Cultural Heritage Institutions within Open Innovation Ecosystems

Cultural heritage institutions (CHIs) are uniquely positioned to foster social innovation because they are deeply embedded in community life, collective memory, and identity building. As trusted, place-based spaces, CHIs can bring together diverse actors such as citizens, artists, researchers, and policymakers around shared values and narratives. In this context, they increasingly act as innovation intermediaries by enabling cross-sectoral collaboration, supporting knowledge exchange, and sustaining long-term cultural and social transformation within open innovation ecosystems.

This policy area investigates how CHIs contribute to social innovation through everyday practices and participatory practices such as co-creation, storytelling, visioning, and learning labs, and how these roles are currently supported (or constrained) by innovation and cultural policy frameworks. Through a practice-based lens, the research aims to better understand the mismatch between policy narratives and on-the-ground innovation practices, and to identify enabling conditions for CHIs to thrive as inclusive, trusted infrastructures of innovation. Policy recommendations will emerge to strengthen recognition, resourcing, and alignment across governance levels.