Nine out of ten innovations fail. Often because a prototype is not sufficiently tested before it is put on the market. Inno-Quarter changes this and uses European festivals to test innovations. Participating festivals make their festival open as a living LABoratory. So, startups, SMEs and research institutes test their prototypes in practice before they go to market. This works because a festival is a temporary mini society. Just like in real life there are challenges in areas such as energy, waste and food. Also festival visitors behave in a certain sense the same as in the real world: they move, eat and sleep. The difference with the real world is that there is a fence around the festival site. That makes festivals a perfect test environment to collaborate on prototypes and experimental techniques. So, if an innovation works at a festival, it can also work in the real world.
PANDEMIC ALTERNATIVES
Now we are in this coronavirus situation we learned as a project that there also be alternative living labs. Because, we think that there will be no festivals in 2021, we will create or find a alternative spot for the innovation. In 2020 we did some test at a zoo, an online festival and a campsite with good results. So the place to test will be different but the overall story will stay the same!
If you apply for Inno-Quarter we look at:
1. If the prototype is innovative
2. If testing at a festival has clear added value
3. If the prototype (in the future) has a business case
4. If the prototype contributes (in the future) to a better world (UN Goals)
When the IQ team thinks your prototype, based on these four criteria, is ready for a test. You will be linked to an innovation scout. This innovation scout supports you in finding the right test question(s). Then the innovation scout connects you to the living lab (festival) that best fits your test question. After testing your innovation scout will evaluates with you and see how our network can further help to launch market.
Inno-Quarter participation is free. What we want in return is 100% commitment. Inno-Quarter also has a manufacturing and hospitality budget to allow for the tests at the living lab (festival).
WHAT IS Inno-Quarter?
Inno-Quarter Open Innovation Quarters for quick end-user feedback and support of new products and services
Inno-Quarter provides a new way to short track innovation processes and improve the cost-effectiveness of startup support mechanisms and redirect funds towards sustainable commercialisation of more innovations. NSRs score low in EU innovation indexes in terms of commercialisation. SMEs/entrepreneurs often lack the means to go beyond the development stage or fail soon after commercialisation. This because many companies initiate innovation processes in isolation within the company or an unsufficient network, which causes difficulties in attracting investors, finding potential customers, and acquiring raw resources to enlarge production. IQ will facilitate entrepreneurs with an integral public service (innovation quarter) that is organised at existing events. The innovation quarters should reduce the costs of conventional start-up programmes, by reducing the time needed to validate a product/service with 2 years.
DORP is the Living Lab where concepts and experiments follow each other rapidly, with loads of interaction between multiple disciplines, varying from entrepreneurs, artists, scientists and students from every course you can think of.
With the help of experts, coaches inspirational sessions and fully stacked work places, we’re creating a spot where we visualize and experience the circulair economy. A crucial aspect, maybe even a condition, is the possibility to fail. Because when an innovation doesn’t fail in it’s proces, maybe that innovation isn’t innovative enough.
And when it fails we fix it together, establishing a great learning curve. With that, DORP is a crucial mile stone to actually launch circulair innovation
Inno-Quarter will provide entrepreneurs with:
- possibility to develop new products/services
- end-user feedback for products/business models/services ready for market uptake
- business support platform
- enabler of product/service development.
Quadruple helix partnerships of public authorities/development agencies, knowledge institutes, private partners and the community, represented by the Inno-Quarter beneficiaries, will jointly develop, test and evaluate this service in several regions to come to a validated method available for adoption throughout the NSR.
Total budget 3.271.217 €
ERDF contribution 1.635.609 €
Inno-Quarter is proudly organized with 10 partners:
- Provinsje Fryslân (NL)
- NHL Stenden (NL)
- InnovationPact Fryslân (NL)
- Nordic Surfers (SE)
- Hogeschool West-Vlaanderen (BE)
- Aalborg Universitet (DK)
- WorldPerfect (DK)
- Region Halland (SE)
- University of Bremen, Lemex (DE)
- M01N Startup Camp (DE)