Innovation Futures: New forms of Innovation and their implications for innovation policy

While new organisational models of innovation were intensively discussed in the last decade, there is little systematic exploration concerning their potential for different sectors and areas and their wider implications for economy and society. We present findings from an international foresight project which analyses and discusses the emergence and diffusion of new innovation patterns and their consequences for innovation policy. Based on a collection of international practice examples from industry and society, innovation visions have been generated and assessed involving different experts from all over Europe. A generic trend identified can be best described as open, distributed and networked innovation process which is to a certain extent already addressed in current innovation policy making. However, other trends such as the increased use of information technologies or new spatial shifts related to organising and doing innovation have rather been underestimated so far and will require new policy responses in the future.