Initiative & Background
To navigate an increasingly dynamic world, Skåne and Blekinge must enhance their ability to adapt and become more agile in their innovation efforts. The cultural and creative industries play a key role in this process, bringing unique expertise in analyzing, interpreting, and understanding societal developments from multiple perspectives.
Therefore, the Regional Culture Department of Skåne and Region Blekinge are leading this project, supported by the European Regional Development Fund, to strengthen collaboration and development across the region.
The project aims to establish Cross Innovation as an integral part of the innovation ecosystems in Blekinge and Skåne. By enhancing the innovation capacity of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the project seeks to drive the development of new products, processes, and business models that strengthen competitiveness, productivity, and employment while promoting ecological and social sustainability.
The target group includes SMEs, actors within the business support ecosystem, and the public sector. Participants will gain access to new methods, working approaches, and networks that foster collaboration and knowledge exchange.
The project is expected to support 120 companies, leading to increased cross-sector collaboration, innovation development, and the adoption of new technologies and processes.
This is a comprehensive and complex project, which naturally follows from the broad collaboration between various stakeholders and the agile working methodology applied. This dynamic is both a prerequisite for and a result of the project's progress.
For the Regional Culture Department of Skåne, it is essential that the project is anchored in Region Skåne’s Cultural Plan and aligned with the strategic development areas outlined in Skåne vill.
On a broader level, the work must also align with the agendas set by the Research and Innovation Council of Skåne (FIRS). For Region Blekinge, it is crucial that the project contributes to the region’s smart specialization strategy, with a particular focus on the development areas defined within the region’s Missions. The Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth (Tillväxtverket) has the mandate to ensure that the project maintains a long-term perspective that extends beyond the specific project period.
At the same time, it is essential that the efforts effectively reach the project’s two primary target groups: small and medium-sized enterprises in Skåne and Blekinge, as well as regional actors within the innovation ecosystem.
The concept of Cross Innovation is relatively new and has emerged in response to the growing recognition that innovation can often be enhanced by transcending boundaries and bringing together ideas, knowledge, and expertise from different sectors and disciplines. We view it as an umbrella term encompassing various methods and tools, where expertise from the cultural and creative industries plays a crucial role as a catalyst for change.
The project is structured into multiple components, with each process led by one or more process leaders. Our process leaders apply established and proven innovation tools, tailoring the process design to the specific needs of each activity. Informally, we often say that design methodology permeates everything we do—from problem analysis to implementation.
Timeline
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Our Innovation Challenges took place during the first year of the project, featuring short innovation labs lasting 2–3 days. The focus areas were based on the smart specialization strategies of Region Blekinge and Region Skåne.
Our Cross Innovation Lab fosters collaboration between industries, artists, and creators to develop new products, processes, and services. Participants tackle complex problems, generate ideas, and co-create solutions, taking them from concept to production.
Our Pop Up Offices are temporary physical spaces or locations established in collaboration with other partners who aim to support small and medium-sized enterprises. The primary goal is always to enhance competence in innovation, creativity, and collaboration. We strive to ensure that half of the participating companies come from the cultural and creative industries, while the other half represent different sectors.
Co-Creation is a collaborative process where we work on behalf of various municipalities in Skåne and Blekinge to address complex issues and challenges. The project provides design, facilitation, and compensated creatives to tackle complex problems such as water supply, social isolation, or vacant properties.
In collaboration with Lund University’s Digital Interactive Concert Hall (LUDICH project), we support the exploration of technical and artistic solutions to both identify and modify individual sound sources, as well as spatially position them based on distance, angle, and height in relation to the stage. These solutions are essential for creating a digital concert experience where the user can amplify or attenuate individual instruments while visually zooming in on a specific part or detail of the overall performance.
Radical explores new perspectives on the climate crisis through collaborations between artists, researchers, and entrepreneurs. Using speculative design, we work with future scenarios where humanity is forced to adapt to the plant kingdom in order to survive.
The focus is on investigating how innovation ecosystems and support structures can evolve through interdisciplinary collaboration. Radical challenges established perceptions and inspires new solutions to the greatest challenges of our time.
A large part of the work with Cross Innvation involves solving complex issues at a systemic level. This means that many need to be involved from various sectors of society. Listen to some of our participating municipalitites share their experiences.
Work on the old warehouse in Smedstorp has just begun within the framework of Co-Creation 3. Listen to an interview with property owner Christer Andersson and business manager Henrik Lundblad, conducted by P4 Malmöhus on February 10, 2025
The locomotive sheds in Kirseberg are a beautiful but underrutilized industrial area with potential for creative businesses. During Co-Creation 1, Malmö City, Jernhusen, and cultural actors have explored the area's possibilites, where a parallel artistic process and strong engagement from the creative industries have been highlighted as key elements in its development.
Listen to an interview from Karlshamn Municipality where we share the work dine during Co-Creation 2 on the theme of involuntary loneliness. Strengthened relationships and networks, concrete initiatives to continue working with, and methodologies for working with co-creation processes are some of the participants' experiences.
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