Meet ekip’s Validators: Empowering Creatives to Shape the Future of Innovation Ecosystems

Insights, knowledge and trendspotting on how the creatives can play a strong role in driving innovation ecosystems.

The integration of CCI into society is not merely an artistic endeavour; it is a smart strategy. That is Paul Hekkert´s belief as a Captain of Science of the Dutch top sector for the Creative Industries. By embracing creativity, doors open to sustainable growth, cultural connections, and positive change, making sure innovation enables transformative change.

“With ekip’s help, creatives can demonstrate their unique role and potential in driving innovation ecosystems. With that relevance and evidence, it becomes more likely that governments and private investors are willing to invest in creative sector players for spurring innovation, for giving it purpose, meaning and direction,” says Paul Hekkert.

ekip´s Engine is now up and running, and the next focus for ekip should be to scale up. Paul Hekkert underlines that it is important that ekip keeps on working on an evidence-based track record that will convince stakeholders in all sectors.

“We need to reach out to an increasing number of representatives from the creative sector, especially in our Policy Labs. And ideally, our policy recommendations and their impact –on creatives and others– should work across application domains.”

Collaboration is key

Across Europe, numerous projects have been funded to support cultural and creative industries and related policies. These initiatives highlight the shared recognition of culture’s vital role in societal and economic development. However, ensuring the long-term impact of initiatives like ekip requires more than innovation—it demands effective communication and a robust exchange of knowledge. Collaboration with peer projects is essential for building a sustainable future.

“Most particularly with those projects that target artistic and cultural activities which capacity/goal of reproductivity and therefore industrialisation is lower,” says Cristina Farinha, an independent expert on policy research and development specialised in culture, heritage and the creative economy.

All cultural and creative sectors face similar challenges and require unified advocacy at the policy level Cristina Farinha emphasises. While individual sub-sectors benefit from their own networks and platforms, a collective voice is essential to address shared issues effectively.

“The promotion of entrepreneurship shall be taken in a larger sense, beyond the development of business skills and the creation of enterprises for profit making. It should include and target all sorts of initiatives and organisations like NGOs and civil society organisations which also have a lot to gain in developing these skills and attitude for the sake of their own sustainability.”

For ekip, it is very important mapping peer projects—a vital first step in understanding the broader landscape. Equally important is the swift finalisation and publication of identified policy areas. By establishing a clear structural focus early on, the project can unlock opportunities for synergy, ensuring these connections are fully leveraged within the project’s timeline. This proactive approach lays the groundwork for meaningful collaboration and long-term impact.

“Besides joint and articulated communication strategies and internal meetings for mutual acknowledgement and coordination, would be interesting to organise a public discussion or any other event where precisely this debate is revisited, involving representatives of all the sub-sectors,”says Cristina Farinha.

Intersections essential

Cultural policy is far more than a bureaucratic framework for facilitating production; it is a profound reflection of a society’s values and identity. While it undeniably serves as a mechanism to enable creative and cultural industries to thrive, its influence extends beyond logistics. That is Toni Attard, the founder and director of Culture Venture based in Malta, strong belief.

“Cultural policy can set the tone at any level of government on the fundamental principles of culture that shape up that society. Here I refer to the fundamental human rights – the right to create and the right to access culture. These are even more important and urgent now within the current political environment we’re living in.”

The intersection of cultural policy and innovation has become essential in today’s world. It’s not just about fostering creativity in cultural production but also about exploring how innovation can support culture in tackling key opportunities and challenges. From harnessing technology and addressing climate change to navigating AI advancements and intellectual property issues, innovation is reshaping the cultural sector. By merging these two areas, we can create solutions that ensure culture not only survives but thrives.

“We need policies that champion and safeguard our cultural rights and policies that include culture as one of the sectors that also bring ideas to market. Ultimately, significant innovative developments in our history have been cultural. Whereas culture in innovation policy can bring creative ideas to market, innovation in cultural policy can bring innovative actions to safeguard the right to create and the right to access culture,” says Toni Attard.

ekip´s strengths

To fully leverage the potential of creatives, innovation ecosystems must embrace a culture that values experimentation and creative freedom. Platforms for collaboration, cross-disciplinary partnerships, and inclusive innovation spaces are essential and ekip has a vital role to play.

“ekip’s strengths are in its partners and the knowledge that the partners are collectively generating, through their actions and through the new ideas that these actions are generating. The most important aspect would of course be the testing of policy actions and the impact such actions will have on the wider creative ecology, “ underlines Toni Attard.

Policies often take time to be implemented, but ekip is pushing for quicker, more direct implementation, making the policy process part of an innovation process and the policy recommendations a tool for innovation. Philippe Kern Founder & Managing Director of International Cultural Policy Designer, see that calling for faster processes is easy, but finding practical ways to achieve this within the EU’s complex legal framework is much harder. The layers of regulations and procedures make it challenging to suggest clear solutions that can speed things up while still following the rules.

“The best is to entrust an intermediary organisation empowered to take decisions on the basis of precise mandates developed and agreed by political authorities. The entity will then be in charge of implementing the strategy decided by the authorities.”

Read more about ekip´s Validators