The why behind Startup Commission
Innovation is essential for the survival of cities and countries; it is a central objective of Europe 2030. However, public administrations are often not perceived as particularly innovative, and they do not seem to act as an accelerator for innovation.
For example, startups are open to new technologies and can often be innovative by default. However, public organizations are often less open to change, which slows down their ability to innovate. This may be linked to a lack of budget or skills, or simply to a cultural issue.
There is no doubt that there is still work to be done on this topic. But we have seen some interesting developments in recent years:
• Innovation diffusion: the adoption of existing innovations by governments is increasing.
• Innovative public policies: governments have started focusing more attention on innovation as a fundamental tool for modernizing public services.
• Innovative processes including digitization are more common; adopting new policies to support innovative development (e.g open data).
• Public procurement and funding models have become more flexible and can better be used by start-ups and scale-ups.
Innovation is certainly not a new concept for governments. Creating infrastructure, space programs and even launching the internet were all government-driven innovations. However, in more recent years, we have seen a shift to innovation coming from the private sector. As governments become more open, start-ups are able to create new solutions for government challenges and policies.
Innovation is a key ingredient for improving the quality of public services and enhancing the efficiency of the public sector
Startups are commonly associated with innovative companies that have the potential to grow quickly. However, innovation is not limited to start-ups. It is a process that can be applied to different stages of a company’s life cycle and in diverse sectors. Innovation should be key to enhance public government. The public sector should be more open to new ideas from citizens as well as from other public administrations and private companies. Innovation is a key ingredient for improving the quality of public services and enhancing the efficiency of the public sector
Many countries around the world have established innovation labs as part of their public institutions. This includes new digital services such as Estonia’s e-residency program or New Zealand’s business verification service.
This shift of focus towards innovation has created a new ecosystem of opportunities for countries themselves. As indicated by some reports, “the results can be transformative”. When governments decide to co-create with start-ups, and use sandbox approach, they can reach out to more citizens through improved services and support a growing industry with vast potential impact on society and economy.
It is crucial to encourage public administrations to innovate in order to improve the quality of their services and enhance the efficiency of the public sector by:
- Ensuring that IT systems are open, interoperable and secure.
- Adopting digital tools and data technologies.
- Implementing new forms of governance involving citizens, businesses and civil society (e.g. co-creation or crowd sourcing) or promoting new business models such as hyper-local collaboration.
- Providing access to knowledge by opening datasets, records and registers.
- Introducing new ways of working, including horizontal collaboration both inside and outside the organization.
- Adopting innovative solutions from startups, SMEs and universities (public procurement)
Startup Commission is a Spanish initiative that aims to bridge the gap between public administration and private innovation. We organize monthly demo days to pitch to politicians, cutting edge innovation coming from emerging start-ups and scale-ups companies. In Spain, we have an amazing ecosystem of entrepreneurs with high value projects that are changing our society, but we need the collaboration of public administration for these projects to grow and really impact our country in a positive way.
