The numerous articles produced in the CoSIE project contribute to the body of knowledge on co-creation of service innovation. On this page we've hand-picked a few of the project's results in the form of policy briefs, academic papers and tools.
Policy Brief III: A New Agenda for Co-Creating Public Services
This paper draws together key findings from Co-creation of Public Service Innovation in Europe project (CoSIE) with a particular focus on what these imply for new policy and practice in public services in the form of a discussion paper aimed at European, national and regional policy-makers. The big ideas emerging from Horizon 2020 CoSIE can be grouped together as ideas associated with conceptualising co-creation, implementing co-creation and moving beyond piloting co-creation to extending co-creation across systems.
The CoSIE project builds on the idea that public sector innovations can be best achieved by creating collaborative exchanges or partnerships between service providers (i.e. public sector agencies, third sector organizations, private companies) and citizens who benefit from services either directly or indirectly. Co-creation in CoSIE is a collaborative and power balancing activity that aims to enrich and enhance the individual and collective value in public service offerings at any stage in the development of new service and during its implementation. It is manifested in a constructive exchange of different kinds of resources (ideas, competences, lived experience, etc.) that enhance the experienced value of public service.
Policy Brief II: Co-creation of Social Innovation
Complex societal challenges, such as an ageing society in conjunction with austerity in public services are immune to quick-fix solutions. Societal challenges are wicked in a sense that they have multiple possible solutions and the ‘goodness’ of each solution always depends on the adopted approach.
This policy brief acknowledges the conventional approach to social innovation in terms of innovative activities and services that are motivated by the goal of meeting societal needs. Such needs are predominantly disseminated through organisations whose primary purposes are societal, and who call for changes in both our thinking and our actions. Wicked challenges should not be thought of as problems to be solved per se, but conditions to be managed.
Drawing on public service logic, service-dominant logic for value (co)-creation and complexity thinking, this policy aims to broaden policymakers’ mindsets and provide heuristic tools to practitioners to capture emergent social innovation.
It proposes the following five recommendations: 1) support self-organisation and enable emergence, 2) cultivate the ecosystem of social innovation, 3) tackle uncertainty by providing small wins, 4) ensure diversity by promoting feedback and sense-making and 5) enrich interaction through digital technology. The recommendations emphasise the interactive nature of social innovation and speak of the need for systemic change.
The policy brief includes several highlights from the CoSIE project.
Policy Brief I: Relevance, Understanding and Motivation – The Key Catalysts of Co-creation
This policy paper highlights the state-of-the-art of co-creation in service design in ten European countries and also lists some of the key challenges and successes of co-creation. The Policy Brief states that when successfully implemented, co-creation gives people a possibility to communicate, express their views and ideas and feel part of the design and implementation process but it can also have unintended and unwanted consequences if implemented without proper design and grassroots knowledge of the target group.
Where Next for Co-creating Public Services? Emerging lessons and new questions from CoSIE
This publication draws together some of the ‘big ideas’ emerging from the Horizon 2020 project CoSIE (Co-creation of Service innovation in Europe) in the form of a discussion paper aimed at European, national and regional policy-makers. The big ideas emerging from CoSIE can be grouped together as ideas associated with 1) conceptualising co-creation, 2) implementing co-creation and 3) evidencing and evaluating co-creation in public service reform.
CoSIE assumes that co-creation becomes innovative if it not only concerns the reduction of the public expenditure, but if it manages also to meet social needs, and to empower the beneficiaries of policies, by changing socio-political relations and redistributing socio-political responsibilities.
More specifically, it aims to a) advance the active shaping of service priorities by end users and their informal support network and b) engage citizens, especially groups often called ’hard to reach’, in the collaborative design of public services. One way it does this is through the development of ten pilot cases, embedded in national contexts, which strongly differ in socio-cultural, socio-political and socio-economical dimensions.
CoSIE 2nd positioning paper – Summary
Co-creation of Public Service Innovation – Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Tech – CoSIE White Paper
Various ‘co-processes’ (co-initiation, co-design, co-production, co-implementation) are enthusiastically celebrated initiatives for improving public services. While there are many similarities between the concepts, the distinctions lie in the role of key stakeholders particularly citizens and their representatives.
This paper argues that complexity of public innovation cannot be ‘solved’, but rather must be ‘managed’ in collaborative ways. Innovation is not seen as something that can be created in isolation in ‘laboratory settings’ and then delivered to the users/citizens. Instead, the paper’s rationale is based on the premises that public service innovations should be co-created with citizens and relevant stakeholders. Theoretically, the paper draws on public service logic and service-dominant logic for value (co)creation.
This paper draws together ideas about co-creation, social innovation, social investment and individual and collective values that underpin the CoSIE project and shows the relationship between these concepts and how they can support innovation in public services.
CoSIE 1st Positioning Paper – Summary
Rapid Evidence Appraisal of the Current State of Co-creation in Ten European Countries
This Publication aims to shed light on the concepts of co-creation and social innovation as well as to investigate how they are used and utilized in Europe. REA has been used to identify and present co-creation policies in each participating CoSIE country. This report includes the presentation and evaluation of each policy, highlighting the gaps found in the field and the best practices implemented.
Guidelines for Social Hackathon Events
Traditionally, hackathon events have focused on software and hardware development in the tech sector. They bring teams together for 48 hours of intensive development in competition to solve a specific problem or challenge. In the Estonian CoSIE pilot the hackathon method was adapted to address the social and environmental challenges of local communities.
The Guidelines for Social Hackathon Events is a useful tool for anyone planning to organise social hackathon events in their local community in order to co-create solutions for wicked problems in their neighbourhood. The publication is available in English, Estonian and Hungarian.
Towards a Roadmap for Co-creation – Practical Ideas and Useful Tools
This roadmap should be considered as a first stepping stone towards a roadmap for the co-creation of public services that will include many more types of stakeholders and will be constantly modified throughout the course of the CoSIE project. The roadmap looks to incorporate reflection and lessons learnt from all our pilot public service programmes in an effort to advance knowledge and share best practice in co-creation.
Enabling Co-creation through Twitter – A Guidebook for Research Project Communication
This guidebook instructs how social media, particularly Twitter, can effectively be used for communicating projects’ aims and achievements and for interacting with stakeholders. Although the guidebook focuses on Twitter, we believe that the findings can also be applied to other social media sites.
Toolkit: Working with lived experience storytelling as a tool for co-creation
People’s Voice Media led a stream of work that supported public services across Europe to use lived experience storytelling as a tool for co-creation to support service design, delivery, and evaluation. This toolkit synthesizes the key learning from these activities and presents a set of resources to help services work with lived experience.