The report explores the business case for co-creation both in the narrow and in the broader sense of the term, where, at its narrowest, the business case would be the monetary value it offers to commercial companies, and, in the broader sense, the business case would include non-monetary value (such as reputation, innovation potential, or access to markets) to innovation actors (i.e. including researchers, funding organisations, etc. as well) as adopters of co-creation processes. It reviews the GoNano experiences, considering feedback received from companies and other innovation actors on the GoNano co-creation activities, and reflects on the findings of a workshop with external stakeholders in October 2020 which aimed to explore the business case for co-creation in the context of three EU-projects funded under the NMBP-13-2018 call on risk governance in nanotechnology: NANORIGO, GOV4NANO and RISKGONE.

The report concludes that there may well be a business case for co-creation, both in the narrow and broader sense of the term. The GoNano experience in itself does not provide sufficient evidence to suggest that there is a business case for co-creation in the narrow sense. To argue for co-creation as a purely commercial activity for companies, more straightforward and convincing examples are needed that demonstrate the commercial benefit of co-creation. Still, co-creation may offer opportunities to operationalise the commitment of companies towards their stakeholders. There are some indications from other initiatives like PRISMA and LIVING INNOVATION that companies may adopt co-creation as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility strategies. However, the successful adoption of co-creation does seem to be limited to those cases where ‘doing good’ and ‘doing well’ coincide.

The business case for co-creation seems to look stronger if it is interpreted broadly, as the potential to realise value in the broader sense for all innovation actors. For researchers, co-creation could help to define new inroads for research, gain access to future technology users and attract new sources of funding. For policy makers, co-creation could offer solutions to wicked problems that carry broader stakeholder support. The GoNano experiences provides some initial clues to the potential added value for producers, researchers and policy makers. However, to make a convincing business case for co-creation, many more compelling examples are needed of the added value of adopting iterative, product-focused, transdisciplinary collaborations as part of innovation processes in research, innovation and policy making. As the GoNano project draws to a close, the search for the business case for co-creation continues.

Downlaod the report here: GoNano D5.4 – The business case for co-creation. 

Enabling co-creation in nanotechnologies

This micro-cred is a short, fully online course containing reading and viewing exercises and interactive decision-making activities inspired by expert interviews and other outputs from GoNano. The course provides learners with a practical set of skills and concepts that allows them put the principles of responsible research and innovation (RRI) into practice in their own research projects, ensuring their research is future-focused, ethically sound and ready to change the world for the better.

Housed on RMIT’s student learning platform, the micro-cred is open to all students enrolled at RMIT’s campuses in Melbourne and Vietnam, with plans to extend availability to even wider audiences under development. Similar courses focussed on incorporating co-creation into research and innovation are also planned for late 2020. The micro-credential courses complement the other training resources produced during the project and designed to build capacity in RRI and co-creation among researchers and engineers. Check out the complete suite of training materials for researchers and engineers available on the GoNano project website.

The GoNano final conference will also be a great online platform for individuals and organisations to exchange ideas virtually and learn about the state-of-the-art in co-creation, responsiveness and practicing societal engagement in research and innovation.

GoNano and Harvestore first teamed up in October 2019 at a joint workshop to explore how co-creation could be used in the design and development of emerging technologies. Specifically, Harvestore aims to use nano-enabled micro-technology to develop a radical new family of all-solid-state micro-devices able to concurrently harvest and store energy from heat and light, providing uninterrupted power to low power devices.

Federico Baiutti of IREC, a Harvestore researcher, saw a lot of value in the Gonano co-creation process:

“It can help understand how to communicate effectively with stakeholders and help to get in touch with potential stakeholders that were not previously considered relevant…

… meetings between scientists and diverse publics should be encouraged so that scientists can understand what the needs of each stakeholder are.”

As co-creation is highly dependent upon bringing together diverse groups of stakeholders, the COVID-19 pandemic affected plans for many face-to-face events in 2020, but the projects have continued and are adapting to the circumstances. The GoNano final conference will now be a digital event, where individuals and organisations will be able to exchange ideas virtually and learn about the state-of-the-art in co-creation, responsiveness and practicing societal engagement in research and innovation. Researchers from the Harvestore project will be there to share their experiences of co-creation and to pick up tips for their engagement activities, including a large upcoming expo in the center of London and a topical workshop in Spring 2021.

For more information and the latest announcements about these upcoming events, please visit their website (http://www.harvestore.eu/) or follow Harvestore on Twitter @harvestoreEU and LinkedIn. 

Why co-creation?

Over the past three years, GoNano developed a co-creation approach to explore how researchers and engineers can work with publics and professional stakeholders to create novel suggestions for future nanotechnology products. Co-creation is a widely used, but loosely defined term that has been applied in different contexts. Co-creation can be understood as the collaborative development of new value. It is a form of collaborative innovation: ideas are shared and improved together. GoNano’ definition of co-creation is more focussed towards nanotechnology and defined co-creation as the emergence of productive collaborations between researchers and societal stakeholders over longer timeframes, focusing on specific nanotechnology research lines, leading to tangible outcomes such as a new research avenue, proposal, product or prototype.

Advantages of co-creation for researchers and engineers

The advantages of co-creation for researchers are two-fold: On the one hand, co-creation events offer opportunities for the articulation and deliberation of the needs and concerns of society and can contribute to the development and embedding of new, more desirable advances. In this way, innovators get vital feedback on their innovation processes as a result of these exercises, and stakeholders and citizen get the opportunity to voice their desires, wishes and concerns regarding the direction of research. On the other, society can learn about potential future advances which can enhance trust and the confidence of stakeholders that new technologies respond to their needs and values.

Researchers and engineers are key stakeholder in the process of making reseach and innovation more socially robust, since you are developing the new reseach avenue, proposal, product or prototype. Researchers and engineers have also insight concerning the effects of more socially robust nanotechnology reseacht and innovation, including the boundary conditions and what effects that would have on your work environment.

To explore how researchers and engineers can become more responsive so societal needs and valuea, GoNano developed co-creation workshops around real-life case studies proposed by researchers from the field. For example, during the first stakeholder workshop at the University of Twente the artificial pancreas (a monitoring device for diabetes type 1 patients that continuously measures glucose levels of the patients and adds insulin and glucagon when needed) was one topic. The discussion opened up the converstation for potential users (diabetes patients) of the artificial pancreas who was concerned about the data management considerations. The workshop led to a new data management plan that may be relevant for future data sharing agreements between the producer and users of the device.

The majority of the participating researchers responded positively to the co-creation process. Some were absolutely convinced of the potential added value of co-creation. The developer of the early diagnostic tool in the stakeholder workshop on health in the Netherlands confirmed that the discussions with different stakeholders along the value chain provided new research insights. She gained a

“more concrete understanding in what steps to take and what steps not to take during the rest of their research”, which helped “to build the next three years of my research life”.

See the interviews with workshop participants on the GoNano Youtube channel.

Distilled from the GoNano workshops (please see the GoNano approach for more information), we gained insight into your needs and wishes in terms of tools and guidelines that would help you to make your own research more socially robust. As a response, below you will find multiple tools and guidelines that GoNano developed to support your journey in improving the responsiveness of your research and innovation processes to public values and concerns.

Tools and materials to support reseachers and engineers in the process of co-creation

You can download all the material here:
– Brochure with all information for a co-creation workshop.
– PowerPoint presentation to support the process
– Two posters (extended and simpel version) to print for your event, showing the six-step approach to co-creation
– Practical and strategic canvases to support step 3: Start planning
– Toolkits from other projects and organizations to support step 4: Organize your co-creation event
– YouTube clips with an impression of the GoNano workshop to support step 4: Organizing your co-creation event
– Questionnaire canvas used by GoNano to support step 5: Evaluation and reflection on the process

2) The Road of Co-Creation

The Road of Co-Creation is a a section on the GoNano project website, which take the visitor through the entire process of developing and carrying out co-creation events, providing them with the necessary training materials and recommendations
that are relevant at the different steps along the way.

The roadmap is intended to function as a graphic table of content, allowing you to both get an overview of the steps when developing a co-creation event, and to access the training material GoNano developed in each of te steps. The training materials are PDF-files are easily accesable and can be downloaded via inserted links on the page.

3) Animated vignettes- the process and outcomes of the GoNano project

GoNano developed five audio-visual vignettes capturing the development of the concrete product suggestions or research aims that came out from a collaboration between citizens and stakeholders from each of the pilot countries – energy in Spain, food in the Czech Republic and health in the Netherlands. Please watch the five audio-visual vignettes

4) ‘How to..’ Guide on public engagement

GoNano also developed a ‘How to..’ guide for citizens on public participation to prepare your co-creation participants. This guide will support citizens who would like to engage with nanotechnologies to express their own needs and concerns and ensure that their thoughts are taken into account in future developments. The guide offers a five-step approach which aims to helps participants to define their interests, identify the right engagement opportunity, and shares tips and tricks on how become involved in nanotechnology research and development. It’s an invitation for citizens to express their own needs and concerns and help shape the future directions of nanotechnologies.

5) The GoNano winter school

GoNano also focused directly on(young) researchers during the GoNano winter school. The winter school was developed to challenge postgraduate students and early career researchers from a broad range of disciplines to step out of their comfort zones and work together to increase their responsiveness to societal needs and values in nanotechnology innovations. After the event, participants indicated that their experience was both enlightening and beneficial, with their expectations met or surpassed and most aims and objectives achieved. Many participants left with the desire to adapt their research approaches to be more aware of and responsive to societal inputs. See also the report from the Winter School (Deliverable 6.3).

RMIT micro-credentials – Content from the winter school, such as presentations and expert interviews, were repackaged to create a new micro-credential on “Understanding Responsible Research and Innovation” for RMIT’s suite of digital learning modules. RMIT has scheduled production of three such micro-credentials based on outputs from the GoNano project: The first one, which has already been successfully built and launched, focusses on RRI, the second on co-creation, and the third on putting the two together in practice are due to be completed by the end of 2020. The micro-credentials can be accessed by all 80,000+ students at RMIT and work to extend access to external audiences is under way.

6) GoNano webinars

To share our experiences, GoNano developed three webinars that discusses how we developed our co-creation process, our lessons learned, and tips an tricks on how you can develop your own co-creation process.

Each webinar consists of about 45 minutes and provide insights into different aspects of co-creation. Eah webinar is devided into three sessions of 15 min each.

• The first webinar is about What is co-creation and why co-create in research and innovation?
  • Session 1.1: What is co-creation? 
  • Session 1.2: Why co-create in research and innovation?
  • Session 1.3: Who are the stakeholders for a co-creation project?

• The second webinar is about Co-creation in practice
  • Session 2.1: The GoNano Methodology for co-creation
  • Session 2.2: Planning your co-creation process: part 1
  • Session 2.3: Planning your co-creation process: part 2

• The third webinar is about Outcomes and results of co-creation​.
  • Session 3.1: Outcomes and results of co-creation
  • Session 3.2: Recommendations for policy to support responsible research and innovation practices

The GoNano approach

GoNano believes that research and innovation can benefit from being more open to societal needs and concerns. Over the course of three years (2017-2020), GoNano enabled collaborative development (co-creation) in three nanotechnology application areas: food, energy and health. We first consulted citizens about their wishes, needs and concerns regarding future nanotechnology applications. This was used as input for the first and second stakeholder workshops, which aimed to stimulate citizens, civil society organisations, industry, researchers and policy makers across Europe to co-create research aims and think about concrete (product) suggestions for future nanotechnologies. Read more about the GoNano approach and results. 

The EU-funded GoNano project explored how co-creation might be used to enhance the responsiveness of nanotechnology research and innovation. Responsiveness is understood as the capacity and willingness of researchers and producers to integrate societal considerations in early stages of technology development. Co-creation can enhance responsiveness by enabling productive collaborations between researchers and societal stakeholders over longer timeframes, leading to tangible outcomes such as a new research avenue, proposal, product or prototype.

The GoNano co-creation process combined face-to-face citizen engagement, stakeholder workshops and online consultations in three pilot countries, each focusing on different thematic areas (health in the Netherlands, food in the Czech Republic, and energy in Spain).To share our experiences, GoNano developed three webinars that discusses how we developed our co-creation process, our lessons learned, and tips an tricks on how you can develop your own co-creation process.

Each webinar consists of about 45 minutes and provide insights into different aspects of co-creation. Eah webinar is devided into three sessions of 15 min each.

• The first webinar is about What is co-creation and why co-create in research and innovation?
  • Session 1.1: What is co-creation? 
  • Session 1.2: Why co-create in research and innovation?
  • Session 1.3: Who are the stakeholders for a co-creation project?

• The second webinar is about Co-creation in practice
  • Session 2.1: The GoNano Methodology for co-creation
  • Session 2.2: Planning your co-creation process: part 1
  • Session 2.3: Planning your co-creation process: part 2

• The third webinar is about Outcomes and results of co-creation​.
  • Session 3.1: Outcomes and results of co-creation
  • Session 3.2: Recommendations for policy to support responsible research and innovation practices

Enjoy watching and please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any further questions!

This report aims to integrate the insights and lessons learned over the course of the project, reviewing findings from the knowledge base and methodology developed in the early stages of the project and the results of a series of engagement activities organised in the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Spain from October 2018 to November 2019. It considers how the various project activities have contributed to the specific objectives of the GoNano project as well as the overall aim to improve the responsiveness of research and innovation processes to public values and concerns.

The overall GoNano experience has elucidated opportunities and challenges of co-creation as a tool to enhance the responsiveness of research and innovation. The results suggest how focused, guided interactions between different stakeholders can in principle lead to novel suggestions on how to integrate broader considerations in research and innovation decisions. Several insights evolved from wild ideas into specific propositions towards the end of the co-creation process. That said, the gap between the appreciation of broader issues around research and innovation, and the actual integration of those issues in daily research practices and priorities remains significant: the challenge is to get from constructive dialogue to practical action. The GoNano experience suggests that co-creation processes need to identify the concrete interests and address the motivations of all participants, maintain continuity of thought, ‘translate’ needs and concerns from the social realm to practical options in the technological realm, and drill down to the level where the discussion topics and identified courses of action are specific enough to affect the decisions of the actors involved.

Read the full report here: GoNano D4.4 – Insights and lessons from the engagement activities

In summary

GoNano sought to design and implement a co-creation process that aligns nanotechnologies with societal needs and values. The co-creation process aimed to derive concrete suggestions from a deeper understanding of the needs and values of European citizens, and to explore the potential commercial value of integrating societal considerations in nanotechnology research and innovation. To realise these ambitious objectives, the project partners have produced a wealth of information on research and innovation policy, public engagement and co-creation in nanotechnologies.

The overall co-creation process spanned a wide range of activities across Europe. All in all, the workshops have mobilized 249 participants around co-creation in nanotechnologies. Moreover, 46 interviewees from 14 countries have provided their views on nanotechnologies and engagement in the initial stages of the project, 893 respondents from across Europe have commented through an online consultation on the product suggestions resulting from the workshops, and 198 persons responded to the evaluation questionnaires and interviews.

The overall GoNano experience has elucidated opportunities and challenges of co-creation as a tool to enhance the responsiveness of research and innovation. The findings of the GoNano co-creation process confirm that with some effort and careful preparation, it is possible to demonstrate to stakeholders that it does make sense to look at the broader dimensions of research. Participants valued the general opportunities for mutual learning and networking. However, getting from constructive dialogue to practical action remains a significant bottleneck: there is a gap between the appreciation of broader issues around research and innovation and the actual integration of those issues in daily research practices.

The GoNano experience suggests that co-creation processes need to identify the concrete interests and address the motivations of all participants, maintain continuity of thought, ‘translate’ needs and concerns from the social realm to practical options in the technological realm, and drill down to the level where the discussion topics and identified courses of action are specific enough to affect the decisions of the actors involved.

Aligning research and innovation to societal needs and values is not just a matter of deciding what sorts of future applications European citizens and stakeholders want and need (which is difficult enough, given widely divergent responses). It is also a matter of practically realising the desired change. Due to the relative autonomy of the research and innovation system, calls for responsiveness will need to identify the win-win opportunities where ‘doing good’ and ‘doing well’ coincide.

Read the full report here: GoNano D4.4 – Insights and lessons from the engagement activities

*The document may not be seen as an official deliverable of the GoNano project as it has not yet been approved by the European Commission

You can download all the material in the left sidebar:
– Brochure with all information for a co-creation workshop.
– PowerPoint presentation to support the process
– Two posters (extended and simpel version) to print for your event, showing the six-step approach to co-creation
– Practical and strategic canvases to support step 3: Start planning
– Toolkits from other projects and organizations to support step 4: Organize your co-creation event
– YouTube clips with an impression of the GoNano workshop to support step 4: Organizing your co-creation event
– Questionnaire canvas used by GoNano to support step 5: Evaluation and reflection on the process

The GoNano approach

GoNano believes that research and innovation can benefit from being more open to societal needs and concerns. Over the course of three years (2017-2020), GoNano enabled collaborative development (co-creation) in three nanotechnology application areas: food, energy and health. We first consulted citizens about their wishes, needs and concerns regarding future nanotechnology applications. This was used as input for the first and second stakeholder workshops, which aimed to stimulate citizens, civil society organisations, industry, researchers and policy makers across Europe to co-create research aims and think about concrete (product) suggestions for future nanotechnologies. Read more about the GoNano approach and results. 

The deliverable aims to evaluate and demonstrate how co-creative deliberative processes contribute to public and mutual understanding of nanotechnology, how they contribute to building trust between citizens, between public and private institutions, and how co-creative deliberative processes contribute to increased confidence of companies to invest in new (nano-enabled) technologies.

Evaluation design

Post measurements were conducted and consisted of short survey questionnaires after each GoNano co-creation activity as well as follow-up interviews with different kinds of stakeholders after all co-creation activities were completed.

Evaluation findings

Early and continuous engagement of all stakeholders was secured by the iterative process of each co-creation activity (citizen workshop, two stakeholder workshops and the online consultation). Overall, the post-measurements indicated that both citizens and other stakeholders agreed that bringing their perspectives together adds value and insights in what is important to consider when developing nanotechnology applications in the areas of food, health and energy.

Co-creation of knowledge within a responsive R&I system was acknowledged by citizens. They valued the co-creation process where they were asked to provide their views. In addition, stakeholders valued the insights from citizens although not all believed in citizens being able to contribute at an equal level. The stakeholders indicated that co-creation contributes to the acceptability of nanotechnology innovations and leads to an increased understanding of other stakeholders’ perspectives on nanotechnology and product development. However, they were not convinced whether the co-creation could lead to concrete product development.

The quantitative data showed that a large majority of citizens thought their knowledge and understanding of nanotechnology had increased, and they evaluated nanotechnology applications mainly as positive. Their trust in researchers was high. Stakeholders saw the benefits of getting to know each other and learning from each other’s perspectives. In particular, they valued getting new insights and making new contacts. In all, the findings support that the activities contributed to enhanced public understanding of nanotechnology, trust and mutual understanding between citizens, and public and private institutions.

Reflection on the findings

The findings supported that the GoNano co-creation activities contributed to enhanced public understanding of nanotechnology, trust and mutual understanding between citizens, and public and private institutions. Learnings are that co-creation activities, as set up in the GoNano project, are fruitful ways of getting to know considerations from different types of stakeholders and listening to suggestions from citizens. The data also provided a more nuanced understanding of what co-creation entails and provided more context for the perspectives of both citizens and other stakeholders regarding such activities.

That said, also some criticism was raised. In the interviews, stakeholders were most critical about the ‘creation’ part. They thought the co-creation process led to interesting, and sometimes, novel ideas and generated awareness for specific applications of nanotechnology. However, at the same time, the process often remained in the conceptualization phase and did not lead to, for example, prototyping or implementation, while the stakeholders thought that should or could also be part of a co-creation process. They suggested organising a process with different stakeholders in which the implementation of ideas will be central as a follow-up activity. Nevertheless, a number of stakeholders mentioned undertaking specific actions after the co-creation workshops, including: setting up new partnerships, exploring funding opportunities for further product development, giving a presentation at the organization of one of the participants, further exploring one of the topics discussed at the workshop.

Read the full report D4.3 -Evaluation report on the outcomes of the MML platform

*The document may not be seen as an official deliverable of the GoNano project as it has not yet been approved by the European Commission