice for analysis and communication responds to the increasing need to co-produce actionable knowledge and make it accessible for practitioners through participatory methods.
The visual narrative of the handbook contained in 106 pages with 55 pedagogic figures illustrate the commitment to better understand what we do, to harvest what we learn and to share our insight with the community.
Policy mixes fostering regional capacity in low carbon economy in peripheral European regions
This study provides evidence on the application of a regional policy model through a portfolio of actions to support entrepreneurship and development of professional competences. For doing so, we analyse the capacity building process delivered through the EIT RIS Climate-KIC programme in the context of peripheral European regions. In the context of the EIT RIS those are defined as the ones showing innovation performance below the EU average according to the European Innovation Scoreboard.
Emphasis is put on the alignment of multiple stakeholders with existing regional innovation plans such as Smart Specialisation Strategies (S3) by which policy mixes emerge with the purpose of reinforcing synergies and complementarities between EU, national, regional innovation initiatives while developing and activating large-scale “green” projects. The study addresses then the performance of the peripheral regions to improve the knowledge triangle integration. We argue that a variety of mechanisms for public-private collaboration is required to effectively support technological as well as practice-base innovation.
The case of European peripheral regions is a concrete example of the application of policy mixes by considering a variety of regional settings in terms of industrial history and governance configurations. The empirical study is based on the comparative analysis of the results of a portfolio of activities as well complementary interviews to regional policy officers. Results show that the successful alignment between regional priorities and low-carbon economy projects can be explained by how clear is the understanding of horizontal relations between stakeholders to define the long term direction of regional innovation.
Results has been already presented in the following conferences
- RSA Annual Conference 2017 “the Great Regional Awakening: New Directions“, 4th-7thJune 2017 ,Dublin, Ireland
- 12th CONFERENCE REGIONAL INNOVATION POLICIES (RIP 2017), 26-27 October 2017, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
- European Week of Region and Cities – Master Class 2017
Research Team: Cristian Matti, Julia Panny, Irene Vivas Lalinde and Balnca Juan Agulló
Innovation platforms enabling cross-regional collaboration in low-carbon economy
The interdependent challenges of climate change need innovation in systems of practice and provision, not single innovation in products and processes. In this context, cities face the challenge of dealing with climate risks and impacts, while moving to more sustainable, zero-carbon and resilient pathways. This is a major opportunity for a new, sustainable market to combine existing knowledge and economies of scale that exist within urban environments to produce new systemic solutions. However, there are considerable differences in progress between the leading cities (mostly in Northern/Western Europe) and the one’s lagging behind. Intra-EU disparity claims for the existence of platforms that follow a systemic approach instead of “picking the winner”. The structures which allow for the coordination of a variety of actors by combining individual goals and capacities with shared purposes, norms and expectations, refers to innovation platforms.
This study addresses the role of innovation platforms as catalysers of existing (or new) innovation systems in the field of sustainable urban transitions to explore market opportunities. Empirically, emphasis is put in the analysis of the underlying factors of geographical structural differences and what are the patterns of relations between knowledge spaces and governance configurations. For doing so, we analyse the portfolio of projects and activities of the EIT Climate-KIC. This study aims to contribute to a better understanding on innovation platforms as a mechanism to accelerate innovation in the urban environment that can contribute to enhance collaboration to achieve more equally distributed progress across all Europe.
First results of this study are based in the activities implemented in the EIT RIS programme covering peripheral EU regions. Results has been already presented in the following conferences:
- 4th Geography of Innovation Conference, Barcelona , January 31st– February 2nd, 2018
- UN/WASD International Conference on Public private partnership for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 10-13 April 2018, Geneva
Research project team: Cristian Matti, Irene Vivas Lalinde, Julia Panny and Balnca Juan Agulló
Visual toolbox for system innovation
The Visual toolbox for system innovation” is a booklet-format collection of ready-to-implement tools to structure and manage the challenges and exploit opportunities of sustainability innovations and transitions.
The tools are presented in a simple and visual approach to support practitioners’ everyday work on climate change, transition and system innovation.
Download the Visual toolbox here
| De Vicente Lopez, Javier and Matti, Cristian (2016). Visual toolbox for system innovation. A resource book for practitioners to map, analyse and facilitate sustainability transitions. Transition Hub Series. EIT Climate KIC, Brussels 2016. ISBN 978-2-9601874-1-0 |
The launch event “Opening the development agenda,” the STEPS center – Sustainable Alternatives for Latin America, was held on 5 and 6 November in Buenos Aires. STEPS Latin America is part of a network of universities based China, USA, Kenya, India, the UK and Sweden. STEPS Latin America seeks to renew and open innovation agenda and sustainability of the region, based on the idea that there are different paths to development. During the two-day panel on Open Science, Innovation inclusive, horizontal innovations for sustainability and natural resources and development which will have important guests were made internationally. My participation in this event was to design and facilitation of participatory workshops with the aim of thinking policies to promote open knowledge production and think a new research agenda on innovation and sustainable development for the region.
The workshop Policies to open the generation of knowledge was based in participatory techniques aimed to allow jointly identification of a number of items such as tools, methodologies and priorities related to S & T policy. Brainstorming techniques and World Cafe are used to enhance the diversity of perspectives and facilitate the exchange of ideas between different actors. The outcome of this workshop will be digitized and shared with participants to encourage collaboration in different areas.
The workshop Research agenda for sustainable development was based in participatory techniques for making maps on areas of knowledge and research priorities through a prospective approach. By visualizing a future scenario, the exercise seeks to help participants to relate different elements at different levels and over time in order to facilitate change processes at the system level. The outcome of this workshop will be digitized and shared with participants to encourage collaboration in different areas.
The event was part of the new line of collaboration between Transition Hub – Climate KIC and the STEPs center. Further actions are related with the co-development of learning materials and exploring research opportunities in the area of resilient and smart agricultural systems
See full agenda of the event here & summary of event in STEP website
Network mapping, participatory methods & Urban Socio-Technical systems
Cristian Matti and Fred Steward
Transition cities project
This study provides analytical evidence on new practices to transform the policy agenda in European cities. We carry out a participatory method approach to facilitate a process of mapping socio technical system and enable cities to articulate better their needs and challenges.
We run several rounds of networks analysis based in real projects data gathered in workshops through collaboration between actors and researchers as part of the Transition Cities project funded by the Europe’s Climate-KIC initiative. This exercise illustrates the combination of science and practice in the search of a more coordinated model to signal the market opportunities for co‐creation of low carbon innovative products and services. The preliminary results of this study have been presented in the following academic conference during 2015:
International Sustainability Transitions Conference 2015 – Sustainability Transitions and Wider Transformative Changes: Historical Roots and Future Pathways
University of Sussex, Brighton 24-28 August 2015
Qualitative and Mixed Methods in Research Evaluation and Policy Workshop
Brunel University London, 1-2 October 2015
EU-SPRI Early Career Researcher Conferences (ECC)
IRCRES Rome, 14-16 October 2015
Poster presentation
Transition Cities project of Climate KIC to collaborate in the search of methodologies to facilitate the analysis of opportunities on environmental project from a socio-technical perspective through a co-creative collaboration between actors and researchers (transdisciplinary research).
CRISTIAN MATTI 