Research Institutes - successful Innovation Motor

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‘Investing in research and innovation is investing in Europe’s future. It helps us to compete globally and preserve our unique social model. It improves the daily lives of millions of people here in Europe and around the world, helping to solve some of our biggest societal challenges.’ – Leading innovation through research as envisioned by European Union (https://european-union.europa.eu/priorities-and-actions/actions-topic/research-and-innovation_en).

Innovation and its importance

Innovation is a buzz word used these days very often and perhaps not taken so seriously when it comes to implementation. In the context of research institutes, Innovation happens only when something new is created, which is useful for the society and is utilized by the society. Creating something new can take years of research as the building blocks of knowledge are created slowly. Some intelligent person/s who not only have a broad understanding of the subject matter but also have some understanding of the user groups, need to identify the uniqueness of the knowledge created that can help create a new product/process/service which will be useful for the society and that the society will be willing to utilize the new product to its benefit. Innovation is defined by Stanford Research Institute (SRI) as anything (product/process/services etc.) which is new, useful, and utilized (Fig 1). This In turn means that any new creation must be useful and must be utilized to create an innovation.

Research institutes are often very much focused on expanding their knowledge boundaries rather than creating innovation. To create something new which can be useful, one must:

·???????? Understand the needs of the users.

·???????? Not be afraid to test the creation with the user groups and accept the feedback to improve upon the creation.? This can be a good learning process.

·???????? Invest both time and money to undertake such an endeavor of connecting with the user base for understanding their needs.

This in turn means that Innovation must be one important agenda for any research institute that has any plan/ambition to become a motor for innovation. Gone are the days when technological development took years and then one could protect the IPR using patents etc. for several years to come. With the availability of tools like internet, machine learning, AI and openly published state funded research papers/reports, intelligent people can easily get access to new knowledge across the world, can easily collaborate with partners all over the world to create Innovation.? Innovation in all fields, especially in the fields where anything new can be created with powerful tools like AI/machine learning etc. will pick up speed and will be created at a much faster pace than we can even think of. Machine learning is already being utilized for several useful applications e.g., identifying breast cancer, autonomous vehicles, reading huge legal documents etc. At the same time technology will also become obsolete at a fast pace as compared to 50 years back!

Sustainable innovation

By the word ‘sustainable innovation’ the author means environmentally sustainable innovation. If we consider the whole world as a marketplace and the society consists of the animal kingdom thriving in the environment offered by the nature, we must recognize that we have very limited resources in terms of both natural resources and living resources. We must understand that we live in a delicate ecosystem, and any thoughtless exploitation of resources will eventually deplete the resource and create imbalance in nature, which may eventually lead to disastrous consequences. The Sustainable Development Goals [5] created by the United Nations urges all countries around the world to make meaningful improvements, even if it is small, for the everyday lives of their citizens without harming the environment and maintaining the ecological balance. In 1987, the United Nations Brundtland Commission?defined (https://www.un.org/en/academic-impact/sustainability) sustainability as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Sustainability can be achieved by creating a balance between environmental health, social equity, and economic vitality.

Thus, we can conclude that sustainable innovation must satisfy the needs of society taking due consideration of the environment, economy, and the stakeholders at the same time (Fig. 2). Such innovation will always take a holistic approach in creating anything new for the current generation without compromising the wellbeing of the future generations. In such a case one must think about long term effects and prioritize sustainability over short-term profit goals.

Since research institutes (basic research) are in principle focused on creating knowledge for betterment of society and environment, they are very well placed in terms of level of knowledge base in the value chain of creating sustainable innovation. Another group of researchers practicing applied research are often engaged in solving problems related to the industries and thereby try to address the customer needs. Normally, the industry has already developed a preliminary business plan before they engaged researchers for solutions to a certain problem. In the process of such applied research activities new knowledge is developed which might also have application in a totally different industry.

However, scientists often lack the competence in understanding ‘Innovation’ as a discipline, which has the capability of connecting knowledge, user requirement and economic viability of any innovation activity. Any innovation, however exotic it might be, will not be successful if it is not utilized by society and no organization can afford to bring an innovation to the market/society if the project is NOT economically viable.?

Hence for a research institute to be able to contribute towards a sustainable society must seriously consider developing a competent and robust Innovation group that can help them in achieving innovation. There is a growing acknowledgement in many European countries that by enabling the research institutes to take responsibility of generating innovation based on their research work is perhaps the most efficient pathway towards creating a sustainable society. Research cannot be seen in isolation and without any link to society. Most of the European research programs are aimed at developing a sustainable society and it is expected that research results will help in creating innovative solutions for achieving a sustainable society soon. ?A linkage between research – innovation - society is depicted in Fig 3. Developing robust Innovation activities will also help create an enhanced awareness among the scientists about the importance of innovation in creating a sustainable society.

Marketplace: Red Ocean - Blue Ocean analogy

Research institutes are not usually familiar with the concept of ‘red ocean’ and ‘blue ocean’. The term ‘red ocean’ is used for a marketplace where there is severe competition among the competitors to gain a market share and profit. Cut-throat competition leads to a bloody marketplace, coined as ‘red ocean’, where competitors fight for survival all the time and often at the cost of reduced profit over time. ?Subsequently, at a certain stage some competitors become less and less relevant for the customers due to either product quality or product price. This often pushes them out of the marketplace. The concept of ‘red ocean’ and ‘blue ocean’ was first introduced by Prof W. Chan Kim and Prof. Renée Mauborgne, from INSEAD Blue Ocean Strategy Institute, in their book ‘Blue Ocean Strategy—How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant’. The companies/organizations that practice ‘Incremental Innovation’ often operate in the ‘red Ocean’ constantly trying to come up with incremental innovation and thereby keeping the product attractive in the face of competition. ‘Blue ocean’ on the other hand represents a marketplace where no competition exists because of the uniqueness of the product/services. In such an unchallenged marketplace such an organization can dictate the market and carry out business with a good profit margin until a competitor arrives. Any innovation that adds value to the product/services for the customer, which no other competitor can offer and at the same time if the product/services can be offered at reasonably low price, an ocean of opportunity can be found in the unchallenged (Blue Ocean) marketplace.

Most research institutes, while trying to expand knowledge in certain identified fields, often have a need to earn money also from the market by way of selling services in the form of testing, consultancy, course etc. To stay in the market as an attractive service provider, they need to offer services which are unique in nature or can offer added value to a service due to their deep knowledge in a given field at a reasonably attractive cost for the customer. There usually exists a consultancy branch in the private sector who try to offer similar services by employing competent scientists and engineers. While the scientific community is often focused on perfection and 100% correct conclusion, the consultancy branch is focused on offering services at a competitive price and faster delivery to the customer. In order to remain competitive in relation to the consultancy branch the research institutes need to continuously develop value addition to the services as well as developing new services utilizing the top-notch scientific brains and often state-of-the-art equipment available at the institutes.

Innovation – excellent tool for wealth creation

Innovation is a discipline which needs to be practiced and competence needs to be developed like any other discipline. In the case of innovation, it not only demands an overall understanding of the technologies involved, but also the understanding of market and user requirements is crucial for getting any success from any innovation activities. In order to innovate a new product or services, one needs to invest both a significant amount of money & time before the product/services may be ready to be utilized by the market. It is never certain that the innovation process will be successful, as in the process of development one has to find solutions for several unknown challenges/problems. There is always a risk of failure in any innovation project and hence, risk identification and mitigation must be done in a structured manner right from the start to the end of the innovation process. The process is described in detail in the book ‘Fast-Track Innovation and Commercialization: Tools and Techniques’ (https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-30375-3#toc). In order to make any innovation successful, it must be utilized by the target group/s and the possible revenue generation estimate should be a reasonable number in order to justify the investment necessary to create the innovation.

As can be seen, to make an attempt to create innovation, we need: -

1.?????? Idea - At least a concept to develop into a new product/service.

2.?????? Target group/s - A target group/s who would like to use the product when developed.

3.?????? Market size/commercial potential - An idea of a possible market size and potential of revenue generation

4.?????? User requirements - A clear understanding of the user’s needs that will be fulfilled by the new product.

5.?????? Fund access - Access to sufficient funding for developing the product/services and commercializing

6.?????? Trained innovators - A dedicated group of people trained in system development process in a structured manner.

Intelligent and curious scientists usually have several new ideas, which if allowed to develop further can create innovation. However, access to funds to support such activities related to innovation is usually very limited. In the early stage of ideation, it is difficult to convince the funding agency that there may lie a huge potential for innovation! An investor (government/private) needs to see a business case presented based on a preliminary market assessment/user need assessment, estimated cost of development, estimated cost of production and commercialization. Any investment in Innovation should be accompanied by a realistic goal of return on investment (ROI) both in terms of money and time scale.

Promoting spin-offs

In this age of globalization, effective knowledge transformation and technology transfer processes are the foundation of creating a knowledge-based society and this in turn will dictate the level of innovativeness and competitiveness of a given country. Hence, creation of a suitable mechanism for knowledge flow between the R&D sector and the business sectors should be a strategic mission primarily for all governments, local authorities as well as the research organizations. An effective process for engaging scientists and businesspeople in the technology transfer process and value creation in the form of spin-offs, will enhance generation of socio-economic benefits, not only to the research organization but also to the entire region/country.

Promoting spin-offs can be a great way to inspire scientists/engineers with potential and desire to become entrepreneurs and thereby creating new industry and job opportunities. Practical application of knowledge in a commercial context can create benefits in the form of new insights that can be fed back into the research process and may even generate new research questions. Through regular interactions with the spin-offs the research institutes can acquire insights into the performance of the developed technologies/solutions under real-life conditions outside the laboratory. The practical application may show, for example, under what conditions they fail, and this provides important feedback for tuning the scientific models behind the technologies and in some cases can provide new research opportunities. At the same time the researchers also get the opportunity to learn about the importance of different actors, their interests, and institutions in relation to a particular concept or technology.

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Conclusion - It can be concluded that there exists a huge opportunity for creating a wealth of knowledge and new industry as well as new employment by promoting innovation and spin-offs at the research institutes, irrespective of its geographical location.

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