Many innovations involve changes which transcend the individual business or are only achievable when various businesses and/or interested parties take up the challenge together. In System Innovation Programmes, the necessary innovations are facilitated by means of workshops related to specific areas and by forming socio-technical networks

Buurma, J.S.

Migchels, G.

Visser, A.J.

English

Buurma, J.

Visser, A.

Organic Eprints

Facilitating innovations

NARCIS 

Name not available

Wageningen Yield 

 16 < syscope > 17 
>> Region-based workshops
Some businesses are not able to innovate on their own. The situa-
tion in an individual business, the physical environment, the power 
sphere of interested parties or restrictive laws and regulations do 
not always allow for this. Innovations often involve changes that 
transcend the individual business and are only achievable if various 
businesses and interested parties work together to achieve the 
necessary changes. The question is, how do you organise things  
to ensure that the parties find common ground in new ideas and 
projects?
The System Innovation Programmes have acquired the necessary 
experience in workshops related to regional issues in diverse 
regions and with diverse issues (Veerse Meer, Maashorst, marsh-
meadow areas, Overijsselse Vecht). These workshops have proved 
to be an excellent instrument in order to bring together entrepre-
neurs and other interested parties in the region to come up with 
innovative ideas and projects. The way the workshop is set up is 
very important. Sometimes fruitful collaboration seems impossible 
because the short term interests of various regional parties are dia-
metrically opposed. If the starting point is a region specific problem 
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Facilitating innovations
Many innovations involve changes which transcend the individual business or are only achievable 
when various businesses and/or interested parties take up the challenge together. In System 
Innovation Programmes, the necessary innovations are facilitated by means of workshops related 
to specific areas and by forming socio-technical networks. 
The Regional Farm
In the Regional Farm concept, six themes  
for regional collaboration have been expand-
ed upon where entrepreneurs can extract 
added-value. Agricultural businesses collabo-
rate intensively or merge together. 
The entrepreneurs manage machinery in col-
laboration so that they can be utilized more 
efficiently. They also divide the tasks, which 
leads to specialization and a more efficient 
business operation. The time that the entre-
preneurs gain can be used to broaden their 
activities. Farmers combine their individual 
conservation plans into a single local conser-
vation plan and manage it as a group.  
At regional level the wooded ridges, banks, 
old creek beds and natural ditches form a 
coherent whole.
Maashorst Energie is a cooperative venture 
formed around one or more biomass fermen- 
 
tation installations. There is enough raw  
material in the Maashorst to generate a  
total capacity of 15 to 20 megawatt. The 
manure surplus, some 28,000 truckloads, 
together with corn, grass or crop remains 
are turned into electricity and heat by  
mixed-fermentation.
Regional supermarket branches are develop-
ing their own brand together with the 
Maashorst farmers. With new – regional – 
products, the producers and retailers earn 
more. The supermarkets also radiate the  
luxury and quality image of the region. The 
Maashorst also attracts new target groups 
with luxury accommodation. Think of double 
income earners who are happy to pay for 
authenticity, luxury, privacy, wellness and 
comfort. Agrarian buildings are converted 
into accommodation “Maashorst” style and 
package deals are developed.
and/or a future vision, then this results in shared visions and inter-
ests. From that point, you can move towards innovative ideas which 
can be addressed in project form. It is essential to tap into the 
innovative power, positive interest and energy of the parties 
involved. A good example of this is the Regional Farm concept,  
an umbrella term for all sorts of different cooperative activities  
in the Maashorst, an area in the province of Brabant of about  
4000 hectares (see box).
>> Socio-technical networks
It often appears that various parties (entrepreneurs, supply and  
production chains, public interest groups) already have ideas for 
innovations in a common domain, aspect of a chain or farm man-
agement . The problem is that they are not able to find each other 
– literally and figuratively – or that they meet up with obstacles  
that they can’t surmount on their own. 
A socio-technical network unites the diverse parties around this sort 
of common issue. The name refers back to the two main factors 
involved in this sort of network. It is not only a question of the tech-
nical aspects of innovation, but also changes in the way people  
collaborate and in the institutional environment.
>> Visions
Initiating the network begins with an extensive round of interviews 
with the various parties. These interviews are summarized in an 
innovation landscape: an overview of the concerns and mindsets of 
the different parties. This system reveals both the central problem 
or challenge and the search direction for the short term (operation-
al) or long term (strategic). In this way, it becomes clear where  
the common ground is and where their visions diverge from one 
another. These visions are discussed and where possible, coali-
tions are made around shared directions for solutions. This is the 
basis for forming projects. In this way completely new initiatives 
and close-knit networks grow around a common challenge. It is  
precisely because the parties are appealed to on the basis of what 
they themselves find important, that there is a good chance that 
this sort of network will work with a united front.
>> Surprising results
System Innovation Programmes have acquired a great deal of expe-
rience with socio-technical networks. This organisational form has 
lead to future-oriented sustainable initiatives and surprising results. 
Where research and policy have been inclined to look for solutions 
within their own field of expertise, socio-technical networks often 
search for avenues for a solution in a different way. One such  
surprising result is found in the project Mobysant (mobile cultivation 
system for chrysanthemums) for the chrysanthemum network.  
This was initiated to deal with the issue of pest control. The sustain-
able solution was found via an innovative mobile cultivation system 
that also deals with other operational dilemmas. The forming of a 
chain for the supermarket channel in the gerbera sector is a good 
example of a result when market and chain parties discover one 
another within a network. 
Socio-technical networks are also used as a tool in innovation  
projects to ensure that a broad collaboration born of shared inte-
rest actually works on innovations and on surmounting obstacles.
For more information: Jan Buurma (socio-technical networks), t +31 70 3358303, e jan.buurma@wur.nl
Andries Visser (region-oriented workshops), t +31 320 291347, e andries.visser@wur.nl
Gerard Migchels (region-oriented workshops), t +31 320 293461, e gerard.migchels@wur.nl
Stakeholders debating the issue of nutrient leaching on sandy soils in the Netherlands. They stand in a landscape between profit (foreground), planet (background), technology (right) and 
regulations (left). The body language clearly shows that the stakeholders in grid 5 and 7 on the left have their doubts about the opinions of the farmer in grid 9 on the right. The opinions 
and the body language of the players can be used to form coalitions and/or to divide tasks around the subject of innovation. More information can be found in Buurma et al., 2006.


Facilitating innovations

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