INSPIRE: Expanding Open Innovation Methods to Complex Engineered Systems

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This Integrated NSF Support Promoting Interdisciplinary Research and Education (INSPIRE) project is jointly funded by the Systems Science program in the Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI) Division in the Engineering Directorate, by the Science of Science and Innovation Policy in the Office of Multidisciplinary Activities in the Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Directorate, and by the Office of Integrative Activities. The America COMPETES Act embodies a presidential directive for federal agencies to "spur innovation, solve tough problems, and advance their core missions" through an expanded use of open innovation methods. Open innovation describes an approach that solicits external input through for example, prizes, challenges and crowdsourcing. Despite the enormous promise of the approach, current successes are limited to a small subset of the potential applications implied in the vision. The theory generated through this award will provide the scientific basis for expanding the implementation of open methods to increasingly complex problems, by identifying the parts of problems most amenable to open methods. This has implications for how agencies solicit Research and Development (R&D) and how firms organize their research enterprise and incentivize their employees. It will provide a path to sustained American Competitiveness. In addition, an increased use of open innovation explicitly breaks down barriers to participation. It opens STEM for everyone; creating pathways, particularly for resource-constrained schools, to engage students in real-world problem solving.This award supports fundamental research to generate knowledge about how open innovation methods can be made applicable to complex systems through appropriate upfront decomposition. Specifically it will address two questions: (1) How does the extent of problem decomposition effect a) the ability for external solvers to contribute and b) the quality of solutions received? And: (2) How can organizations capture the value of open innovation methods and overcome adoption challenges? Addressing each question builds a necessary scientific basis for the complex phenomenon of open innovation policy and requires a novel integration of theory and methods from multiple disciplines. With respect to question (1), heuristics for how to best decompose a given system to leverage external contributions will be identified based on a simulation model and a series of field experiments. The theoretical basis will draw on organization design, systems engineering, economics, and the motivations of designers. Question (2) will be addressed through an in-depth longitudinal study of NASA?s ongoing experiment deploying open innovation methods within its existing R&D process. Field observations of how internal R&D experts respond to their changing identity from "problem solver" to "solution seeker" will be synthesized to explain how this necessary transition can be mitigated without losing internal talent. Theoretically, question 2 challenges longstanding assumptions about the optimal way to organize for innovation. This research will transform current practices in terms of how innovation is organized.