INNOVATION DISTRICT: WHERE TECHNOLOGY MEETS SUSTAINABLE LOCAL DEVELOPMENT

The concept of Open Innovation has become an essential aspect of how managers conceive their company and innovation strategies, in every sector and geographical context. Nowadays, in order to stay competitive and effectively address technological and market challenges, innovation must necessarily be open and interconnected. There is no alternative.

THE GROWING ROLE OF PHYSICAL SPACE IN OPEN INNOVATION MODELS

However, the Open Innovation model itself is undergoing changes. Theorized in the early 2000s by Prof. Henry Chesbrough as an innovation strategy whereby a company deliberately and purposefully assimilates and commercializes external knowledge, more recently Open Innovation is enriching itself with increasingly distributed, decentralized models, based on a strong ecosystem approach, and with a key role played by physical space. In this context, the innovation district has emerged as a model within the Open Innovation paradigm, becoming one of the most interesting and promising ones.

Innovation districts are geographical areas where institutions (such as universities, public research centers and government agencies) and companies come together and connect with start-ups, incubators and accelerators, in order to stimulate and develop what can be referred to as innovation-based proximity economies. In recent years, a number of innovation districts have emerged worldwide, including the United States, Mexico, Australia, Sweden, South Korea and many others.

The distinctive idea of innovation districts, which distinguishes them from traditional industrial districts and science parks, is their eminently urban and metropolitan nature. Innovation districts are born within cities, in highly urbanized and densely populated areas, which are not by chance the main areas for the attraction of knowledge-intensive workers as recognized, among others, by Enrico Moretti, Professor of Economics at Berkeley, in his essay "The new geography of work".

The success of innovation districts lies in their "orchestrated" nature, where there is an effective vision and collaborative architecture between the different entities involved. This allows for the availability and effective exchange of human and technological resources, resulting in innovation production. It is no coincidence that innovation districts exhibit a positive correlation between innovation intensity, employment rate, meritocracy, and social mobility. Additionally, economic activity is combined with the presence of related services, associations, and representatives of civil society, which make the innovation district a social ecosystem, made up of relationships and people before economic transactions and knowledge, enhancing the concept of sustainable and inclusive local growth.

THE THREE MAIN OUTPUTS OF THE ACTIVITY OF AN INNOVATION DISTRICT 

The activity of an innovation district produces three main outputs or benefits, as identified by the Aretian & Opinno Research Center in their research publication "The Atlas of Innovation Districts":

• Innovation intensity, which indicates the production of new knowledge that takes place in the district and that can be measured with the percentage of professionals working in knowledge-intensive activities for geographical unit
• Innovation performance, which indicates the tangible outcomes of the innovation produced each year by the district, including for example the number of new products or services, the number of patents or the number of scientific publications that it produces
• Innovation impact, perhaps the most important macro-area because of the attention that innovation districts place on the quality of life of their inhabitants, and that considers the benefits of the district on the community. It can be measured with a series of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) such as the diversity index, the economic and social inequality index, or the meritocracy index.

THE EXAMPLE OF MIND AND THE ROLE OF FEDERATED INNOVATION NETWORK 

MIND - Milano Innovation District - has recently been established in the City of Milan (and partly in Rho), on the same site that hosted EXPO 2015, thanks to the initiative of key players Arexpo, Lendlease, IRCCS Galeazzi, University of Milan, Cascina Triulza, Human Technopole - more recently joined by the Politecnico di Milano and Federated Innovation. MIND embodies and incorporates the characteristics of modern innovation districts mentioned earlier and aims to generate innovation characterized by a high level of intensity, performance, impact - the three key dimensions along which measure the results of an "innovation district", as discussed before.

One of the distinctive aspects of MIND, which makes it a particularly interesting case among international innovation districts, is that it hosts the Federated Innovation network. This network functions as the "operating system" of innovation within the district and comprises approximately 40 companies that have chosen to engage in Open Innovation together, according to the principle "Collaborate to Compete" and using MIND as the ideal place to start and test their innovative projects.

These companies are organized into 12 thematic areas, organized along two lines that qualify the innovation that Federated Innovation promotes, and that is of particular interest for the Future of MIND, namely The City of The Future and The Future of Health. The network contract, which establish the basis for collaboration among these leading Italian and international companies, defines clear rules for intellectual property management. This allows Federated Innovation members to engage in pre-competitive innovation by pooling their resources and expertise, and subsequently utilize the knowledge and technology generated to bring their products and services to market.

In addition, Federated Innovation is a unique network as it leverages MIND as a platform for rapid testing of ideas and prototypes generated through the innovation projects. Moreover, the innovative solutions developed within Federated Innovation can be readily adopted within the district itself, which is currently under construction. This enables MIND to incorporate cutting-edge technologies and advanced models.

Federated Innovation also plays a significant role in connecting member companies with a large business community that includes startups and individual talents. Notably, MIND has attracted Skydeck Europe (the European chapter of the start-up accelerator of the University of Berkeley, California): this fosters interaction and collaboration to realize Open Innovation projects.

Among others, the role of Federated Innovation as a "catalyst" of innovation within MIND, is one of the most distinctive and peculiar elements of the Milan Innovation district itself, which distinguishes it from most similar experiences at the international level.

In conclusion, although there is great enthusiasm today for the innovation district model, it is challenging to predict the long-term future this archetype will experience. In our country, the ambition to replicate the Silicon Valley model has always clashed with the complexity of recreating that connective tissue of tacit and social relationships that have been developed over decades in California, and which has been the main reason for success, more than the availability of financial capital. In this regard, innovation districts represent one of the few models capable of overcoming these challenges by placing human capital and social capital at the core of their operations: the combination of skills and relationship is what drives innovation and local development, integrating sustainability, inclusiveness, and new technology.

Federico Frattini

Ambassador City of the Future