National Open Innovation Strategy
One of the great strengths of our country is the innovative capability of its people, companies, research institutes and universities. At a time of growing global challenges, this innovative strength is more important than ever. It is a well-known fact that problems cannot be solved with the same mind-set that created them. This is why it is important to find the courage to forge new paths in the search for new solutions and innovation models that can do justice to the developments of our time and in which we collaborate across the boundaries of disciplines, industries and institutions. The Open Innovation Strategy is a key aspect of this approach.
Austria is one of the very first countries in the world to have developed a national Open Innovation Strategy. It was very important to us to promote collaboration between industry, science, public administration and society even while the strategy was being drawn up. In an open participatory process, interested parties from a wide range of areas were therefore given the opportunity to actively shape the national Open Innovation Strategy, both within the framework of a broad-based workshop and in the course of an online consultation.
This open approach served us well, and this strategy paper is the result of the work put in by countless actors from business, science, public administration and many interested members of the general public. They all critically considered ways of creating a culture of open innovation, forming innovation networks, strengthening public involvement in research programmes, and questions of open access, fair compensation models for crowdwork and much more. The result is an extensive catalogue of measures that we see as the beginning of our work and not the end. It is now up to us to bring the strategy to life – a task we will carry out with conviction and dedication. As we do so, we hope we will be able to rely on your enthusiastic support!