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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - ACCOMPLISSH (Accelerate co-creation by setting up a multi-actor platform for impact from Social Sciences and Humanities)

Teaser

Summary

The ACCOMPLISSH project (Accelerate co-creation by setting up a multi-actor platform for impact from Social Sciences and Humanities) has created a platform for dialogue. This platform has been organized in such a way that academia, industry, governments and societal partners equally contribute in identifying barriers and enablers of co-creation. The results from both practice and the theory of co-creation form the basis of the valorisation concept.
Valorisation of knowledge in this respect means:

â€œThe process of value-creation arising out of knowledge, by making this knowledge suitable and available for economic or societal utilisation and to translate this into high-potential products, services, processes or industrial activity.â€

The valorisation concept has been tested in the project in a quadruple helix setting. Traditional valorisation approaches focus on linear processes: from academia to society. In order to bring valorisation to a higher level, all relevant actors needed to cooperate in an equal setting: co-creation. Co-creation transcends boundaries, but it does not happen naturally. Therefore, the ACCOMPLISSH consortium, consisting of 14 universities from 12 countries, has involved partners from the so called Quadruple Helix (industry, governments and societal partners) within the project. The ACCOMPLISSH project has identified barriers and enablers of co-creation.

Conclusions
During the project period we have:
1) analysed the concept of co-creation and concepts that belong to the same â€˜family like valorization, social impact etc. â€˜within policy discourses over the last twenty years;
2) further conceptualized the concepts on the basis of scientific literature
3) tested co-creation in practice.

The results of this analysis were twofold. On the one hand we published papers based on 1-3. Besides that, we have used the insights of this dialectical process to develop training courses and materials like guides and toolkits.
We actively developed our consortium and transformed it into a platform with members from academia, enterprises, governments and civil organizations. All of the stakeholders actively contributed on our platform and we expect that they will continue to do so in the future.
We are convinced that we have contributed to the changing â€˜impactâ€™ landscape in the European Union. Only 4 years ago, we were part of a discourse, that mainly talked about valorization, integration between SSH and STEM and science for society, but in the last few years we slowly transformed into a more co-creational type of discourse in which impact/social impact is the key and co-creation is seen as the way forward in the new Horizon Europe programme.

Work performed

1 A dialogue platform has been established, consisting of academia, government, industry and societal organisations. Annual meetings have been organized. The input from the quadruple helix partners in the project was an important goal and objective of the project, both at general meetings and at the co-creation process at the different institutions
Output: dialogues platform (basecamp, website)

2 We also analysed co-creation in theory by looking at literature and focused on barriers and enablers of co-creation.
Output: the report Analysing co-creation in theory and in practice â€“ A systemic review of the SSH impact literature .
Analysis of the practice of co-creation has further enhanced our knowledge of this process. Within the consortium, each academic partner brought forward stakeholders from the quadruple helix sectors to work with in the co-creation process. The project has served as a â€˜living labâ€™ with regards to the practice side of the co-creation process.
Output: Quadruple Helix Co-creation in SSH â€“ Experiences, Considerations, Lessons Learned has been delivered during the reporting period.

3 We also looked at the concept of co-creation in policy documents throughout Europe and looked at concepts that are in the same â€˜familyâ€™, like impact and valorization. We could evidence that the use of the concepts around co-creation has gone up and has become more and more â€˜engagedâ€™, because co-creation has shifted from a more economical concept to a more SSH value based concept.
Outputs: policy analysis is included in Analysing co-creation in theory and in practice â€“ A systemic review of the SSH impact literature.

4 More practical use
Based on the research carried out in the first phase, we developed products to maximize our impact by reaching out to all the partners in the quadruple helix. Key in our strategy is the idea that valorisation must be integrated into the academic process from the start, articulating research questions and throughout the entire research process. Impact generation from SSH research will be examined not only from an academic perspective; but we also see an important role for research support officers in promoting impact and co-creation.
To maximize impact we should focus on reaching out to research support officers, who can bridge the gap between Science and Society from the university perspective.
Output: Working Paper: Principles for promoting the impact of SSH research by co-creation: key issues in research design and communication

5 To further advance the practical application of SSH research findings, we used innovative methods and newfound expertise to develop new types of products and services.
Outputs: Regional Impact Development Plans, Guide to Co-Creation (available online) MOOC â€œResearch Impact: Making a Differenceâ€ (available via futurelearn)

6 One final objective of the project has been to deliver an innovative valorisation concept. Based on delivered theoretical analysis and on the reports and analysis of co-creation in practice, the valorisation concept was further developed in the final year of the project in a holistic â€˜meta toolkitâ€™
Output: Guide to Impact Planning (available online)

Final results

ACCOMPLISSH has made an impact on the entire field of SSH and co-creation. In 2015 co-creation was seen as a methodology to include end-users or consumers in the designing process of a product or service. Also SSH research was seen as an add-on to other projects.
Almost four years later, co-creation is now much more a methodology to include all kind of partners in projects (from the entire quadruple helix). For example the new Horizon Europe program will involve stakeholders from the first phase of gathering ideas, all the way to the evaluation of projects.

The same can be said for SSH research in general. When Horizon2020 started, the idea was to integrate this type of research throughout all of the grand challenges and analyzing this by flagging topics and monitor the quality of collaboration.

The new Horizon Europe program already acknowledges the important role of SSH throughout the whole project lifecycle (from idea to impact) and aims to co-create calls, projects and impact together with SSH research, for example by including SSH researchers in panels and committees.
Of course, other projects and associations have also been important in this paradigm shift (for example SIAMPI, EASSH, IMPACTEV) but ACCOMPLISSH definitely contributed to this shift as well.

So to conclude, the wider impact of co-creation and the integral use of SSH will be enormous, but maybe not directly traceable to ACCOMPLISSH. But the consortium is really proud to be part of this movement and will continue to disseminate knowledge and products from the project.