9
PROGRAMME OF ACTIVITIES 2014-2015
adopted at the Board’s 20th (3rd extended) Session on 15 May,
to be considered at 4th General meeting of KEN Members on 25 November 2014
I. The Way Ahead
Building on achievements in initial three years of operation, and after the KEN Forum in Cape Town, the fourth and the next years of operations of the Network are expected to be marked with some important changes in the conceptual outlook and consequently in its modus operandi.
So far KEN has been engaged primarily in:
- Informing members about knowledge economy developments, awareness building and dissemination of good practice, including presentation of Awards in 5 categories;
- providing policy discussion platform and connecting policy makers with stakeholders at regional and national level;
- doing some research; and
- servicing individual members.
During the first two years the geographical outreach of membership and scope of activities remained primarily focused on Europe, with emphasis on Central and South Eastern Europe, including Turkey. The third year of operations, 2013, has already demonstrated more clearly KEN’s global orientation, with the annual Forum in South Africa and the conferences in Nigeria and in Wolverhampton, UK.
On 25 September 2013 KEN IAB Task Group (chaired by the KEN IAB Vice Chairman Prof. R.A.Mashelkar, prepared a Report, which was delivered to all KEN IAB members for further consultation and has been fullheartedly accepted. The Report has proposed KEN to evolve in a combined way: developing as a Network + simultaneuously operate as a Think Tank on knowledge economy issues. This is not excluding in the longer run the possible addition of the dimension of a knowledge economy “Movement”. Such orientation has of course major implications for the future of KEN. The Report acknowledges that the KEN brand created so far is worth being preserved and further strengthened.
In summary the strategy of KEN is to be positioned on the following pillars:
- global character of activities and membership base;
- demand-driven program to be fine-tuned on the basis of analysis of the relevant environments and “competition”;
- strong and structured service platform, oriented at high impact of activities, with emphasis on “next practice” and foresight.
In order to enable itself to develop the defined profile, and to follow this strategy KEN has to create the following conditions and prerequisites:
- define its own research profile – remaining within the originally defined four knowledge economy domains (education, R&D, innovation, and entrepreneurship) - while focusing on and emphasizing the critical implementation mechanisms in the innovation ecosystem and measuring progress “beyond GDP”;
- develop collaborative links with relevant international entities, and act as a network of networks;
- create a strong partnership base, with stable funding necessary for sustaining a small, but highly qualified and motivated Network Secretariat;
- prepare itself for combining the topic of the annual Forum with consulting services to the host or other entity in the hosting country.
II. Further Development of KEN Profile
1. Having been conceptually further refined and more clearly defined, KEN will have more possibilities to reach out to interested policy-makers and stakeholders worldwide, and thereby confirm its global nature and outreach.
2. It becomes, therefore, even more important for KEN to develop as an open space and productive platform for all the actors interested to promote, support or contribute to knowledge economy developments.
However, at this stage, KEN is probably not mature yet to become an international movement with a massive membership. For the time being, the best option is a balanced structure of 3-4 partners and about 50 members: a core group of influential members, to be complemented and supported in some activities (for example: participation at the KEN events) by a larger number of members which would participate only in certain activities of KEN, and benefit through a limited scope of services (like KEN periodical information).
3. While retaining KEN identity as ‘Knowledge Economy Network”, the new understanding of the way how the role of innovation in KEN should be recognized is that the terminology of ‘knowledge economy’ is being often substituted by some others concepts, such as: innovation or creative economy. KEN will closely follow these transitional processes and their various manifestations around the world.
4. The fundamental question about `who are KEN’s potential partners and members’ needs to be answered, and their needs assessed through a well designed market research. On this basis KEN services will properly meet the needs of relevant policy makers and stakeholders. KEN has to leverage its special strengths, which are its:
n inclusive and holistic approach,
n coverage of the four strongly interconnected domains,
n ability to link the macro and micro spheres, and
n strong emphasis on action with reffective implementation mechanisms.
Targeted users for KEN services are:
(1) policy makers,
(2) decision makers in business and academia, and
(3) opinion makers (media and knowledge economy experts).
In order to achieve these goals, KEN has to systematically analyze its “international competition”.
5. KEN strives to contribute to the processes of creating a true knowledge society at all levels, from local to global, which will have the following distinct characteristics:
i) It uses knowledge through all its constituents and endeavours to empower members of respective commuinities;
ii) It uses knowledge as a powerful tool to drive societal transformation;
iii) It is a learning society committed to innovation;
iv) It has the capacity to generate, absorb, disseminate and protect knowledge, and also use it to create economic wealth and social good for all its constituents;
v) It enlightens people to take an integrated view of life as a fusion of mind, body and spirit.
KEN will attempt to develop a Knowledge Development Index by assigning quantitative measures to these characteristics, wherever possible. There may be a vast variation of Knowledge Development Indeces at country as well as sub-country level.
6. KEN will pay greater attention to converting `information’ to `insights’, since whereas access to information is rather cheap and easy, access to insights is more complex and expensive task. KEN’s offerings need to be contemporary, strongly evidence based, as well as based on strong predictive analytics.
III. Implementation Priorities for the Program
(a) KEN membership base needs to be strengthened and to be enriched till the end of 2015 by individual members (new category), who will be entitled to pay 100 EUR per year, but with limited scope of services: receiving KEN publications and being invited to participate at all KEN events. However, this effort will be realized only on pilot basis.
(b) A good analysis of “competition” will be a priority task. On that basis, KEN Secretariat will define in very specific ways its services to policy makers and other categories of members. KEN will create a particular niche of activities in order to develop further and concentrate its efforts around it, taking into consideration the demand-driven approach and in accordance with the philosophy of affordable excellence.
(c) KEN will establish closer links with a number of related entities. To this purpose, a list of organizations active globally and regionally, which could be potential partners, will be identified. Links section at KEN website will be established, too, in order to give the opportunity to such entities to shortly present themselves with link to their website (and vice versa) for KEN presentation at other networks websites. They will be also invited to participate at the KEN Forum and other KEN events. For expanding KEN, the best possibilities in the world should be considered, including certain regions, where there are enough financial resources (e.g. the Gulf States, Malaysia) and where government policies emphasize knowledge based developments (some Latin American countries: Brazil, Mexico, Chile).
(d) A clear menu of services, offered by KEN in its role as Knowledge Economy Think Tank, will be defined, and after being adopted by the Advisory Board, these services will be actively offered to the potential clients in the public and private sector. The key issue is to define the specific strength and value added which the KEN Think Tank can offer to its future clients as paying services. The Secretariat will continue developing a Pool of Experts (for the start of about 15-20 experts) within the 4 domains of KEN activities, with some potential members of the pool being already in the current composition of IAB. KEN partners will be invited to make a selection of their best experts to be involved in KEN Expert Pool - offering consultancy services to various national and international entities. However, while the development of the Think Tank is strategically important, it should not prevent the growth of quality of services for Network members.
(e) Financial stability of the Network should be secured by acquiring 1-2 patrons and about 4 partners to join KEN in 2014-2015, with partnership contracts for a three-year period. In order to come closer to this aim, KEN’s comparative advantages and value added potential vis-à-vis the specific potential partners will be carefully mapped out, and the extent of value creation (monetary terms, brand enhancement, etc.) for KEN will be estimated carefully before approaching the individual potential partners or patrons.
(f) The Expertize Matrix should become operational in first quarter of 2015. It is supposed to be operated by the member in Slovenia, the Jozef Stefan Institute which is going to link our own information on individual members with their large information system which covers about 10,000 newspapers around the globe. This should enable KEN members to obtain a quick access to information about their competitors and potential partners.
(g) Another attempt will be made to identify an interested global PR company which might be engaged in 2015 for the execution of the KEN Award.
(h) Besides the annual Forum to be hosted by the City of Ljubljana, at least 2 workshops should be organized during 2014 – respecting as much as possible the geographical balance.
(i) KEN will try to establish contacts with organisations that could participate in funding some KEN’s actitivies: the Knowledge Economy Multidoor Fund of Inter American Development Bank (GCM-SW@iadb), International Organisation for Knowledge Economy and Enterprise Development (www.ided.org), World Bank Institute (wbi.worldbank.org), etc.
(j) Certain important international business schools (like Rotman School of Management of the University of Toronto) or institutes/centres at research intensive universities (like Institute of Science Policy and Society of the University of Ottawa) will also be invited to join KEN.
(k) Among companies, only bigger ones usually have their outlook broad enough to appreciate the mission of KEN, and its services. Such organisations should be invited to become associated with the Network (like Dow Chemicals, Intel, CISCO, Microsoft). Even there, personal introductions will be essential.
(l) Various chambers and other business and research associations should be invited, to put KEN’s link on their web pages in order to increase its visibility KEN among its own membership.
(m) Research and Innovation agencies, as well as larger research institutes and their associations (like: Fraunhofer), as well as Gazelle Business Clubs, should also be contacted in view of potential partnership or membership.
(n) KEN should enter into partnership with relevant international organizations, such as OECD and World Bank Institute. This will require preparatory exchanges and eventually adequate visits.
IV. Key Activities in the Program
1. Establishing links with relevant entities:
Based on the first assessment of 11 entities selected, prepared by KEN Secretariat in February 2014, and after establishing priorities, the following actions are envisaged:
Entity / Action to be undertakenFIRST PRIORITY
World Knowledge Forum
Seoul / Proposal for Cooperation Agreement, possible involvement already at their 15th Forum 14-16 October
OECD STI Directorate, Paris / Examine possible synchronization of the two Fora
International Organisation for Knowledge Economy and Enterprise Development – IKED
Malmö / Proposal for Cooperation Agreement;
Emphasis on entrepreneurial education
SECOND PRIORITY
Global Knowledge Partnership Foundation
Asturias, Spain / Collect more information;
It seems Expert Pool could be engaged in their services
World Bank Institute
Washington / Visit proposed to establish possibilities for collaboration
Knowledge Economy Multidonor Fund of the Inter American Development Bank, Washington / Collect more information on possible modalities of collaboration
OTHER
World Economic Forum, WEF
Cologny/Geneva / Time permitting – to explore possibilities for some kind of cooperation
ORF Observer Research Foundation,
New Delhi / Prof.Mashelkar will assess the potential
Lisbon Council for Economic Competitiveness and Social Renewal,
Brussels / Perhaps could do some events together?
European Business & Innovation Centre Network, EBN
Brussels / Perhaps could be interesting to enter into collaboration for servicing KEN members from business sector
Qatar Foundation for Education, Science, and Community Development, Qatar / Difficult to communicate, otherwise could be interesting to collaborate
KEN Secretariat will continue monitoring relevant initiatives and activities, in order to avoid possible duplication and create conditions for synergies and collaboration.
2. Possible Synergy with OECD
Prof. Mashelkar, KEN IAB Vice-Chair, participated at the OECD Advisory Group Meeting of the Knowledge and Innovation for Inclusive Growth Project in Paris on 19 March, 2014. On that occasion he contacted Mr. Dominique Guellec from Directorate for Science, Innovation and Technology, explaining him the readiness of KEN to join the efforts and synergize with OECD in the field of knowledge economy issues (particularly regarding the two annual Fora, which are not sufficiently differentiated).
3. KEN Report on Innovation Hubs
Several KEN members from Slovenia are preparing the establishment of a new “Slovenian Innovation Hub”, and SBRA together with KEN Secretariat are actively engaged in the process. It has been decided that an Expert Task Force composed of KEN members (chaired by Prof.Mashelkar) will prepare a report on the potential and implementation modalities of the future Hub. The activities of the Hub are expected to be supported mostly by EU Structural funds during the period 2014-2020. The report will be presented at the 4th KEN Forum in Ljubljana, taking place on 25-26 November 2014. It was agreed that several KEN IAB Members will be part of the Task Force (Howard Alper, Nava Swersky Sofer, Metka Stare).