Innovation Barriers & Enablers Card Deck
A research-based tool to explore the systemic conditions shaping innovation in the cultural heritage sector. This card deck identifies the factors that enable or constrain CHIs within Europe’s open innovation ecosystems, supporting reflection, collaboration and policy development.
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Author
- Josep Maria Folch Olivella, ekip (2025)
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Audience
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Resource type
Cultural Heritage Institutions (CHIs) are increasingly recognised as active contributors to Europe’s open innovation ecosystems. Through their trusted infrastructures, community relationships and long-term cultural knowledge, they can strengthen innovation capacity across sectors and support more inclusive and sustainable forms of development. At the same time, their ability to do so depends on the wider conditions in which they operate. Innovation in the heritage field is often shaped by a complex mix of enabling factors and structural barriers from flexible governance and civic engagement to rigid funding schemes and fragmented policies.
The Innovation Barriers & Enablers Card Deck has been developed from grounded, exploratory research combining desk research, policy analysis, semi-structured interviews and participatory observation. It identifies the systemic factors that can either support or constrain CHIs’ participation in innovation, offering a practical tool for reflection, dialogue and policy design.
The cards can be used in workshops, strategy sessions or collaborative projects to explore how institutional, regulatory and cultural contexts influence innovation processes as well as to imagine pathways towards more open, adaptive and supportive innovation ecosystems.
