This research focuses on designing a new and effective approach to collective innovation, aimed at accelerating the transition to biobased design and materials. At its core, this project operationalizes the concept of mission-driven innovation, offering a practical approach to organizing innovation processes that prioritize common good over purely commercial objectives. This is our working definition:
“Collective innovation refers to the introduction of new products, processes, organizational forms and ways of working through active participation by as many stakeholders (stakeholders) as possible within a community (community of practice) with the aim of achieving a particular improvement for the community and where all proceeds benefit that community.”
Research Focus
In collaboration with our partners, we explore established innovation frameworks such as open innovation, social innovation, co-creation, ecosystem innovation, and consortium innovation. While these frameworks offer valuable insights, we argue that none fully aligns with the mission-driven, common-good orientation essential to collective innovation. Our research seeks to bridge this gap by developing a new model that integrates inclusivity and collective ownership.
Methodology
The project’s methodology includes conducting four Participatory Impact Pathways Analysis (PIPA) workshops with key stakeholders to test and refine the collective innovation prototype. These workshops are designed to ensure that the innovation process is inclusive and collaborative, enhancing the chances of success for biobased innovations. The prototype serves as a practical tool to assess and optimize the conditions for collective innovation, ensuring that it is scalable and adaptable across various biobased projects.
Impact
We believe that the creative sector plays a pivotal role in developing innovations that contribute to a biobased, circular, and sustainable economy. However, it is increasingly clear that relying solely on a commercial, market-based approach is insufficient for realizing a mission-driven economy. This project, therefore, seeks to stimulate and accelerate the biobased transition by proposing more inclusive and participative forms of organizing innovation.
The impact of this project will be measured by its success in developing a workable prototype for collective innovation. As a next step, we intend to develop this prototype into a comprehensive toolkit that can be practically applied across a range of biobased initiatives.
Research lead: CARADT
Researchers: Sebastian Olma (CARADT, Cultural and Creative Industries), Kaj Morel (BWNO, Unthinkable Marketing
), Myron Koster (MNEXT, Biobased Construction)
Project Management: Rikst Westra
Research Partners: SPARK Innovation Campus (Den Bosch), Biobased Creations (Amsterdam), Dutch Design Foundation
Funding: ClickNL
Ongoing project (January 2024 until May 2025)
‘Our research group investigates the role artists, designers and cultural producers in general can play in developing the aesthetics and poetics of a desirable future.’
Sebastian Olma is professor Cultural and Creative Industries. He works for the Expertise Centre Art, Design and Technology.
The research group Cultural and Creative Industries investigates the role of artists and designers as creative innovators and drivers of social and economic change. Affiliated researchers analyse the cultural and creative industries from a critical point of view and examine the conditions under which timely forms of aesthetic expression and social connectedness can actually take place within the precarious reality of this field. What economic models are required by artists and designers to create a meaningful practice within the aesthetic, social, and economic intentions of the cultural and creative industries? What skills sets are required for those artists and designers who don’t just want to follow movements, but actually shape novel social and economic models of the future?
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