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INNOVATION IMPACT of action driven more by imagination and less by fi nite optimisation. The key to adopting innovation is an educated public with an open A further democratisation of the demand for innovation may help to attitude, willing and able to try and explore new approaches. This break the oligopoly of global players on knowledge markets. Emerg- involves both education that fosters an appreciation of change and ing technologies provide opportunities for the implementation of new creativity and the transmission of innovative ideas as a social goal. and better-informed arrangements at different levels of aggregation. Horizon 2020, with its emphasis on the importance of inclusion- Entrusting the dissemination and exploitation of results to experts in innovation-security, has the potential to help the SSH to contribute dissemination is probably a way to shorten the path from research to strengthening European societies. Innovation impact in these to the benefi t of citizens. The scientifi c coordinator of a research fi elds has to be conceived in relation to a wide range of actors and project is not necessarily the best actor for promoting ideas on structures in society. these issues or for managing this type of work. A solution could consist of developing dedicated calls for proposals to fund support To adopt innovative practises in the way societal actors compete projects on the dissemination and exploitation of research projects. and cooperate to achieve inclusion, innovation, and security, it is Furthermore, open access to data and fi ndings is crucial to facilitat- necessary to both generate societal knowledge about the changing ing wide access to research results by all kinds of communities and nature of these social ‘values’ – inclusion, innovation, and security has to be strongly supported and developed. are not stable goals, but change their meaning and form under new conditions – and to make it relevant to especially those actors who Innovation has been around as a slogan long enough that there shape processes and conditions for others. The possibilities for this is a risk of taking a static understanding of it. But both the nature are conditioned by the change, pointed to above, in the relation- and conditions of innovation are constantly changing, and many ship between citizens and governing institutions. Also, the nature of different fi elds within the social sciences and humanities contribute collective self-refl ection and self-organisation in Western societies is to our understanding hereof. It is therefore highly appropriate that undergoing dramatic change, and for research on innovation, inclu- the last section of the last challenge directs the question of ‘innova- sion, and security to have innovative impact on actual innovation, tion impact’ at the fi eld of innovation. A key task for Europe is to inclusion and security, it is crucial to update institutional arrange- become innovative about innovation, and the social sciences and ments. These are big and obviously controversial issues, because the humanities have important contributions to make, especially when specifi c questions of science policy raise questions about ‘democratis- innovation is analysed in association with inclusion and security. ing expertise’ and ‘expertising democracy’ that unavoidably tie into more general questions about possible innovations for democracy about refl exive and knowledge-based governance. These are chal- lenges both at the level of the nation-states and for the EU. In relation to the market and growth, promoting diffusion by identifying the relevant actors and networks of knowledge and promoting inter-organisational networks of learning will be useful. Opening up the potentials of a knowledge-based economy, however, demands a diffusion 82


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