11_041-052_Nuesse (SC8)_000-000_Steel Constr. (3sp).qxd 09.02.12 12:34 Seite 48
G. Nuesse/M. Limbachiya/R. Herr/A. Ellis · Managing interdisciplinary applied research on sustainability in construction with the help of an innovation broker
Fig. 2. Varying interests of science and industry in an IWG accompanying a CR project
In the early innovation phases, the IB’s tasks consist chiefly of active ideas management in which the IB initiates or accepts and collects idea outlines, taking them to the point of industrial pre-evaluation of an initial proposal. The IB also tries very early on, within the scope of network management, to arrange industry contacts to support the idea and promotes the forging of collaboration between the research institutes and the relevant industry representatives. At the very start of the innovation process, the IB is thus performing the groundwork aimed at preventing the possible weakness – outlined at the start – of a lack of practical orientation in the project. This activity, not yet completely project-related, can be likened to that of a (product) champion role at the conception stage, which is characteristic of early support for an innovation and through which an idea is promoted based on conviction and with the political skill often required. As part of early ideas management, the IB also tries to initiate and maintain communication between the parties from science and industry, thus helping to define clearly the project goals of both players. Possibly varying expectations of a project criticized at the outset are thus harmonized early on and a clear starting point for the
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desired project phase comes about. All in all, the activities of the IB during the early innovation phases can be summed up as those of a coordinating and contact point for innovations. Haller [34] appropriately describes the challenge of such a position in “concentrating on dealings with ideas generators and in supporting their individual needs related to the finding, formulation and implementation of new innovative ideas”. In return, the IB confirms a lasting increase in the quality of new research initiatives. The IB engages in the subsequent arranging of talks with possible funding providers as part of active funding management, which based on the results can be interpreted as the most important aspect of the administrative innovation phases from the research institutes’ perspective. For this activity, the IB must recognize the process steps required in the administrative phases of a pre-competitive CR project and play a supportive role, taking account of the often differing requirements of the various funding providers in the process of seeking to attract funds. The IB’s tasks in this instance can be likened to that of a process promoter, who in this situation is acting as a translator between the linguistic worlds of tech-
nology and economics. On the basis of possible experience from previous CR projects, the IB can also use the knowledge of specific funding providers across projects, which will give the actual project-related promoter role impetus over time. In the project phase, the IB’s activities are related to the project level on the one hand but also require cross-project action on the other. On the basis of the research institutes’ view, the IB’s tasks can be assigned to five different management areas. For the project phase, as indeed already described for the early innovation phases, this means that the IB should engage in active network management for the project. The research institutes welcome support with finding and linking-up suitable experts from the relevant specialist fields, who are in turn willing to supervise a specific project. In addition, the IB should in this context assist in identifying companies that may be interested in implementing the research results and should promote the recruitment of additional participants for the IWG during the course of the project. Another element in the IB’s tasks during the project phase is topic-related information management, which helps the research institutes to obtain information about parallel projects on similar topics and find out about industry trends in the course of the project. Also important to the research institutes is support for discussing interim results, which can be achieved through active knowledge management by the IB. Correspondingly adapted team management, which helps the IB to guide the project group, including the IWG, to an optimum working model and in which disruptive factors in the group are prevented early on or jointly resolved, are also regarded as desirable by the research institutes. There is a degree of consensus between the industry representatives’ views and the research institutes’ assessments in relation to the project phase. This concerns the IB tasks of network management and information management. In addition, the industry representatives regard it as desirable for the IB – as part of the IB’s knowledge management activities and apart from supporting discussions on interim results – to assist with the for-