On Tuesday November 22nd, the Northern Netherlands Alliance (SNN) organized an exciting side-event to the Northern Netherlands Peer Review Event: the Innovation Café.
This interactive event took place in the Bovenkamer van Groningen, a former water tower in the city of Groningen. While moderated by Meije Gildemacher, around 80 students, professors, government officials and entrepreneurs participated in an interactive quiz- and debate session with innovation experts Dominique Foray and Dries Faems.
Professor Dominique Foray is the main founder of the concept of smart specialization. Smart specialization has since then become the EU’s key mechanism for Regional Policy. Foray currently leads the Economics and Management of Innovation research laboratory (CEMI) at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). Dries Faems is Professor Strategy & Innovation at the University of Groningen. In cooperation with the Northern Provinces Alliance, Faems has initiated the Northern Netherlands Innovation Monitor. He currently also coordinates the executive training program on “How to make innovation happen in Horizon2020” for the European Commission.
During the Innovation Café, online theses and questions were posed, to which the attendants could answer electronically. The outcomes were then followed by a dynamic discussion between Foray, Faems and the public. Both Foray and Faems argued that it is crucial for smart specialization strategies to be formed through an entrepreneurial discovery process (EDP). In this sense, EDP should be, or remain, a fundamentally bottom-up and continuous process. Overall, both experts agreed upon the notion that governments should strive to establish a creative environment where this form of EDP can take place.
