Open Innovation Spaces

The rise of the Impact Campus. A new and growing niche I’ve been tracking—and why it matters now more than ever. We all know the startup campus or tech hub model. Innovation Centres in the UK. Coworking spaces with accelerators bolted on. These places act as magnets, drawing startups and shaping local tech communities. But something new is emerging. And fast. Meet the Impact Campus. It’s a lesser-known niche. Like a long-lost cousin of the tech campus, but with a fresh vibe. Built for mission-driven founders working in sustainability, healthcare, education, financial inclusion, mental health, and more. More than CSR, these spaces are designed from the ground up to support real impact. So who’s doing this well? 1. Norrsken House (Sweden, Rwanda, Barcelona) Founded by Klarna co-founder Niklas Adalberth, Norrsken runs some of Europe and Africa’s largest impact hubs. Their Kigali campus is Africa’s biggest, bringing together investors, NGOs, and startups to tackle global challenges. 2. The Unknown Group – Unknown Campus (The Hague) Housed in a former Dutch ministry, this curated space connects impact founders with capital, policymakers, and industry experts. They call it “a place where rebels grow ventures,” bridging public and private innovation. 3. bUm - Raum für solidarisches Miteinander (Berlin) Located in the 'old' Google Campus Berlin, bUm is a community-focused space where NGOs, cooperatives, and grassroots groups share resources. More a community center than a startup lab—but impactful nonetheless. A few examples. I know, the third’s a bit of an outlier. But it’s interesting to see a campus gone awry transform into a space for impact. Duly noted. So why does this matter? Because it’s a smarter way to use real estate—one that drives social change instead of widening inequality, which all too often remains the default. Think of it as infrastructure with a purpose. And if we want better solutions to real-world problems, we need more spaces like this. That’s something I can get behind. So keep your eyes peeled. More are coming. ✌🏼 Photo: Norrsken Kigali House, by Chris Schwagga

After a decade in the innovation domain, I can tell you this: Open innovation stopped being about “introductions and handshakes” a long time ago. The old idea to put startups and corporations in the same room and hope something magical happens is outdated and, if I may add- dangerous. This is largely due to the fact that organizational readiness - culture, processes, alignment, appetite for change to work with a startup matters just as much as finding the “right” startup itself. Which is why open innovation requires something deeper, more consultative, more... open. Over the years, at Plug and Play Tech Center, this has taken the form of: 1️⃣ Preparing organizations for change. Not just radical moonshots, but often the small shifts that drive meaningful impact. 2️⃣ Helping teams "zoom out" to see their organization for what it is - getting their heads out of the sand to understand capabilities, culture, and execution holistically. 3️⃣ Building platforms for knowledge exchange. Not just startup-to-corporate, but also corporate-to-startup (yes, we have events where corporations pitch TO startups!). 4️⃣ Facilitating peer learning among competitors. Because in the age of AI, no one can innovate alone. It truly takes a village - a collective of corporates, governments, universities, researchers, investors and startups all collaborating. This end-to-end, consultative approach is what makes open innovation work today. And I’m grateful to be contributing towards building the bridges that connect these diverse perspectives, and unlocking possibilities that simply wouldn’t exist otherwise in silos.

Innovation Districts ++ [entrepreneurial network] Innovation Districts are human-scaled, mixed-use urban environments where knowledge, creativity, and enterprise converge, anchored by institutions, energized by entrepreneurs, and shaped as walkable places that foster daily interaction, collaboration, and the exchange of ideas. For city leaders and developers, the opportunity is clear: intentionally identify and shape places where innovation can flourish. Key characteristics to consider when developing an Innovation District: 1. Proximity to anchor institutions: Major universities, medical centers, or research hubs that generate talent and ideas 2. Large available (vacant) land or underutilized districts: Areas ready for adaptive reuse 3. Strong talent pipeline: Access to students, graduates, and skilled workforce 4. Connectivity: Close to transit, major highways, and international airports for global access When done right, Innovation Districts become engines of entrepreneurship, job creation, and long-term economic resilience, positioning cities as competitive hubs for talent, investment, and the future economy.

Communities are the secret sauce of your innovation and transformation efforts. But first, what are some tried-and-tested methods and tools to enable innovation? The good folks at States of Change and Nesta compiled lots of innovation methods and approaches into one overview structured into four spaces: 🧠 Intelligence Space—Helps you make sense of and conceptualise reality 🧪 Solution Space—Helps you test and develop solutions 🤖 Technology Space—Helps you enable action and change through tech 👯 Talent Space—Helps you mobilise talent to make change happen The tendency is to focus on methods, frameworks, and tech first. But here's the catch: Great tools, teach, and frameworks (think Design Thinking, Innovation Sprints, AR/ VR) are empty boxes without skilled, engaged, and empowered people to use them. 🫣 When you mobilise your internal talent through communities, learning networks, co-creation, action learning, and adaptive leadership, you unlock the full potential of the solution space. Why? Because solutions created with communities (rather than for them) are adopted faster and are more likely to withstand the test of time. 🔥 👩🔬 If you want to embed innovation into your organization, you must make it a habit, not a one-time event. Communities create safer spaces for sharing ideas, experimentation, prototyping, and iteration. They allow you to test solutions quickly with buy-in from the people they impact. This ensures that whatever solution you roll out is relevant and anchored in "their daily reality." 🤝 Communities bring accountability, collective ownership, and resilience to innovation. This ensures the diversity of voices involved in the process, which usually leads to new insights. Knowledge is being shared faster across departments, and bottom-up approaches foster engagement and that resourceful "can do" attitude. When you place your bet on people, you’re not just accelerating innovation. You’re also creating a system where results stick. Who in my network is involved in any shape or form with innovation and transformation projects in 2025? 👀