Maps and Measurements: A Breakthrough in Innovation Systems Analysis

In the innovation race with its high speed and high stakes, deciding with whom to collaborate can be exceedingly tough. The specter of missed opportunity looms like a storm cloud over managers considering where and with whom to invest their financial and human resources. The costs of failing to distinguish between a promising research avenue and a dead end can add up in terms of lost revenue, jobs, and time.

In its global needs analysis, GKI heard a strong call for a new set of tools to more precisely gauge what resources partnerships could deliver and where those partnerships might exist. Too many university administrators interviewed by GKI recalled signing Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) with partners that demonstrated few concrete results. Knowing "you can't manage what you can't measure," today's university administrators, research managers, and policymakers alike seek better yardsticks to measure the partnership potential of their own researchers and others.

Getting into the THICK of it

GKI just launched a unique methodology to help institutions, and the people within them, gain a better understanding of their world of potential partners. Through World Bank support, GKI together with the Stanford Research Institute International devised a framework—the THICK model—that clusters five essential categories of resources and functions required for collaborative innovation and problem solving. The five categories constitute an acronym—THICK—that stands for: Technological resources; Human resources; Institutional resources and infrastructure; Collaboration and communications resources; and Knowledge resources. THICK was originally conceived as a way to help entrepreneurs and non-scientists to take stock of the STI resources required to address challenges in key sectors like health, agriculture, transport, logistics, and energy. The World Bank supported the four-year effort to close the gap between the 20-year old National Innovation Systems model and the realities of innovation dynamics in least developed countries today.

THICK provides a framework for analysis at two levels that GKI uses to help its partners. First, GKI wields the THICK framework to take stock of national STI resources available versus those needed. This analysis provides a context against which any particular STI problem can be appreciated. The emerging map of THICK resources can help an individual or institution find their bearings and consider potential contextual roadblocks. The resulting STI context analysis answers questions like: What are the market conditions for entry? What policies impinge my ability to transfer technology, own intellectual property rights, or conduct joint research? What institutional and technological assets can help me scale a solution to the STI challenge I address?

Second, GKI uses THICK to map the knowledge partnership landscape at the institutional level. For example, the National University of Rwanda (NUR) is embarking on a partnership to address a problem afflicting Rwanda's coffee cherries: an insect is causing the coffee to taste like potatoes. For NUR to maximize new collaborations with entomologists, packaging specialists, and others, researchers can first use the insights revealed through the THICK framework to see what resources their existing partnerships already offer. This "Knowledge Partnership Landscape Analysis" (KPLA) establishes a baseline of current collaborations and the THICK resources they make available.

Together the STI context analysis and the KPLA equip institutions like the NUR with an understanding of the context, community, needs, and opportunities for collaborative activity. The result is a multi-faceted research product that can be used as a decision making tool by government, university administrators, private sector firms, and donors alike. GKI trains its partners in both the THICK methodology and the KPLA methodology so that they may master these analytic tools and wield them in the future. Read more about GKI's recent training of policy makers, researchers, and private sector leaders in Uganda. Training is also a cornerstone of GKI's collaborative problem-solving flagship program, LINK, which will tackle the Rwandan coffee problem and six other challenges in African agriculture. These seven challenges were recently selected by GKI's international Technical Committee. Read more about LINK.

After four years developing the methodology and applying it in Uganda and in Mozambique, the World Bank published two case studies that demonstrate the practical use of THICK. "Science, Technology and Innovation in Uganda, Recommendations for Policy and Action" was released in December 2010 and used by GKI to kick start a national process of science, technology and innovation strategy articulation in Uganda. See full study here (PDF).

Just around the corner

Next up: GKI travels to Pakistan to deliver an Innovation Policy course that will introduce participants from 16 countries to the THICK framework. For one week, we will help mid-career professionals learn how to apply THICK and other tools to solving challenges in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Egypt, Nigeria, and elsewhere. Stay tuned as we report on the results of this training and our plans for collaborative problem-solving in the region.

Contributor: Sara E. Farley
Photo credits: Sara E. Farley and Amanda L. Rose