The Cultural, Creative and Industries (CCI) are important, both in terms of their impact on the economy but also as drivers for change and transformation. Innovation processes involve experimenting, testing, and exploring ideas in a network or ecosystem of many stakeholders. These ecosystems of large and small companies, institutions, organisations, researchers, and citizens are needed to develop and try new concepts, attract investors, and get new companies and businesses up and running more quickly.

“The challenge is that good support mechanisms for these networks and open ecosystems are lacking. The ekip project, European Cultural and Creative Industries Innovation Policy Platform, aims to change this” says coordinator Charlotte Lorentz Hjorth, Lund University.

An engine for innovation policy
The 17 partners of ekip bring specific competences to the innovation policy platform. The process of formulating policies to develop innovation ecosystems for the creative industries is compared to an engine. More than 40 CCI network and organisations across Europe are engaged to start the policy engine by defining and giving the engine data about policy areas. The data is then analysed, prioritised, and further processed and brought to the Policy Lab. In the lab, new formulations are produced, iterated, and tested in partner cities ecosystems. The plan is to run 15 such processes through the policy engine. To make sure that the policies are scaled and implemented, the final step is managed by an Observatory. A model called LIEPT (Lund Innovation Ecosystems Portfolio Tracking), will be implemented to follow the effect of the policies in ecosystems.

New policies key to green transformation
An example where ekip´s innovation policy engine can be used is to facilitate the new directive of digital product passports. As a part of the EU Green Deal, all products in the EU must be traceable and inform how they meet criteria for responsible and sustainable production. Here, the ekip policy engine could suggest how local innovation ecosystems can use policies to support the development of new textiles and clothing that have ID tags with information. This enables circular processes and recycling in new ways, supporting the green transformation in EU.