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You are here: Home / Archives for Projects Competences / Project Alignment

Towards the smart and circular economy

CEO of Insight Foresight Institute, Totti Könnölä, writes in the Telos Magazine on the role of digitalization in circular economy. Digitalization can significantly reduce emission levels and the polluting impact of human activity on the environment.

Screenshot 2020-04-21 at 17.21.06

The economic model that society has lived up to now is the linear one that follows the sequence: extract – manufacture – use – throw away  and that requires large amounts of cheap and easily accessible energy and other resources, with evident negative environmental consequences. The consumption of these resources is reaching the limit of its physical capacity. Luckily companies are increasingly looking for win-win solutions providing simultaneously greater business competitiveness and a better environmental results.

An alternative that has more and more advocates is the so-called Circular Economy, based on the following three principles:

  • design to reduce waste and pollution;
  • keep equipment and materials in use longer ; and
  • regenerate natural systems.

Applying these three principles involves changing value chains and of business models, which makes it possible to transform the entire economy toward a new paradigm, a more sustainable system.

This concept is capturing interest from both companies and policy makers. In line with the ‘The New European Green Deal’, the European Commission adopts an EU industrial strategy to tackle the double challenge of green and digital transformation. The goal is to harness the potential of digital transformation, which is a key enabler to achieve the goals of the Green Deal. Also in Spain, the Government has elaborated the strategy to promote the transition to the Circular Economy. Including this article results from the debate organized by the Foundation Spain Digital indicating among other initiatives real and growing interest in circular economy.

More information

Download the article in Spanish (free)

Access to the full issue of the Telos including this article.

Task force to address water scarcity in Southern Europe

The CEO of Insight Foresight Institute, Totti Könnölä, participates in the task force of EIT-KICs (Climate-KIC, EIT Food, EIT Manufacturing, EIT RawMaterials). This Body of Knowledge works on finding innovative solutions for water scarcity in Southern Europe.

Water plays a central role in how societies mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change. A holistic approach considering water, the biosphere, and the anthroposphere is required to provide sustainable agricultural and economic systems that will allow us to decelerate climate change, protect us from extreme events and adapt to the unavoidable at the same time.

Main problems to tackle:

  • mitigating water scarcity and drought situations,
  • reducing the over usage of water,
  • wasting less water with the existing resources

In order to have a wide representation of knowledge, representatives from different sectors, including policy, industry, civil society and research and innovation participate in the process to support in the knowledge sharing and through innovation across the South of Europe.

Corporative Innovation in Spain: Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Venturing

Insight Foresight Institute has prepared a research on corporate innovation in Spain in connection with the E2I2 Forum (Education, Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Investment) coordinated by the Royal Academy of Engineering. The project consisted of: i) a study of the literature on intrapreneurship, innovation and corporate entrepreneurship, iii) verification of the data with public material, and iv) the final report.
There are several ways to approach entrepreneurship in corporations in Spain:
1. Do not carry out these activities: 9 companies of those consulted. Fundamentally in the Media sector and in the project oriented companies.
2. Intrapreneurship promotion: 17 companies consulted. Fundamentally based on employee ideas competitions.
3. Encourage external entrepreneurship: 16 companies consulted. Investment in new companies, customer cooperation, external ideas competitions, event sponsorship.
Based on the quantitative indicators consulted, it has been verified that some differences in the concrete dimensions that have been interesting to highlight (Image 1):
• Companies focused on the development and sale of products / services in front of companies focused on client projects (turnkey, tenders, etc …).
• Companies with corporate headquarters in Spain against subsidiaries of foreign companies.

Figure 1. Distribution of companies interviewed according to type of sales and location of corporate headquarters.
The behavior regarding entrepreneurship, ideas management and innovation offers some nuances according to the quadrant that is observed (Image 2).

Figure 2. Positioning of the interviewed companies regarding their activities of ideas management, innovation and entrepreneurship.

Barriers perceived in companies to innovate can be grouped into external barriers, such as: (i) low entrepreneurial culture at country level; (ii) deficiencies in the education system and knowledge generation; (iii) poor public support and regulatory constraints; and (iv) difficulties in the financing of these activities, and internal barriers such as (i) Enterprise culture and vertical structures. Excessive internal bureaucracy; (ii) Financial bias in decision-making. Lack of innovation indicators and iii) Operational problems: Selection of non-entrepreneurial personnel and unchanging processes.
It can be concluded that there is great predisposition to entrepreneurship and innovation but little radical and disruptive innovation. Companies have specific units of high level corporate innovation, but also innovation in vertical units. The importance of ecosystem management is recognized. Intrapreneurship activities are carried out without specific remuneration in most cases. If it occurs, in kind and promotion. There is a broad interest in indicators: i) Process: efficiency and effectiveness of projects, ii) Strategic: most used, iii) Financial: main interest. Limitations by traceability.
To know the concrete results of the study, send us an email: info@if-institute.org

Unleashing Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Europe: People, Places and Policies

IFI co-authored a book that sets out the elements for the design of a streamlined and future-proof policy on innovation and entrepreneurship in Europe. It is the result of a collective effort led by CEPS, which formed a Task Force on Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the EU, composed of authoritative scholars, industry experts, entrepreneurs, practitioners and representatives of EU and international institutions. The result of these deliberations is a set of policy recommendations aimed at improving the overall environment and approach for entrepreneurship and innovation in Europe and a new paradigmatic understanding of the role that innovation and entrepreneurship can and should play within the overall context of EU policy. These recommendations are based on a new, multi-dimensional approach to both innovation and entrepreneurship as social phenomena and to the policies that are meant to promote them.

The Task Force was chaired by José Manuel Leceta, former Chairman and Co-founder of Insight Foresight Institute (IFI), currently DG of Red.es. Andrea Renda, CEPS Senior Research Fellow, Totti Könnölä, Managing Director and Co-founder of Insight Foresight Institute and Felice Simonelli, CEPS Research Fellow, served as rapporteurs.

Link to the free pdf

image©CEPS

 

 

Unleashing innovation and entrepreneurship in Europe: People, places and policies from Totti Könnölä

 

 

Building Regional Foresight Capability in Chile

The co-founder of IFI, Totti Könnölä co-authored the European Foresight Platform brief on the foresight programme, of which overall objective was to enhance innovation-driven sustainable economic development of the Antofagasta region in Chile. The main purposes of the foresight
were to:
  1. improve the foresight capability in the region, especially for the partner organisations,
  2. enhance collaboration between the industry, government and research organisations and
  3. support the creation of a strategic research agenda for the region on a topic chosen by the partner organisations.

Building  Regional  Foresight  Capability in Chile (pdf)

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