// 2. STRUCTURE APPROPRIATELY You may have noticed that in the previous sections we
they move towards a legal structure which inevitably leads to
continually stressed the importance of open partnerships,
drawing boundaries, distinguishing the financial resources of
stakeholder engagement, and the role of champions. These
potential associates, and so forth.
ingredients initially flourish in an open and unstructured environment, based on loose connections between preexisting organizations that are usually capable of managing the first activities on behalf of the broader partnership. At some point however, the need usually emerges to give that specific partnership its own institutional structure. Understanding when is the right moment to take this step and the nature of the structure to provide – its level of autonomy, governance structure, openness, etc. – is critical to the success of your citizen-driven innovation strategy.
We therefore suggest you adopt a gradual approach towards institutionalization. A first step can be to create an open partnership that may require no legal form at all, using instead a simple multi-stakeholder Memorandum of Understanding. Signatories can jointly commit to collaboration with the aim of co-designing innovative city services, adhering to a set of ethical principles such as the rules you defined in the early stages of your partnership building process. Individual projects requiring the management of financial resources can be carried out with specific agreements among the contracting parties.
We cannot tell you exactly the right moment to act or the right structure to adopt, but we can highlight some of the issues to be taken into consideration when the question arises. Be aware of the special nature of more or less spontaneous, ‘selforganized’ partnerships that can have very fragile dynamics. As a city Mayor or administrator, you are used requiring some kind of institutional form in order to be able to act on any initiative. All too often, however, creative networks can collapse as
//ensuring sustainability
Box 29 THE ART OF THE MOU Several European projects, notably the CentraLab project and its Budapest Manifesto, have specifically addressed different ways of designing Memoranda of Understanding for Living Lab innovation partnerships, based on the exploration and experimentation of different governance models.
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