2021-01-18

Authors

Petya Koleva

is a European cultural and creative sectors’ innovation expert based in Sofia. Over the last two decades she has been nurturing international collaboration, engaging with arts, industry, intangible heritage professionals and policy makers across Europe. She is the founder of Intercultura Consult that specialized on developing synergies between arts and innovation.

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Cross-Sectoral Innovation in Culture and Creative Industries

Three Priority Areas in Northern European Countries

Cross-sector cooperation is becoming increasingly important for cultural professionals and creatives. Some Central and Northern European countries currently explore new ways to innovate society as well as their own work, and create new revenue streams.

The pandemic has placed cross-sectoral initiatives and cooperation in the spotlight and raised interest in the challenges and success factors defined by innovation pioneers. Policy makers and the creative communities are aware that the world is undergoing a dramatic change and can foster cross-sector cooperation to develop new approaches and products for themselves and broader society. The power of successful projects between cultural and creative industry (CCI) professionals in innovating services and products in and beyond arts, culture and creative industries can be reviewed positively in light of recent policy support at EU and local level.

Based on the results of the study ‘Cultural and Creative Industries Cooperation and Innovation in the Northern Dimension Countries’, this paper discusses the models of cross-sectoral initiatives in the business and well-being domains. It argues for further strategic support for knowledge-sharing among mediator organisations and longer-term financing for brokerage practices essential for the grounding of cross-sectoral teams working to solve specific challenges.

Northern dimension regional context and scope of research

Eleven countries are part of the Northern Dimension (ND): Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Russian Federation and Sweden. This partnership on Culture is the fourth in the Northern Dimension Policy (NDPC), which focuses on improving operational conditions for cultural and creative industries, bridging the gap between various sources of funding and sectors of activity, and strengthening cooperation between project owners, business communities, the public sector and international institutions throughout Northern Europe.

The field research presented here collected evidence of current cross-sectoral innovation without imposing rigid ‘sector’ or ‘discipline’ classifications. The outputs of this project include the analysis of 121 case studies collected in the course seven months. The research proposed a large-scale participatory consultation in synergy with three online thematic experts’ focus group events convened on the following themes:

The Partnership Market - CCI Connectivity and Cross-Sectoral Innovation
Hearing and dancing? How can the Cultural and Creative Industries engage with ‘Traditional Industries’ to mutual benefit?
Getting Better? CCIs engaging with Well-being: building inclusive communities and resilient societies.

Each of these events was associated with a respective policy brief and the thematic focus was retained in the analytical frame of the study.

Data collection took place in three partially overlapping phases, involving an online survey and a case study template sent via individual mailing to over 350 carefully selected recipients in the eleven countries between May and November 2020.

The most in-depth instrument used in the study was a structured virtual interview lasting up to 60 minutes. In total, 23 virtual meetings engaged mediators and experts from the Northern Dimension. These were held with representatives of cross-innovation initiatives, policy makers, CCI incubators, businesses and creative professionals.

CCI Connectivity and Cross-Sectoral Innovation

A large segment of the mapped cases (35% of them) addresses cross-sectoral innovation within the frame of a general objective to improve connectivity between CCI professionals, CCI organisations and other sectors (represented by businesses in the local context, urban or industry clusters). Early in the survey, it became apparent that CCI incubators, hubs and platforms have been paving the way of this ‘new’ terrain over the last decade. Therefore, some are now operating a second-generation programme/ initiative. One of them is Creve (Creative Venture).

Creve is managed by Humak University of Applied Sciences in Finland. It has a strong nation-wide network in addition to a solid knowledge-platform built over a decade through partnerships with other universities, public bodies and CCI businesses, mostly small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Since 2018, Creve offers a virtual networking, collaboration and learning framework. Its latest project `Creve 2.0´ works intensively with Finnish CCI organizations, such as Music Finland or Design Forum Finland, and CCI funding bodies. Creve is determined to continue building a stronger network and co-operation with Finnish and international CCI organizations/ service providers. It is part of the `Portobello People’ initiative establishing a strategic business network of culture incubators in the Nordic and Baltic countries. NDPC participates in the network of 11 incubators currently in Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

A priority area of the study has been to analyse key challenges related to cross-sectoral innovation in the CCI faced by early experiments. Creve’s experience with its 2020 pilot business competence accelerator program, in which partners had to find a solution to a real-life business case, proved that it takes time to `establish a good match for cross-sectoral collaboration’. In fact, it took nearly the same number of months as the online program itself. Once matched, the collaboration of the partners involved in the process ran smooth. Such an initial phase of getting to know each other and building a relationship has been repeatedly indicated as a prerequisite for any successful program shared by experiences across the region.

CCIs engaging with Well-being

The thirty-two cases grouped under the domain of cross-sectoral innovation related to well-being in the context of the study also proved this point. One of them was illustrated by Startup Mannheim in a pilot involving the medicine technology and the music industry clusters (”Music industry and medical technology. The interdisciplinary working group on operation in full consciousness" - "Musikwirtschaft und Medizintechnologie: Die interdisziplinäre Arbeitsgruppe Wach-OP”). This pilot project tested a new technology for brain tumour operations utilising an in-ear monitoring system. The device allows the patients to listen to music and to hear the voice of just one of the medical team during an operation in full consciousness. The function facilitates monitoring the status of the language centre of the brain and allows surgeons to communicate without patients hearing them. The expected new products and patents are based on a different work process/ method, and a proof of concept tested during the projects.

Bridging the `language’ gap was a challenge faced in the initial phase of this pilot, when medical doctors, engineers, artist and creatives needed to enter into dialogue and overcome differences. Startup Mannheim’s team acted as an intermediary and was key to this process. The success factor is aligning the different sectors to make sure that they recognise the expertise from the other field. This is the prerequisite for cross-sectoral cooperation and this first phase is the one that support is needed for. Vouchers are a good second step that may stimulate any sector to embark on innovation involving CCIs.

The third most common challenge for all pioneers was securing funding for the original attempt to draw the model, find the first interested partners and try the first co-operation activities with customers/ clients, be they private or public. Continuous funding and lead organizations/ providers with a strong strategy were needed to build effective and continuous networks, co-operations and services. In the words of cross-sectoral innovation pioneers, `pilots’ and `examples’ that cross-sectoral innovation leads to tangible results are highly effective tools.

Conclusive remarks

The powerful argument of the contribution of the cultural and creative industries to sustainable development is carried forward by the 121 cases covered by the project study which range from large-scale regional initiatives innovating traditional industries, such the ‘EcoDesign Circle (4.0)’, to non-profit enterprises that thrive upon carefully designed ecosystems linking local and international producers. A common trait is that they are building a strong community affiliation with ‘transparent’ forms of productions such as the `SPOK’ (Contemporary production and consumption) production platform and a good number of innovative business cases included in the mapping of the ND region.

In addition to effective networking being a crucial factor, all ‘success story’ cases underline the importance of communication and the use of monitoring, checklists and indicators to understand, test and demonstrate the impact of an initiative from the start. The pertinent point is that growth factors are also found in `soft’ innovations that transform roles and value chains. Innovation projects are not only essential for arts and cultural organisations but also to solving broader domain challenges linked to sustainable forms of production, consumption and living (Koleva 2013).

The case study contributors repeatedly indicated how essential knowledge-sharing formats are which inspire and demonstrate the huge potential of cross-sectoral innovation practices. A good number of the documented cases may be considered pioneers in establishing long-term platforms for cross-sectoral innovation. In view of this, the project dedicated additional attention and effort to provide an open-access web-resource accessible to anyone and utilising an engaging story-telling approach. It is foreseen that it will be live for at least 24 months and be used as a resource as much as a policy-informative tool.

References

Laaser U., Weber W. and Staines J. (2019). Mid-term Evaluation of the Northern Dimension Partnership on Public Health and Social Well-being and Northern Dimension Partnership on Culture, Final Report, RfS 2018.
Heliste P., Kupi O., Kosonen R. (2015). 11 Dimensions: Trends and Challenges in Cultural and Creative Industry Policy Development within the Northern Dimension area. Aalto University School of Business, Center for Markets in Transition.
International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers, UNESCO, EY (2015). "Cultural Times. The first global map of cultural and creative industries".
•osi, A. Breton A., Magnus A. and Moens A. (2011). "Cultural undertaking & investment: from intuition to decision making".
Koleva, P. (2013). Innovation projects as a strategic development factor for cultural organisations. Sofia, Orgon/ Intercultura Consult.

A more comprehensive version of this article was first been published in Arts Management Quarterly on "Postcolonial Cultural Management”

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