How research institutions can foster innovation

Carrying out research—if done right—inherently means being innovative. We use ‘innovation’ in a broad sense, that is, as the creation of something new: an idea, a concept, way of looking at things, method or approach. We specifically do not use the term solely—as it often is— as the development of new technologies with practical applications, which can be marketed for commercial purposes. Naturally, in this sense, being innovative is intimately linked to being creative or imaginative. No-one wants to discover what others have already found. Innovation, by definition, requires novelty. Novelty is an important source of scientific breakthroughs and has great technological impact.[1] Such breakthroughs often come about when scientists combine disciplines, ideas, approaches, or tools in novel and unexpected ways. While clearly only very few scientific breakthroughs result in Nobel Prizes, we can all increase our impact by taking a more innovative approach. Importantly, research institutions stand to benefit from fostering innovation within their walls. A reputation for truly ground-breaking work attracts better scientists, students and more funding—all key success factors. But how can institutions promote innovative research? Various initiatives have been implemented to encourage researchers to collaborate across disciplines and embrace the ‘Third Mission’ of universities to promote relationships between public sector research and business.[2,3 ] However, dedicated institutional strategies aimed at fostering innovation at the level of their research units are still comparatively rare. Here, we try to briefly outline what, in our experience, academic research institutions can do to help their scientists become more innovative, followed by a brief example of a programme that implements these practices and approaches.