Future by Lund is an innovation platform that has been working in the space in-between organisations since 2013. To support our work in promoting innovation, we have often chosed to use existing methods, models, and tools and at times we have developed them to better suit our work in the space in-between involving a diversity of actors. In this, we have collaborated with OECD OPSI-
team, Vinnova and Lund University and others, who has generously shared their work and also been contributing with valuable feedback.
Below we show our most important methods, models, and tools and the way we work with them. Finally, at the bottom, our LIEPT model is presented where different models and tool are combined to make us able to track changes in an ecosystem or/and in a portfolio.
In complex areas of innovation and development, growth does not arise from a single point but from interactions between many actors in an ecosystem. Future by Lund’s aim is to build capacity for creating interaction. To do this and to be able to scale, we need to build strategic competence and strategic partnerships in a multi-stakeholder environment.
Often, the work with innovation starts within the organisation. Future by Lund has turned the process around and has common challenges and common needs with many actors as a starting point.
We work with innovation portfolios as an approach to develop the ecosystem's growth areas.
A portfolio gathers and organises the efforts to address a common challenge by facilitating and supporting collaboration and co-creation between the different actors. These actors have different types of expertise, size, influence, interests, and outreach, yet, they share the same vision and have agreed on rules for their collaboration.
The portfolio is coordinated together with selected partners and with a common strategy for creating development.
The zone model categorises activities in the innovation process into yellow, green, and blue zones to represent different phases. The model functions as a map for the partners to orient themselves andgain an understanding of when to do what. The Future by Lund network works mainly in green and yellow zones.
The yellow zone is an open, shared, and neutral space where the mandate is quite unclear, and organisations share challenges and opportunities. Who owns what, and who will do what is not clear. It is therefore necessary to co-create and to work with neutrally and being transparent. In the yellow zone, you need to stimulate, explore, experiment, facilitate, test, and monitor the world around you to create knowledge and understanding. Organisations can share the risks of the unknown and unformulated. It is important to create relationships for future partnerships, and the commitment and presence of the participants drive the opportunities. Type of funding: Seed funding.
The green zone is in the space in-between organisations. There is a need for collaboration and dialogue with shared mandates. Organizations must negotiate and create agreements about who does what, what can be done together, and how it should be done. It also includes conceptualisation and consortia building related to interests, specific projects, and partnerships. Type of funding: Project funding.
In the blue zone, the organisation decides for itself, has control and mandate. The work takes place within the structure of the own organization and with the logic by which you conduct your business. It can be business-driven and based on internal organizational development, investment logic, and scaling. Type of funding: Investment.
The Innovation Tool is a way of managing innovation portfolios that has been based on OPSI's Portfolia Exploration Tool. The model categorises innovation work, and is among other things, used to create an overview of the types of projects and initiatives that organisations are running and which they may be missing. The report describes each of the innovation aspects, facets, enhancement-oriented, adaptive innovation, mission-oriented innovation and anticipatory innovation. The portfolio strategy is a way of visualising and analysing a selected innovation area/portfolio to better understand how to develop this and how the parts relate to each other. Each facet also has its own methods for the best possible development. For example, in "anticipatory" it's "What if" questions, scenarios, radical and exploratory, while "enhancement" is about improvements such as more, faster and better.
(OPSI is a group within the OECD that works on innovations for the public sector.)
This model divides development into layers defined by its funding and is based on the layer model that Vinnova's Vinnväxt initiative uses as a reporting method. The Future by Lund layer model has four levels where the first layer (yellow) covers core funding for (in this case) the Innovation Platform, the second layer (orange) covers project funding for projects led by the Platform or in which the Platform participates, the third layer (green) covers project funding for partners outsidethe Platform, and the fourth layer (blue) focuses on qualitative events linked to companies and private investments.
Lund Innovation Ecosystem Portfolio Tracking (LIEPT) is a method to monitor and analyse the development of portfolios of different innovation efforts, over time, within a multistakeholder innovation ecosystem. The LIEPT model offers an approach to track and understand changes over time and to have a dialogue in a complex context.
The LIEPT model has been developed gradually through the work of the Future by Lund innovation platform. It been created out of the need to identify growth in ecosystems and of follow themes and portfolios to make them understandable. By integrating different models, such as Vinnväxt's layer model (by Vinnova Sweden’s innovation agency), OPSI's innovation tool (by OECD) and the zone model from Future by Lund, a comprehensive method is created to visualise and track changes in an innovation ecosystem, for example in the form of money, time and materials, innovation characteristics, as well as critical events connected to a theme or portfolio.
Scope setting involves defining what to monitor by specifying themes, areas, or portfolios. This is a subjective choice and perspective. Though this a start and a baseline, platform, is created clarifying who is included, what activities and areas to build and include, and thereby what to monitor.
Here development is divided into four layers. The first layer includes core funding for the platform or scope, the second layer includes project funding for projects led or participated in by the platform or scope, the third layer includes project funding for partners outside the platform or scope, and the fourth layer focuses on qualitative events linked to business and private investment.
data processing of funding data from the Swedish and European public support system in combination with self-collected quantitative data. This enables visualisation of who receives funding, where it comes from and how it combines with other models to show follow-on projects and area development. The LIEPT model thus creates an opportunity to track and understand the evolution of innovation ecosystems over time, enabling actors to strategically manage their portfolios and make informed decisions for future actions.
This part combines OPSI's Portfolio Exploration Tool, with the zone model and divides innovations into four areas and uses two axes to understand and map innovation activities character. The zone model categorises activities in the innovation process into yellow, green and blue zones to represent different phases. Together, they can visualise the character and movements of the portfolio's activities and projects over time, which often change and have different needs.
