Three Interreg MED projects - COWORKMed, CreativeWear, and ProminentMED - showcase how Knowledge Champions can promote inclusive innovation in different ways. COWORKMed advocates for inclusive innovation and territorial proximity through co-working spaces. CreativeWear enhances cognitive, social, and spatial proximity dimensions through innovation hubs. ProminentMED advocates its public procurement model and creates a trans-local network through direct support. The brief provides tips for policymakers to encourage the emergence of Knowledge Champions, leverage their actions towards inclusive innovation, and promote transnational knowledge flows and territorial receptivity.

1. Policy Briefing n. 5
KNOWLEDGE CHAMPIONS FOR INCLUSIVE INNOVATION
25.02.2018

2. TALIA Policy Briefing n. 5
INCLUSIVE INNOVATION
“Pursuing efficiency does not guarantee equity, while focusing exclusively
on equity could undermine efficiency. Thus, there is a need to pursue
efficiency and equity at the same time, although neither spatially-blind nor
place-based policies alone are in a position to do so.” (DG Regio)1
A common feature of the initiatives promoting Creative and Social Innovation
in the INTERREG-MED programme is that they are working towards
innovation that is ‘inclusive by design’. They promote new business models
and opportunities for employment, open up these possibilities to people of
different gender, origin, and cultural background, and bring innovation to
communities in rural, remote and insular areas to build territorial cohesion.
The search for ways for “pursuing efficiency and equity at the same time”
seems to find particularly fertile ground in the Mediterranean space.
Inclusive innovation also requires connection of Mediterranean territories
with global trends and impulses. A recent policy brief from Nordregio states:
“a vital element in composing sustainable innovation strategies for smart
specialisation at the regional level is the identification of opportunities for
mutual learning and the exchange of practices from other regions”.2
There is
no reason why this tenet should not be applied to the MED area too. As a
matter of fact, the “outward looking” dimension of smart specialisation is
now considered one of the less exploited elements by the regions and
countries engaged with it.
An important role in addressing this shortcoming can be played by
‘Knowledge Champions’, defined here as organisations in either the public
and private spheres who are active both within and outside a certain
territory and make a key contribution to a region’s capacity to grasp,
understand and process knowledge coming from the outside. Knowledge
Champions create the required networking and cooperation opportunities to
sustain regional development in an increasingly globalized world, something
that neither entrepreneurship nor policy actions alone have proven capable of
attaining.
This Policy Brief looks at concrete ways for enhancing the contribution of
Knowledge Champions to territorial dynamics of proximity and agglomeration
in a context of transnational cooperation. This entails a focus on the learning
dynamics that occur prior to diffused innovation, considered in all its possible
meanings: technological, organisational, social, and institutional. In particular,
we explore how on-going projects in the Creative and Social Innovation
community leverage Knowledge Champions to promote joint collaborative
efforts by local stakeholders and policy makers, towards the development of
an innovation climate that favours inclusive knowledge creation, transfer and
assimilation.
1. DG R���� – D���������� G������ ��� R������� ��� U���� P����� (2017) “W�� R������� D���������� ������� ��� E�����'� E������� F�����”.
W������ P���� 07/2017. L���������, E������� C���������.
2. N���� M������ (2017) “C������� I��������� ��� R�������� R������ ������� S���� S������������� – B�� H��?”. N�������� N��� #1/2017 I��������� ��� G���������.

3. KNOWLEDGE CHAMPIONS
The concept of Knowledge Champions finds its origin some 20 years ago in
the field of Knowledge Management,3
and has points of contact with more
recent theories on the diffusion of innovation,4
particularly in the definition
of Change Agents. Both of these approaches however remain within the
confines of a single organisation, so it is useful here to adapt the concept
to organisations in territories, using theories linking innovation dynamics
to proximity at the regional and interregional level.5
In this broader view, Knowledge Champions leverage their capacity to act
as ‘hubs’ of networked relations and knowledge exchanges with other local
and non-local actors. The following picture highlights the three main areas
of their actions.
The three elements in the above diagram can be developed as follows:
• Advocacy – or advertising and heralding the positive implications of territorial
proximity towards local actors. According to Ron Boschma,7
there are five relevant
dimensions to proximity, which all go beyond geographical closeness:
- Cognitive proximity: common knowledge bases with complementary capabilities.
- Organisational proximity: in specifically designed arrangements.8
- Social proximity: personal/professional ties.
- Institutional proximity: trust and reciprocity.9
- Spatial/relational proximity: mixing local ‘buzz’ and trans-local ‘pipelines’.10
This advocacy role can be played out in different ways, both verbally and by example,
and by different actors – e.g. private or public, national or foreign, etc. It can be
purposeful, or just the by-product or other meaningful behaviours that ultimately
encourage knowledge sharing and diffused learning within the population.
• Support – or a dedicated ‘service’, coordinating and/or directly managing the
delivery of ‘ad hoc’ experimentations, involving local as well as non-local actors in
knowledge sharing, learning and capture sessions. Given the tendency of policy
makers and businesses alike to learn from other experiences and good practice
examples, this role can provide valuable ideas for R&D and innovation initiatives that
can lead to transformations of existing products, services, processes and policies.
• Knowledge Brokering – or the creation of linkages to knowledge and information
resources outside the immediate context of local and/or trans-local actors.
This brokerage role can also include networking with other Knowledge Champions
and people who have been identified as sources of valuable experience or expertise.
It implies a needs analysis and a prompt response to requests for help, but may also
lead to the serendipitous discovery of resources that address those needs.
TALIA Policy Briefing n. 5
3. S�� ��� ���������� ������ �� P������ L���� ��� E���� T�� (2006) “G��������� ��� I����������, M��������� ��� S��������� K�������� C��������”.
M����. S������ K��������. R�������� ������ �� F������� 2018 ��:
4. ������ M. R����� (1983) D�������� �� I����������. T���� E������. N�� Y���, T�� F��� P����.
5. R�� A. B������ (2005) “P�������� ��� I���������: A C������� A���������”. R������� S������, 39(1): 61–74.
6. L���� ��� T��, ��.
7. B������, ��. ���.
8. M��� D����� ��� K��� F������ (2018) “P��������, K�������� B��� ��� ��� I��������� P������: T������ �� I��������� F��������”.
R������� S������, 52(1): 23-34.
9. M��� G���������� (1985) “E������� A����� ��� E������� S��������: T�� P������ �� E�����������”. A������� J������ �� S�������� 91: 481-510.
10. H����� B������, A����� M������� ��� P���� M������ (2004) “C������� ��� K��������: L���� B���, G����� P�������� ��� ��� P������ �� K��������
C�������”. P������� �� H���� G��������, 28(1): 31–56.
Advocacy Support
Knowledge
Brokering
The ASK Framework for Knowledge Champions6
www.greenchameleon.com/uploads/KMChampionGuidelinesAS.doc

4. Three on-going projects in the Creative and Social Innovation
community are promoting Knowledge Champions in different ways.
We can analyse their dynamics by mapping their approach onto the
three types of Knowledge Champions’ action and the five dimensions
of proximity defined above.
The COWORKMed project has studied the emergence of coworking spaces,
defined as “a physical space aiming to build and implement a dynamic
community of users sharing a propensity to foster collaborative, open and
sustainable relationships. Coworking spaces are actively managed to
promote these goals, also by organising events and activities supporting
mutual learning and exchanges and by developing new functional
typologies and interactions with other services or centers.”
As such co-working spaces are “inclusive by design”, with an advocacy role
for inclusive innovation and territorial proximity. COWORKMed further
explored the territorial positive externalities of coworking (on social and
economic development or mobility issues) and connections between urban
and rural spaces and communities.
See: https://coworkmed.interreg-med.eu/
KNOWLEDGE CHAMPIONS IN THE MED PROGRAMME
COWORKMED
TALIA Policy Briefing n. 5

5. The CreativeWear project aims to revitalize the crisis-ridden textile and
clothing sector through a new attention to creativity, personalized design,
and artisan and small-scale production. The project sets up a series of Hubs
that apply different approaches to innovating existing and traditional value
chains through new creativity-driven business models.
The contribution of these hubs to inclusive innovation is located at the
cognitive, but also the social and spatial/relational proximity dimensions,
which are enhanced by both knowledge brokering and direct support
initiatives. Their activities in fact aim to capture opportunities stemming
from the deeper integration of technology and/or culture in the sector’s
design and manufacturing. When it comes to the creation of a hub network,
this is not directly supported by the project, but heralded and widely
disseminated to highlight its knowledge brokering potentials.
See: https://creativewear.interreg-med.eu/
CREATIVEWEAR
The ProminentMed project instead focuses on the use of Public
Procurement of Innovation (PPI) to stimulate the adoption of innovative
products and services that can improve the quality of services for citizens.
The project applies this approach to the procurement of energy efficient
materials and processes for public buildings’ energy refurbishment,
addressing the lack of shared knowledge among regional and local actors
concerning the procedures involved in PPI.
Advocacy of the ProminentMED model and the creation of a peer-to-peer
network acting as a trans-local organisational space and a knowledge
brokering service for small sized MED based procurers are accompanied by
a direct support service in the revision of existing rules and procedures, via
the PPI Model, to be shared both within and outside the participating
clusters and administrative bodies.
See: https://prominent-med.interreg-med.eu/
PROMINENTMED
TALIA Policy Briefing n. 5

6. TALIA Policy Briefing n. 5
The examples drawn from MED projects in the Creative and Social Innovation
community are notable because they show what Knowledge Champions do and
how their work can be supported, rather than naming them as such. The main
lesson for policy makers is to focus on the function of Knowledge Champions for
inclusive innovation in their territory, rather than try to classify their role through
targeted measures. The following tips provide suggestions in this direction.
1. Encourage the spontaneous emergence of Knowledge Champions in your area.
This can occur through a variation of the Entrepreneurial Discovery Process11
that
focuses less on new market or technological opportunities and more on helping
new and additional intermediaries – the Knowledge Champions – to emerge, as
capable of “building of connections and partnerships” between local and non-local
actors, leading to “the integration of entrepreneurial knowledge fragmented and
distributed over many sites”.12
Indeed, a key role of interregional cooperation – and
particularly of the MED programme – is to bring current and future Knowledge
Champions to the attention of policy makers.
2. Take advantage of Interreg MED projects in your region to understand the
policy role of Knowledge Champions.
Looking at MED results, policy makers can see which actors in their territories are
active as Knowledge Champions and which economic sectors are most affected by
them. Patterns of transition and impact generation can be identified at different
geographical levels, highlighting contributions to the different dimensions of
proximity and therefore, to a broader concept of agglomeration economies, still
driven by knowledge spillovers but not necessarily related to co-location and the
co-presence of all involved actors.13
POLICY TIPS
11. R������ H������� ��� D��� R����� (2003) “E������� D���������� �� S���-D��������”. J������ �� D���������� E�������� 72: 603-633.
12. S���� S������������� P������� (2017) “E�������������� D�������� P������”. R�������� ������ �� F������� 2018
��:
13. J��� B. P��� (2002) “A������������ ���������: A���������� ��� ����������”. E���������� ��� P������� A, 34(4): 717–731.
http://s3platform.jrc.ec.europa.eu/entrepreneurial-discovery-edp

7. 3. Steer the actions of local Knowledge Champions towards Inclusive
Innovation.
This effort is complementary, but not contradictory, to the definition of
‘Inclusive Innovation’ that is now gaining momentum, in the transition
between the current and forthcoming programming periods. In fact,
‘inclusive’ not only refers to the social groups that are usually by growth
and development processes, as stipulated e.g. in the Europe 2020 vision. In
the frame of inclusive innovation, it can also refer to the need for
‘entrepreneurial discovery’ of all local and trans-local actors whose
behaviour is conducive to diffused innovation in a territory, considering
innovation in all its possible meanings: technological, organisational, social,
institutional, etc.
4. Leverage Knowledge Champions to promote ‘territorial receptivity’.
Many of the insights intermediated by Knowledge Champions come from
outside, rather than within, a certain territory. This evidence matches what
the literature calls ‘territorial receptivity’,14
broadly defined as a region’s
capacity to understand knowledge coming from the outside. Receptivity is
seen as dependent on relational capacity, or the existence of a solid fabric
of actors, firms and institutions with a common sense of belonging and
inclined to collaboration enabling collective learning processes.
5. Seize opportunities to promote transnational knowledge flows in your regions.
There can be many ways of attracting and processing external knowledge, which in
turn point to distinct candidates for the identification of further Knowledge
Champions:
• Participation in national and international R&D and innovation networks such as
technological districts, innovation poles, university associations, scientific and
technological parks, etc.
• Peer-to-peer linkages ‘at the bottom of the pyramid’ with comparable creative
actors and organisations such as living labs, fablabs, creative clusters, etc.
• Imitation and emulation processes, which can take place at both the company
and policy levels, being promoted and facilitated by the broader concept of
proximity – with all its dimensions – outlined above.
We also remind you that one of the opportunities offered by the Creative and
Social Innovation community to regional and national policy makers is to receive a
fresh and frequent update of the transnational activities supported by the Interreg
MED programme that can help enhance and reinforce the effectiveness of
innovation policies.
Want to stay up to date with activities and events related to Creative and Social
Innovation in the MED programme?
Sign up to the newsletter at https://tinyurl.com/y8u46zv6
TALIA Policy Briefing n. 5
14. R������ C������ (2017) “T������ � ��� ����������������� �� ���������� �� �����: ����������� �������� �� ����������”.
I������������ J������ �� U���� ��� R������� R�������, 41(6): 976-996.

8. Policy Briefing n. 5
KNOWLEDGE CHAMPIONS FOR INCLUSIVE INNOVATION
25.02.2018