07/Mar/24

More than 100 innovation leaders met in Murcia, Spain, at the event that represented the consolidation of the Impactful Innovation Movement

I Impactful Innovation Conference
Murcia (Spain), Nov. 15-16, 2023

“Impactful Innovation is important because as a funder we need to know that the money we spend investing in innovation actually has the impact that it is intended to”, Anna Pia, Policy Officer and Health Innovations at European Commission.

With just this one sentence, Anna Pia summarizes one of the fundamental pillars on which the Impactful Innovation Movement is based: making the investment in innovation worthwhile.

However, there are many other reasons why it is so important that innovation that has been successfully piloted is adopted. Actually, all attendees agreed on the relevance of adoption also in terms of credibility, motivation, seizing the opportunity and competitiveness.

In other words, the development of innovation that, once successfully piloted, is not adopted, is a waste. Of time, money, resources and opportunity. A huge waste.

So why are there so many cases of successful pilots that do not survive the valley of death? And what can we do about it?

The reasons for this lack of adoption were also discussed at considerable length during the Conference. Including the lack of adoption-oriented governance, the bureaucratic and economic difficulties of certifications, the different mentalities of the decision-makers and the shortcomings of the instruments for innovation, a long list of causes were identified.

But not only that, working hand-in-hand with leading personalities in the sector, a host of solutions were also proposed, ranging from more engagement of the ecosystem members, more visibility to the message that adoption matters and changes in mindset and leadership to new or reformulated instruments for procurement.

Two days of intense work and insightful results

During the first day, the Conference focused on sharing inspiring stories, both of success and learning, and also on analyzing tools to explore new approaches to innovation financing, address barriers and move policies forward.

During the second day, different themes related to Impactful Innovation were discussed. Conversations took place in a very immersive way, with 12 “hands on tables” sessions occurring simultaneously.

Moderated by various well-known innovation professionals, several topics were dealt with in depth at the working tables. Some examples are strategies and instruments to help projects through the final stages of maturity, lessons learnt when implementing innovation procurement and need-driven innovation, the role of innovation ecosystems to achieve effective procurement and adoption, actions to be taken during the co-creation of innovative solutions to facilitate their future adoption by public procurers, how can digital healthcare innovations improve healthcare providers efficiency and patient experience at the same time and challenges and opportunities when regional policymakers meet innovation procurement.

One of the reasons why the working tables, and indeed the entire Conference, were so instructive and insightful is that they included, as mentioned above, representatives from all relevant profiles of the innovation ecosystem.

The Conference was attended by policy makers, instruments and fund managers, as bodies promoting innovation and shaping the process. There were solvers as well, i. e. developers of innovative solutions, like start-ups or deep-tech companies. Some challengers, i. e. organizations with unmet needs that trigger innovation pilots, like hospitals. And supporters, critical members of the ecosystem, like investors or consultancies.

It has been a real pleasure and a very enriching experience to have some of the leading names in the sector, like Anna Pia Papageorgiou, Policy Officer at European Commission, Sonja Muller, Researcher at empirica Gesellschaft fur Kommunikations- und Technologieforschung mbH, Bertrand Wert, Innovation maker and demand side measures expert at European Innovation Council – EISMEA Agency, or Marcin Kautsch, Project Co-ordinator & Consultant at ZOZ Sucha Beskidzka among others, involved in the Conference. Together, we had time to review why innovation is not being always adopted, what are the consequences and what can we do to improve the adoption rate.

And on top of all that, we had time to have fun!