Executive Summary

For ekip, Open Innovation is more than a principle – it is a strategic principal positioning cultural and
creative industries at the forefront of Europe’s innovation cycle. By engaging from the earliest stages, CCIs both shape and benefit from new developments, advancing Europe’s ambitions for greater
competitiveness, sustainability, and global influence.

The application of Open Innovation has benefits not only for the CCIs, but for many other areas in need of
development. But it must be used with a twist. The policy recommendations from ekip show the way for
how to make this change happen.

ekip promotes the application of Open Innovation 3.0, where two key elements are added: (1) stronger CCI involvement across all business sectors and (2) foresight-driven policy recommendations that support innovation policies enabling this approach.

The aim is to make Open Innovation 3.0 into norm and standard practice in innovation ecosystems, and to find ways to support this progress through policy development focusing on innovation ecosystem
building blocks such as infrastructures and networks, investment and funding, regulations and
governance, how to work with skills and competence development, and techniques and technologies. In
addition, sustainable competitiveness must be considered as well as the social dimension.

Empowering Europe through Open Innovation 3.0 means embracing the full potential of CCIs – not as
peripheral actors, but as central partners in shaping the future