baner Logo INNforMED Logo European Union
You are here:   Home About INNforMED
large small default
Project Team PDF Print E-mail

The consortium is made up of:

  • Crehan, Kusano & Associates.

    CKA has extensive experience working with Mediterranean countries in areas linked to innovation and research policy. CKA coordinated the two-year e-Foresee project funded by the European Commission under the EU STRATA program. This project focused on the adoption of foresight as a policy tool in small economies. The final conference of the e-Foresee project was held in Malta and brought together RTD and Innovation policy experts from 5 MEDA partner countries. CKA is also a member of the EU Foresight Knowledge Platform initiative led by the TNO of the initiative. In particular CKA is responsible for the implementation of a web-based system to support the work of the consortium. CKA is currently responsible for the production of the European Innovation Trend-Chart covering Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority. Patrick Crehan will work on the INNFORMED project. He is an expert on foresight. He was convener of AGRIBLUE working group of the European Commission and author of the corresponding ‘Blueprint for Regional Foresight on the Sustainable Development of Rural Economies’. He has organised more than 40 international conferences on RTD, Innovation and Economic Development related issues. He speaks French and maintains an extensive network of professional contacts in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority.
  • PREST - The University of Manchester.

    PREST - Policy Research on Engineering Science and Technology is a Research Centre within Manchester Business School, University of Manchester. It has 50 staff and almost 40 doctoral researchers from around the world. Its mission is to provide impartial, authoritative analysis and information to decision-makers concerned with the economic, political and social implications of science and technology. It is at the forefront of international developments in the governance and management of science and technology. It has experience working with governments on a great range of modern policy issues such as innovation in services, dual use and security technologies, innovation in the water industry, university-industry linkages and reform of public sector laboratories to name but a few. It is one of the leading European authorities on foresight and has extensive experience working in the US, China, Japan, Latin-America and Africa. Along with CKA and the MCST it is a member of the European Foresight Monitoring Network. It recently led the SCOPE2015 initiative to develop scenarios for cooperation with the European Union in the areas of science and technology. CKA and MCST are partners in SCOPE2015 – a part of which deals with scenarios for future EU cooperation with the MEDA region, focusing on Morocco, Tunisia and Jordan - countries targeted in the INNFORMED project. The main experts assigned to this project will be Professor Luke Georghiou - Associate Dean of Research and former Executive Director of PREST - and Dr Michael Keenan a leading expert in foresight.
  • The Malta Council for Science and Technology.

    The MCST is made up a small core permanent staff of young researchers under the direction of a high level Board appointed by the Prime Minister and an advisory Council, composed of prominent members from the public sector and academia with strong representation of the private sector. Set up since 1988 to provide strategic advice to Government on national science, technology and innovation policy, the Malta Council for Science and Technology (MCST) has over the years been responsible for identifying and addressing major science and technology challenges and issues of strategic importance for Malta, thereby contributing to the development of coherent and sustainable policy visions and initiatives. In this role, MCST has pioneered visionary approaches to the deployment of science and technology in the Maltese Islands, in particular in the Information and Communications Technologies sector, where a national foresight-type project was launched between 1993-1994.
    In 2005, MCST’s role has been further strengthened through its new location within the Office of the Prime Minister, where it can play a more strategic coordinating role in scientific research and technological innovation through the development of cross-ministerial joined-up policy approaches. MCST is currently working on a major priority-setting exercise based on a wide consultation process, for targeting government investments in the National Research and Innovation Plan to be launched later in 2006. MCST is also the National Contact Point Organisation for FP6 as well coordinating Malta’s representation in the EU Research Council.
    Building on the results of the EU-funded FP5 eFORESEE (www.eforesee.info) project, MCST is currently active in a number of international foresight-related projects and studies, including the ERANET ForSociety, COST Action A22, and Futurreg. MCST is also keen to use its links with neighbouring Mediterranean countries to exchange experiences and know-how in the area of foresight – MCST has represented Malta in the MoCo, since the latter was set up in 1995.The main experts assigned to this project will be Jennifer Cassingena Harper – Director of the Policy Unit at MCST and Lisa Pace - National Contact Point for the Joint Research Centre.
 
Methodology PDF Print E-mail

The success scenario approach has been developed by teams based in Manchester, and focusing on issues of RTDI policy. It has been used to develop UK policy at the highest level in Information and Communication Technologies, Biotechnology and Nanotechnology . More recently the methodology has been extended to consider the future for structural innovation policy issues such as university-industry linkages and policy for FP7.

There are two elements to a success scenario. It combines:

  • Desirability. The scenario captures a vision of what could be achieved or aspired to, by the sponsoring organisation or a wider community that it represents.
  • Credibility. The scenario is developed with the assistance of, and validated by, a sample of experts in the area, chosen to reflect a broad range of interests (and usually including both practitioners and researchers).

The heart of the process is a scenario workshop; this is supported by background research, and organised in a detailed set of procedures. The background research (normally SWOT or benchmarking analysis) aims to identify a set of sub-domains that can be studied in depth. The benchmarking helps to compare the region, country of organisation with relevant others in the various sub-domains. The comparison should be able to identify trends and dynamics, and the systemic elements of the domain. It should be prepared in such as way as to indicate what informants and available literature suggest might be possible - one way of presenting results in the light of a small set of scenarios for the development of the domain. This provides the workshop participants with a base against which to frame their own preferred scenario.

The INNFORMED project plans to use the innovation systems approach to structure the scenario building activities. It begins with the observation that changes in firms’ innovation environment and the underlying drivers have forced governments to re-evaluate their role in innovation. Currently the role of government is seen mainly as a facilitator - that is a provider of framework conditions conducive for innovation. The new role of governments has made it necessary to find new approaches for innovation policy that can deal with a wide set of framework conditions and complex interactions between different types of actors. The answer has been sought in systemic approaches, which started to be adopted in the early 1990s. The main idea behind the innovation systems approach is to see the firm’s innovation environment as a system of actors, interactions and framework conditions. The original starting point was to analyse national innovation systems, but in recent years regional innovation systems have also been studied.
 
Main Activities PDF Print E-mail

INNFORMED activities are structured in three phases:

  • Phase I Tasks
    PI-T1: Initial scoping exercise. This will involve a visit to the country to discuss the initiative with key policymakers, experts and other stakeholders, and will terminate in the conclusion of agreements with MEDA partners.

    PI-T2: Preliminary analysis of the RTDI system of the country that will lead to the selection of aspects of the national innovation system which would benefit from the application of Foresight.
    PI-T3: Selection of national teams to be involved in the project work for the duration of the project and facilitation of first contacts between the INNNFORMED consortium and members of the national team who will carry out the detailed work of the project.
    PI-T4: A series of ‘Foresight Design Workshops’.
  • Phase II Tasks
    PII-T1: Organisation of ‘Success Scenario Workshops’ in each country involving local stakeholders to develop a ‘roadmap’ to success a specific outcome of the Pilot Foresight Exercise.
    PII-T2: Observers from other countries will participate in the local Success Scenario Workshop events, both to contribute their own perspectives and to take action learning back to their own countries.
    PII-T3: Reports will be written on the success scenario workshops. The emphasis of each report will be on the scenario and on its related roadmap.
  • Phase III Tasks
    PIII-T1: The writing of a Mediterranean Foresight Manual to be lead and coordinated by the consortium.
    PIII-T2: Organisation of a major dissemination event. MEDA partners will be asked to make a significant contribution to this. The details will be worked out at a later stage in the development of the INNFORMED project. They will be decided on the basis of mutual agreement between the partner and the consortium.
 
About the project PDF Print E-mail
INNFORMED is an initiative to support the use of Foresight techniques in Science and Technology related public policy development in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia. It is financed by the European Commission under the Sixth Framework Programme INCO programme.
Read more... [About the project]
 
Main Objectives PDF Print E-mail

Strategic objectives

The general objective of the INNFORMED project is to increase the use of participative foresight approaches in support of joint efforts of the European Union and Mediterranean Partners in developing strategic approaches to the development of the innovation systems of partner countries and thus opening up the European Research Area to the Mediterranean. This two-year project will strengthen RTD and Innovation (RTDI) policy development processes in the non-EU MEDA partners through the use of foresight for the integration of national RTDI systems with the ERA. The project is to be carried out in cooperation with teams based in four countries (Tunisia, Morocco, Jordan and Egypt), while ensuring that learning benefits are disseminated to the whole group. INNFORMED will involve the MoCo in a strategic consultative capacity and will draw upon other policy-related initiatives such as the complementary FP6-INCO ESTIME project.

Scientific and Technological Objectives:

  • To use a combination of Innovation Systems thinking and foresight approaches as the basis for developing a structured dialogue in research and innovation between the EU and the Mediterranean, thereby facilitating the opening up of the ERA to the Mediterranean.
  • To embed in the non-EU MEDA partner countries innovation systems thinking and a broader-based foresight capability at the policy design and implementation levels by identifying and developing capabilities in a network of foresight and RTDI experts and key stakeholder organisations in the national RTDI system.
  • To facilitate and support the work of local experts and stakeholders in pilot exercises for the development of success scenarios for exploiting and turning the countries’ current/potential strengths and investments in RTD into economic opportunities by producing clear roadmaps to improvement of the functioning of key aspects of their innovation systems.
  • To disseminate and discuss the findings with policymakers and other key stakeholders in the region and the EU through a high-level conference, project website and publication in the popular and scientific literature.