The Creative Industries as a Catalyst in Innovation Districts

Across Europe, a collaborative effort is underway to propose new innovation policies centered around the Cultural and Creative Industries (CCI). These policy recommendations are being developed through a shared process called the “ekip Engine”. After two years of work, cities are beginning to explore how the recommendations can be integrated into their local innovation systems. In May, discussions began on how two mature innovation districts – MIND in Milan and Lund Innovation District – could apply the developments from ekip.

This presents an opportunity to trial future methods of working with innovation, with CCIs as a key component of cross-sectoral innovation and contributors to transformation, for instance within technological fields.
(In this article we use CCI, but consider it largely synonymous with Cultural and Creative Sectors (CCS) and Cultural and Creative Businesses (CCB).

CCIs DRIVING VALUE IN INNOVATION DISTRICTS 

ekip is an innovation policy platform for CCI across Europe, working on behalf of the European Commission. During the Italian Research Day in the World 2025, held in Lund, the role of CCIs in value creation within innovation districts was discussed.

Milan Innovation District (MIND) and Lund Innovation District are two arenas where this can be explored. Both cities – Milan through Politecnico di Milano and Lund through Lund University and Future by Lund – are involved in developing innovation policies for the creative sector within the ekip project. Among those present in Lund were Valentina Auricchio from Politecnico di Milano, Alberto Mina from MIND, and Charlotte Lorentz Hjorth from Lund University.

“Our goal is to integrate the cultural and creative sectors and industries into innovation processes. We do this by identifying new supporting policies. We’ve developed a process – the ekip Engine – in which we bring together a network of partners to develop policy proposals,” said Valentina Auricchio, Politecnico di Milano. “This could help build a stronger support system for innovation within the cultural and creative sectors and industries. Through the policy engine, we aim to implement the same process across multiple industries in Europe so that these policies can be broadly applied within and across sectors for cross-sectoral collaboration.”

Valentina Auricchio, Politecnico di Milano

FUNDING FOR PRODUCTION, NOT FOR INNOVATION

One notable insight from ekip is that the cultural sector often receives funding for production but not for innovation. This has led to the idea of “Innovation by Production”, now a concept for capturing solutions developed during various productions and scaling them into innovations. The ekip policy recommendations address and describe key building blocks required in an ecosystem to enable successful innovation – ranging from financing to infrastructure access and different forms of innovation support.

“We propose that cultural and creative sectors and industries be fundamental drivers of innovation across all sectors,” said Charlotte Lorentz Hjorth, project leader for ekip at Lund University. “We emphasise that innovation must occur through collaboration across disciplines and expertise, rather than in silos. Specialisation is, of course, very important, but when it comes to implementing technology in society, the cultural and creative industries must be involved to enable transformation.”

CROSS-BORDER COLLABORATION

In both MIND and Lund Innovation District, academia, public organisations, industry, and intermediary organisations (such as Arexpo in Milan and Future by Lund in Lund) are present. The concept of an innovation district helps make cross-border collaboration easier and more efficient and allows actors to present a unified front to boost cooperation with other districts.

MIND’s starting point as an innovation district was Expo Milano 2015, which took place on the outskirts of Milan and is well connected by rail and air. Following the exhibition, there was a desire to develop the area into a hub for urban progress. The vision was to create an innovation district where public authorities, academia, industry, and civil society meet with a human-centred focus. Today, the area includes a research hospital, a hub for social innovation, Human Technopole – a life sciences research institute – and a university campus. Public and private actors collaborate, and Arexpo leads the development. The area continues to evolve and now sees 70,000 people pass through daily. MIND also aims to reach beyond its borders.

“It’s very important to maintain a dialogue with other parts of the world and build strong relationships,” says Alberto Mina from MIND and Arexpo. “We are developing a talent exchange programme and also prioritising engagement with civil society.”

INNOVATION PORTFOLIOS IN FOCUS

Through Future by Lund, challenges are identified and addressed in shared innovation portfolios where multiple actors collaborate on problems they can’t solve alone.

“By working with innovation portfolios, we build shared capacity to respond to upcoming shifts,” says Charlotte Lorentz Hjorth. “We are exploring how to initiate these portfolios and catalyse work on problems that individual actors cannot resolve on their own. Many CCI entities have the skills to contribute meaningfully to this work. At Lund University, we actively search for cross-linked innovation areas. It’s also essential that these areas are investment-ready.”

VOICES FROM THE ROUNDTABLE

Around twenty stakeholders gathered for a roundtable discussion to examine the conditions for making the creative industries a more active part of innovation processes within the districts.

Lena Holmberg from Lund University highlighted the importance of involving cultural and creative industries in achieving the green transition.

“In Europe, we talk a lot about the Green Transition alongside industrial competitiveness and resilience, but we rarely discuss the contribution of CCIs. Success will only come if we harness CCI’s expertise in innovation, technology, collaboration, and citizen engagement. This is a movement we must nurture at city, regional, and national levels. We must also be ready to offer tangible examples; otherwise, there is a risk that CCIs are seen as ‘nice to have’ rather than as essential contributors.”

Lina B. Frank from Cirkus Syd spoke about art as a process rather than a product.

“Our society isn’t structured to see culture as the solution. I believe that the cultural and creative industries can represent both the process and the expertise that lead to solutions,” said Lina B. Frank, Cirkus Syd.

Several participants emphasized that innovations in fields like technology and medicine would not succeed in being launched, accepted, or adopted without the involvement of “humanistic expertise” in the process. “You can’t embrace new perspectives without being open to them.”

To facilitate greater involvement of CCIs in innovation, several actions were suggested. One is ensuring that organisational structures in the field genuinely enable CCI participation. Another is to move beyond patent counts when assessing, for instance, the value of incubators, and also consider factors like social impact. Lund also has plans to establish a Humanities Village to promote humanities and the availability of these competencies within the innovation district.

Many attendees reflected on the perceived communication challenges between different disciplines – for example, between engineers and technicians on one side, and cultural and creative professionals on the other. One issue is that the innovation system is often geared towards technological innovation, making it structured in ways that favour technical solutions. Other issues include differences in thinking styles and expectations regarding roles within interdisciplinary teams.

Marie Löwegren, a lecturer in entrepreneurship at Lund University’s School of Economics, shared insights from their programme.

“We accept students from all disciplines into our entrepreneurship programme. That has benefits, but also challenges. In many cases, it’s evident that the education system ingrains certain ways of thinking in students. We must help them appreciate the value of diverse approaches and mindsets. Non-humanists can be creative, and creatives must also be able to think in business terms.”

Klas Hjort, a researcher in trade and logistics at Lund University of Technology, added:

“I’m an engineer working with cultural professionals and designers. It’s in those open innovation spaces that we collaborate most effectively, and Future by Lund supports us in doing that. Our best solutions have been co-created, benefitting everyone involved.”

Ultimately, the constructive mix of competencies begins with individuals.

“My experience with innovation portfolios is that many people with technical expertise also have a passion for music or deep social engagement. When we label people as either creative or technical, we fall into a trap. What matters is working with the curious and the collaborative,” concluded Birgitta Persson from Future by Lund.

The discussion took place during the engaging Italian Research Day in the World 2025, hosted by the Italian Embassy in Sweden, with Augusto Marcelli and Julieta Casanova as key organisers.

During the event, the four innovation districts from Milan, Helsingborg, Malmö, and Lund also came together.