Project details
Title:
OPen INnovation in public GOvernance for an inclusive society and citizens’ Wellbeing
Acronym:
OPINGOW
Type:
PRIN-PNRR
Start Date:
November 30, 2023
End Date:
November 29, 2025
Principal Investigator:
Univpm Unit Responsible: Massimo Conti [Member of Univpm Unit: Valentina Giannini]
Other Units Involved:
Università degli Studi di Firenze; Università degli Studi di Padova
Keywords:
pre-commercial procurement, innovation procurement, innovation partnership, public crowdsourcing
Description:
The project studies open innovation practices in public administrations and, in particular, the strategic use of pre-commercial procurement, innovation partnership and public crowdsourcing to address citizens’ wellbeing.
These practices help address the complexity of current social challenges, for the solution of which different knowledge and skills need to be combined (Wesseling and Edquist, 2018; Colovic et al., 2022). Involving a strong interaction between public and private actors, open innovation practices can help to: i) support innovation in the public administration and the provision of innovative services to citizens; ii) produce solutions that improve the transparency and accountability of the public administration; iii) improve inclusiveness. As for innovation, the interaction between the various stakeholders can facilitate the articulation of demand from the public administration, so that the new services can meet the actual needs of the society. Moreover, the participation of the end users in the process ensures that these innovations will find a market (Uyarra and Flanagan, 2010). As for transparency and accountability, these practices require the public administration to make explicit what needs it wants to satisfy, and this facilitates monitoring by external stakeholders. Moreover, in the case of public crowdsourcing, the public administration is very often called upon to share data and information openly (Prpic et al., 2015). As for inclusiveness, crowdsourcing is a tool that allows the participation of anyone who feels able to contribute to the projects.
However, despite the recent interest in these practices, it is unclear whether and to what extent the benefits they would provide exist only in theory and, possibly, how they can be reaped by the parties involved. In European countries, concrete examples of innovation procurement – mostly in the field of health – are still few, and the existing literature explores only some of their features. Moreover, no available study adopts a comparative perspective.
Starting from these premises, and focusing on the Italian case, the project aims to understand how to implement open innovation practices that could help public administration adopt a more inclusive and transparent approach to improve citizens wellbeing. We aim to identify for which types of transactions these open practices are superior to traditional ones, and for which socio-economic contexts. To do so, the project will:
– Map pre-commercial procurement, innovation partnerships and public crowdsourcing initiatives carried out by public administrations and define typologies according to their peculiar characteristics;
– Analyse a selection of cases, in order to identify the benefits they produced – also in a comparative perspective -, the problems and obstacles;
– Define a conceptual framework on the benefits of innovation procurement and their evaluation, and outline policy recommendations.
Objectives:
The project will address this gap in the literature. In particular, the research network aims to respond to the following research questions:
1. What is the state-of-the-art of Innovation Procurement and public crowdsourcing in Italy?
2. How these strategies and tools are implemented by the governments, with what kinds of involvement by private actors (including co-creation with citizens), and with what type of outcome?
3. How these practices can contribute to innovate the governance of our cities, inclusion and the wellbeing of the citizens with respect of the more traditional procurement and public-private partnerships?
To reply to this question, the research group will work on the following working packages:
WP1. Project management and coordination
WP2. Review of the literature on the use of open innovation practices in the public sector, and to innovation purchasing strategies in particular;
WP3. Map all the initiatives in Public Crowdsourcing, Pre-commercial procurement, and Innovation Partnerships to understand the state of the art in Italy;
WP4. Study specific initiatives carried out in the field of public crowdsourcing, pre-commercial procurement, and innovation partnerships to:
− understand key critical factors leading the public choices (e.g. the organisational contexts, triggering needs, and objectives of the public organisations);
− understand key critical factors leading the private choices (i.e. the organisational contexts and the objectives of the firms and individuals that are involved in Public Crowdsourcing, Pre-commercial procurement, and Innovation Partnerships);
− analyse the outcomes and compare them with those of the traditional procurement;
− outline best practices and replicable models;
− draw some policy implications and define some criteria for the evaluation of the policies supporting Innovation-related public purchasing;
WP5. Dissemination and exploitation, including the creation an observatory on open innovation in the public sector in Italy.
The research team will collaborate along all working packages. In what follows, for each working package, we will describe in detail the type of research activity planned and the research units that will carry it out, the type of methodology used, the objectives, and the results that the WP will achieve in terms of targets and milestones, as well as the deliverables that will be produced.
Application Contexts:
Within the project we aim to achieve the following direct impact:
1. knowledge improvements:
Given today’s challenges, which are so interconnected and interdependent, governments are called to reshape the service delivery model adopted so far. It means overcoming old structures and modes of thinking and embracing new technologies and ideas to impact the lives of citizens and overall society.
Our project will contribute to the advancement of knowledge and to expand the frontiers of research on the role of open innovation -based procedures along the public sector transformative path towards more inclusive societies. In particular:
– In WP2 we will systematise existing knowledge on public knowledge acquisition strategies and the practices of public crowdsourcing, pre-commercial procurement and innovative partnerships in particular. Furthermore, we will develop a mapping of good practices adopted worldwide.
– In WP3 we will bring new knowledge on open innovation practices currently adopted by public administrations and other related public organizations in Italy, to see how these practices reflect a transition towards more transparent and effective city government.
– In WP4, thanks to case studies, we will explore the benefits and barriers to the adoption of the open innovation practices and tools covered by the project, also from a comparative perspective. Finally, we will derive policy recommendations that can increase the awareness and knowledge of public administrations intending to adopt open innovation practices.
2. Technological innovation and/or industrial applications:
The project does not produce any technological innovation. It contributes to the adoption of technological (e.g., digital platforms) and organizational innovations in public administration.
3. Scientific community reinforcement
The project strengthens the long-standing partnerships that exist between the three units UNIFI, UNIVPM and UNIPD. It involves young researchers in this framework of relationships, seeking to potential and extend the existing collaboration.
4. Level of research internationalisation
The project focuses on Italy, but is part of a framework of research that members of the research units are developing or have developed internationally. In particular, see: Colovic et al. (2022); Caloffi et al (2017).
5. Dissemination and exploitation of the results
The project recognizes the importance to embrace a multi-stakeholder approach, and on sharing partial results with all the parties involved in the research. It does so by combining quantitative and qualitative research methods that, if on the one side are inspired by the literature, on the other side are strongly rooted in the implementation of fieldwork activities. The project is designed to have a social utility, which will take the form of defining policy recommendations that can improve the public administration’s approach to innovation procurement, and, in particular, identify the areas in which the practices and tools related to it are able to perform better than other tools, help the evaluation of projects in this area and the selection of those that can bring the greatest benefit in terms of citizens’ well-being.
An important tool for the dissemination and exploitation of project results, which we implement in WP5, concerns the creation of the Observatory on Innovation Purchasing Strategies. By collecting systematic information on Innovation Procurement and public crowdsourcing in Italy, we will draw a comprehensive map of open innovation practices implemented by the public administration and public organisations controlled by it in Italy. This will become a fundamental tool to disseminate the findings, equip governments and public authorities with constantly updated insights and, therefore, raise visibility among policymakers. The analysis carried out within the observatory shall be further maximized by integrating its key findings into other innovation processes.
Expected Results:
Starting from these premises, and focusing on the Italian case, the project aims to understand how to implement open innovation practices that could help public administration adopt a more inclusive and transparent approach to improve citizens wellbeing. We aim to identify for which types of transactions these open practices are superior to traditional ones, and for which socio-economic contexts. To do so, the project will:
– Map pre-commercial procurement, innovation partnerships and public crowdsourcing initiatives carried out by public administrations and define typologies according to their peculiar characteristics;
– Analyse a selection of cases, in order to identify the benefits they produced – also in a comparative perspective -, the problems and obstacles;
– Define a conceptual framework on the benefits of innovation procurement and their evaluation, and outline policy recommendations.
Achivied Results:
What we have done so far:
a) Map pre-commercial procurement, innovation partnerships and public crowdsourcing initiatives carried out by public administrations and define typologies according to their peculiar characteristics;
b) Analyse a selection of cases, in order to identify the benefits they produced – also in a comparative perspective -, the problems and obstacles (Ongoing).
Publications:
We are working on several working papers related to this project.
Project Web Site
opingow.unifi.it
Events organized for disseminating the project results (e.g., workshops, conference sessions, poster sessions, webinar etc. Indicate possible websites related to these events)
– 19th of January 2024: First Workshop @UniFi
– 20-21st of February 2025: Second Workshop @Unipd