OIS Research Conference 2019

Together with Christoph Grimpe from Copenhagen Business School and Henry Sauermann from ESMT Berlin, Susanne Beck and Marion Poetz (LBG OIS Center and Copenhagen Business School) organized the first Open Innovation in Science (OIS) Research Conference in Vienna.

The conference program included inspiring keynotes by Markus Nordberg from CERN, who provided a personal reflection on Open Science and Open Innovation, and Iris Ott from the Natural History Museum (NHM) Vienna, who talked about linking basic research, citizen science and science communication at the NHM Vienna. Furthermore, 20 research papers on different OIS processes and their antecedents, consequences and boundary conditions were presented and discussed in six parallel paper sessions. Most importantly, participating researchers from various disciplines within and across the social sciences discussed and integrated the fragmented insights on Open Innovation, Open Science and related concepts (e.g., Citizen Science, RRI, Inter- and Transdisciplinary Research, Third Mission, Public Engagement) to develop the foundation for better understanding antecedents, processes, consequences and contingencies of openness and collaboration in the context of science.

Along these lines, the conference participants built the backbone for a collaborative writing experiment as part of which 47 co-authors jointly developed a scholarly article for a Special Issue on Open Innovation in Science in Industry and Innovation.

The article “The Open Innovation in Science research field: a collaborative conceptualisation approach” was published online ahead of print in August 2020 and is available HERE. Soon becoming one of the most read articles of the journal, it was also included in the Industry and Innovation 30th Anniversary Collection (2023), which presents a collection of 30 impactful research articles published in the journal over the past 30 years. The entire special issue on Open Innovation in Science is available HERE.

The successful process and outcome of this first conference experiment in 2019 inspired us to continue “walking the talk” by engaging conference participants in new ways of using or thinking about openness and collaboration in scientific research. The “OIS Experiment” consequently became an integral part of future OIS Research Conferences.

As part of the conference in 2019, participants were also able to experience a customized tour at the Art History Museum in Vienna. In this tour, conference participants enjoyed learning more about the relationships between art, science and society across different art eras using selected works of art.