Innovation to Industry : Transferring Knowledge for Smart Ecosystems

Abstract

Increased competitiveness of European industrial small and medium- sized enterprises (SMEs) requires intensive efforts on mainstreaming and embedding digitalisation and Industry 4.0. Related open innovation and co- creation competences as well as new skills update are seldom fully covered in the wider industry innovation ecosystem. In this paper we present an approach which provides added value to industries in general and SMEs in particular in two main action areas: 1) increasing links among universities, innovation platforms and other companies via collaborative spaces for intensified information sharing and concretisation, and 2) creating innovative concepts and prototypes tested and developed in innovation ecosystems within industry sector. Hence, quadruple helix stakeholders jointly can create demonstration environments for transferring knowledge for innovation through hands-on experimentation. The approach we describe offers a set of tools accelerating the deployment and application of innovative processes into industry in order to leverage competitiveness, ameliorate employability and manage innovation.