The future of innovation is open

Over the last few years, the manufacturing world has seen a paradigm shift from closed to Open Innovation (OI). Fewer companies choose to closely guard their ideas and opt for a sharing model which appears to foster greater and more rapid innovation.

At the Institute for Manufacturing, researchers were studying the open approach long before the term Open Innovation was coined.

In this article in Food Science and Technology, Dominic Oughton outlines the IfM journey from research on the collaboration between tech companies to today’s thriving Open Innovation (OI) Forum – a consortium which brings together members from the food, drink and FMCG sectors. Together, they work towards three objectives, which are to:

• Share best practice on HOW to do collaborative/Open Innovation;
• Understand WHAT innovation will be required in the sector based on shared perspectives of future trends, opportunities and challenges related to “hot topics” in the sector;
• Enable real collaboration by identifying WHO to collaborate with (other Forum members and SMEs, startups, researchers).