INTEGER

Description:

Focused on challenge-driven promotion of healthy living, INTEGER will bring forward three important innovations for the development of more robust, sustainable, inclusive and integrative EU innovation ecosystems:

1. The INTEGER 4 Helix Collaboratory model to implement the next generation of living labs, the ‘Collaboratories’.
2. A EU Healthy Living Collaboratory, a true network of networks’ community with capacity to work on real social, tech and business-driven projects.
3. A new professional profile, the ‘collaber’ or ‘collaboratory manager’ as a multiplying agent of change of these integrated innovation ecosystems.

The 3 INTEGER reinforcing innovations will push fivefold breakthrough capacities for the integration of social innovation in EU innovation ecosystems:

1. Boost win-win games between business and social-oriented innovations addressing common challenges.
2. Transform co-creation dynamics into disruptive and tangible new products, services, or competencies.
3. Co-design jointly public innovation policies.
4. Develop capacity building of the new generation of socio-digital entrepreneurs and ecosystems’ enablers, the collabers.
5. Devise funding and investment mechanisms for social innovation start-ups and SMEs to develop and scale up game changing innovations.

Collaboratories and collabers aim to embrace economic and social-driven innovation communities across EU. As novel 3 Helix and 4 Helix social-business innovation integration structures, these “labs without walls”, are becoming the common open house of all kinds of innovators and entrepreneurs interested in producing new products and services that come from business or social-oriented innovation. Based on a peer-to-peer approach between business-driven and social-driven innovations, INTEGER seeks to accelerate transformative integration outcomes by creating new win-win games, local mission-driven synergies, ground-breaking coordination of actions, governance, implementation, up taking and exploitation dynamics.

Estimated impact:

– Economic/technological: A working and workable 4 Helix collaboratory model will enhance the European value model of economic competitiveness and social cohesion. Deployment of an actual network of transformative collaboratories will be replicated throughout Europe.
– Societal: 4 Helix stakeholders trained, informed and engaged in 4H collaboratory dynamics acting as multipliers. Increased EU capacity to design and implement new policies and strategies to minimise impact on human health and natural systems’ degradation (prevention and conservation behaviours promoted).
– Scientific: Augmenting the interest of international scientific, economic and political institutions in learning from this new European model on 4 Helix integration (with specific focus on society and the role of social innovation) in innovation ecosystems.

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.