Dr Rafael Popper - CASI project partner from the University of Manchester and Principal Scientist at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland - was invited to give a 2-hours keynote, in the EXPOPYME (i.e. EXPO-SMEs) in the context of a large international event of the ELAN Network in Costa Rica, on how to successfully manage sustainable innovations.
The event took place between 7-9th of April 2017 at Costa Rica’s National Stadium with audience of 600 visitors from Latin America and Europe, including:
- Companies, mainly SMEs
- Entrepreneurs
- Technological development centres
- Government entities
- Business associations and clusters from Europe and Latin America
In the heart of the keynote was Dr Popper’s new equation for Sustainable Innovation:
The equation introduces the role of passion (P) and vision (V) as well as of the assessment (A) and management (M) for sustainable innovation (SI) in the implementation and diffusion stages of the process. It builds on the state of the art analysis and lessons learned from the systematic mapping of practices, outcomes and players of over 500 innovations across and beyond Europe. The work is based on the recently completed “CASI-F: Common Framework for the Assessment and Management of Sustainable Innovation” and was very well received and appreciated by the audience. Most SME participants acknowledged that while some degree of vision (usually short-term) and passion were always present in their businesses, they did lack systematic assessment and management supporting the sustainability of their innovations.
Special thanks to FinCEAL Plus initiative, financed by the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture and the University of Helsinki (acting on behalf of Finnish University Partnership for International Development) for the Targeted Travel Grant, as well as CENAT, CONICIT, and the EARTH University, all of whom allowed to pursue a unique opportunity to promote the CASI-F Framework amongst European and Latin American companies.
