ekip project started on

June 1st 2023

ekip partnership develops innovation policies for CCI

The European Commission has granted the ekip partnership 6 million euros to develop innovation policies for the cultural and creative industries. New policies for innovation are needed to provide the ecosystems in these sectors with more tailormade support, faciliating access to funding and incubators. The ekip project started on June 1st 2023.

The challenge is that good support mechanisms for these networks and open ecosystems are lacking. The ekip project, European Cultural and Creative Industries Innovation Policy Platform, aims to change this.

Charlotte Lorentz Hjorth, Lund University

CCI as drivers for economies, change and transformation

The Cultural and Creative Industries (CCI) are important, both in terms of their impact on the economy, but also as drivers for change and transformation. Innovation processes involve experimenting, testing and exploring ideas in a network or ecosystem of many stakeholders.

These ecosystems of large and small companies, institutions, organisations, researchers, and citizens are needed to develop and try new concepts, attract investors, and get new companies and businesses up and running more quickly.

An Engine for an Innovation Policy

The 17 partners of ekip bring specific competences to the innovation policy platform. The process of formulating policies to develop innovation ecosystems for the creative industries is compared to an engine. More than 40 CCI network and organisations across Europe are engaged to start the policy engine by defining and giving the engine data about policy areas. The data is then analysed, prioritised, and further processed and brought to the Policy Lab. In the lab, new formulations are produced, iterated, and tested in partner cities ecosystems. The plan is to run 15 such processes through the policy engine. To make sure that the policies are scaled and implemented, the final step is managed by an Observatory. A model called LIEPT (Lund Innovation Ecosystems Portfolio Tracking), will be implemented to follow the effect of the policies in ecosystems.

New Policies - a Key to the Green Transformation

An example where ekip's innovation policy engine can be used is to facilitate the new directive of digital product passports. As a part of the EU Green Deal, all products in the EU must be traceable and inform how they meet criteria for responsible and sustainable production. Here, the ekip policy engine could suggest how local innovation ecosystems can use policies to support the development of new textiles and clothing that have ID tags with information. This enables circular processes and recycling in new ways, supporting the green transformation in EU.