Supporting system innovation in the bio-economy: illustration of an innovation feasibility evaluation instrument

Europe is strongly encouraging the transition of the petroleum based economy to a bio-economy that uses renewable biomass as feedstock to produce a wide range of food, material and energy products. The cornerstone to successfully innovate towards this more sustainable system will be a multitude of radical and incremental chances across many actors in the involved industries. However, many organizations are reluctant to risk investing time, money and other valuable resources in innovation research and development because of the uncertainty of a successful outcome. One important way to reduce this uncertainty is a thorough feasibility check of innovative ideas to identify those with the highest chance of success. Many tools have been developed to aid in evaluating ideas. However, these tools are often not adjusted to the growing number of innovation processes that are conducted in a more open, iterative, multi-dimensional and multi-stakeholder setting.
Therefore, we developed a tool to help evaluate the feasibility of innovative ideas that can be integrated in this more open, participatory way of innovation research. Based on literature review and interviews with innovation experts, a number criteria and sub-criteria were identified. These criteria where than translated into a tool using principles from multi-criteria analyses. To further optimize the tool, it has been extensively tested in three bio-economy innovation projects.
In this paper, we explain how the tool is built and validated, how it functions and how it has to be used. Furthermore, we elaborate on how such tools can also offer important benefits to facilitate formation of and discussion within innovation networks. These benefits are further explained using examples from the three bio-economy cases.